Allen Gray of Pittsfield, Paul Knauth of Hinsdale and I recently spent 9 days flyfishing in south western Alberta, Canada. We were concerned even before we left that there would be fires all over the place out there. While flying into the Calgary, Alberta airport, the pilot commented that there was fair weather and there should be a smooth landing and that the only problem that we may encounter would be the smoke. We had also heard rumors that parts of Crowsnest Pass and Hillcrest, Alberta were being evacuated. (Upon arrival, we found that not to be true. Fake news!)
Driving the 2 ½ hours southwest to our cottage in Blairmore, Alberta, we could smell and see the smoke. We had intended to fish the Livingstone, Carbondale and Oldman Rivers, located in or near the Rocky Mountain Provincial Forest. But upon arrival, we quickly learned that these rives were closed to fishing in order to prevent the possibility of starting more fires. Not only were they closed, but also the roads which led to them. One person who owned land along a closed road told us that they had to have a permit just to get to their homes. They weren’t even allowed to ride their horses on their own property (presumably a ranch).
Our first morning, we went to the local fly shop to purchase some flies and fishing licenses. There we met other fishermen and guides and we all were facing the same problem….where to fish? Anglers were disappointed to learn that after traveling hundreds or thousands of miles to fish a particular river, it was closed. Prior to leaving home we knew that there were forest fires in Alberta, British Columbia and Montana, but we had already purchased airline tickets, rented a cottage, arranged for a car rental, etc., well in advance and we would lose the down payments. So,we took our chances and went anyway.
Susan Douglas-Murray, co-owner of the Crowsnest Café and Fly Shop said that basically there were only 2 nearby rivers which we could fish that were still open, the Crowsnest River and the Castle River. We had known about these rivers from past trips, but we usually bypassed them in favor of the more popular Livingstone and Oldman Rivers, where we could catch West Slope Cutthroat Trout. Because all of the visiting anglers were referred to these same two rivers we expected to see shoulder to shoulder fishermen on them.
We needn’t have worried for these rivers are large and cover great distances with plenty of room for everyone. If we wanted to, we could have fished over 25 miles of the Crowsnest River, a beautiful river which flows through farms, grasslands and several towns.
On our first two days, we fished the Castle River, another gorgeous river. Paul and Allen had decent luck but I lost two giant rainbow trout that broke my leaders. We were fishing in 88 degree weather those days with no shade to speak of. It was definitely hat dunking weather.
For most of the remaining days, we fished the Crowsnest River, a river that is virtually loaded with rainbow trout, some of them really large. They were very frisky trout, nothing like the hatchery- reared rainbows around here. Paul phrased it accurately, “You hook into one of those large rainbows and after jumping a few times, they settle onto the river bottom and say, c’mon angler, let’s have at it”. One behemoth broke three of his tandem fly rigs before he finally landed it. Same thing happened to me. I lost 5 of those big rainbows, the likes of which the world has never….. before I could land one. Allen lost a couple of the big ones, too, before landing some. Although they would leap 3 or 4 times, we were able to handle the smaller rainbows, but the big ones gave us serious trouble.
During our entire stay, we could smell and see the smoke from distant fires and hear the sounds of helicopters ferrying firefighters and equipment somewhere. There was one day we were fishing in what appeared to be a snowstorm, but it was actually falling ashes. We never saw the normal color of the sun, for it was always orange or red caused by the smoke. At times it looked like a big balloon in the air. Fortunately, it wasn’t a choking type of smoke and the days were usually gorgeous.
There were a couple of days when the wind was horrific, making it difficult to place your fly where you wanted it. Once while crossing a river, a sustained strong wind came up which almost blew me over. I grabbed my hat and stuffed it into my shirt, while bracing against the wading staff. The wind was so strong that it bent my flyrod like I had a fighting fish on. Trying to handle the river current, strong wind, hat, fly rod and cigar was a chore. Something had to go and it was the cigar. I watched that expensive cigar float down the river. It cost darn near a buck.
In the evenings before dinner, we would sit out on the deck, have a drink and look at the Canadian Rockies, or at least what we could see of them through the smoke. Then we would enjoy a delicious meal expertly prepared by Allen.
In the mornings we made our sandwiches and headed for the fly shop. One morning as we entered the shop, one of the fishermen there pointed to Paul and said to the others, “That’s him!” The day before he happened to see Paul land a large trout and agreed to take a picture of him holding it. Paul became an instant celebrity whose advice was sought. Even the resident professional fishing guide who was in the shop that morning wanted to know what flies he used. They were quietly huddled over the fly selection as Paul advised the guide which ones to use.
It started to get chilly the last couple of days with rain and hail and temperatures in the low 30’s, but that didn’t deter us from fishing to the end. I doubt any of us were overly upset at not fishing our intended rivers because we discovered great new fishing areas.
The memorable 10-day fishing trip cost less than $2,500 per person and that included our food which probably shouldn’t be included in the cost as one has to eat somewhere anyways. If you decide to go there someday, be sure to stop at the Crowsnest Café and Fly Shop and Susan will steer you to some fantastic fishing waters.

Last week I wrote about our flyfishing trip to Labrador.  This is a continuation.

We flyfished primarily the inlets and outlets of Anne Marie Lake, Big Minipi and Little Minipi and the rivers in between for several days, trolling for pike occasionally, casting from rowboats and square backed canoes and wading the rivers.  Float plane fly outs to other nearby lakes in the Minipi River system were usually available, but due to repairs, we were unable to take advantage of them until day 6.

I was a little uncomfortable flyfishing out of the canoes where two fishermen in waders stand up casting while the guide controls the canoe.  Did I mention that I can’t swim?

For the first 5 days, neither Mike Lange nor I had caught a trout, in spite of 40 or 50 of them having been caught by others.  Gary Hebert and Ron Amidon actually had “doubles” fishing out of their boat, (two fish caught simultaneously).  Mike took it with grace, simply pouring himself a glass or two of wine each night and smoking a cigar out on the deck.

I didn’t handle it well at all.  Beginning  to doubt my fishing abilities, I asked the guides what I was doing wrong.  Nothing, they said, just think positively. That lodge rafter started to look pretty good as a solution to my fishing problems.   After 5 fishless days, I texted my wife Jan, saying, “Another lousy day in Paradise.”  (That’s the title of a book by flyfishing author John Gierach).  Jan thought I was referring to the weather.

I considered praying for help, but I didn’t want to waste God’s time on a lousy trout.  I would rather ask for his Divine Intervention to ensure that our 1952 vintage de Havilland Beaver float plane kept us airborne.

Everyone was sympathetic and the guides had been taking note of our plight and were doing their utmost to see that we caught a trout.  Even the camp cook, Nancy, quietly approached me one day before dinner and discreetly placed a pink button into my hand, claiming it would bring good luck fishing the next day.  Hocus pocus, yes, but I would try anything about then.  The next morning, when she asked if I was taking the button, I realized that I had lost it.   She immediately got me another one, this one attached to a piece of string, and I pinned it to my vest.

On the way out to go fishing on the 6^th day, the camp cleaning lady, Dru, all of 4’6” tall, massaged my ear lobes for good luck.  I don’t know ….  must be an Innu or Inuit thing.  The bush pilot who was flying us out to the Little Minipi River absolutely guaranteed us success that day, too.

So there I was, after having spent thousands of dollars, casting away on the Little Minipi, placing my trust in a button, shiny ear lobes and an unwritten bush pilot’s guarantee.  It seemed to have worked for I hooked a fish (3lbs?) and brought it to the guide’s net.  He missed it and it got away!  Shortly thereafter, I hooked a larger fish and it also got off.  More despondency!  Meanwhile I was watching Mike Shepard catch 7 trout just several yards downstream from me.  He conceded the spot and I finally caught my first fish, a 6 ¾ pound beauty.

After releasing that fish, my thoughts turned to Mike Lange across the river, hoping he would catch one, too.  Later that day, when we got to our float plane to return to camp, he told me that he caught two nice fish.  Good for him, for he and Bob Wilson had to fly out that evening.

On our last day, Mike Shepard and I had the camp boss Ray Best as our guide.  He was very knowledgeable about the flora and fauna of the area.  As we trudged through the woods, he crushed leaves from a shrub along the trail and had us smell it.  It was called Indian tea and had a pleasant aromatic smell.  Later, he picked some small white berries and had us taste them.  They were tasty, with a minty flavor.  When asked their name, he said, “We call them little white berries”.

We were fishless until about 2 pm.   Mike was standing in a fairly shallow part in the middle of the river while I fished with Ray from the boat.  Mike hooked a good fish but before we could get over to him, it got off.  Then he hooked another and this time we were there to net it for him. While there, Mike suggested I fish the area.

“The plane leaves in an hour”, I heard crackling through Ray’s Walkie Talkie.  We still had to cross the river, stow the boat, hike a trail to the outlet of Anne Marie Lake get into another boat, cross that lake to the lodge and finish packing.   I reeled in the line and readied to go, when Ray said that we still had 10 minutes of fishing time. I made a short case and watched a big trout come up from the bottom and take the fly.  The 7 ¼ lb trout was netted, photo’d and released.  Another cast and bang, another, this one was 7 ½ lbs.  It was time to leave.   Go figure.

During this trip, the 10 of us had caught 90 brook trout over 3 lbs, 16 of them over 7 lbs and an 8 pounder.  All were gently netted, weighed, photographed and released.

Incidentally, when I got home and finally read Gierach’s above referenced book, Another Lousy Day in Paradise, I was surprised to learn that it was about fishing where we were on Anne Marie Lake on the Minipi.  The title is facetious, for he caught lots of big fish there, but for me for a while, it was real.

On August 18, Attorney Michael Shepard of Dalton and I joined eight other flyfishermen and departed for Labrador to fish for brook trout.  Our destination was Coopers Lodge which sits on a peninsula on Anne Marie Lake in the Minipi River system which flows north to the Churchill River and ultimately to the Atlantic Ocean..  Anne Marie Lake is approximately 5 miles long.  The Minipi has been written up frequently in national outdoor sports magazines and is touted as having the largest brook trout in the world with catches averaging 5 lbs apiece.

The brook trout there are a unique strain and have been the subject of various genetic studies over the years. The late Lee Wulff first brought it to our attention when he brought Curt Gowdy and the ABC American Sportsman’s Show crew to film them fishing there in the 1960’s.   Wulff’s 1939 admonition that “a sport fish is too valuable to be caught only once”   was really evident there.

Wulff felt that the size of these fish was based on the food source.  The water is organically and chemically suited to support rich quantities of insect life.  The lakes are shallow enough to let sunlight reach their beds and warm things to great productivity, in spite of the short 4 month growing season.  Biologists believe the fish, which have evolved over thousands of years of natural selection, gain 1 lb a year feeding on the 26 varieties of mayflies and many caddisflies in the Minipi water system.  Every now and then the guides tag some trout and one of them traveled 70 miles to the Kenamu River in Labrador/Newfoundland.   Another trout that was tagged in the Minipi river system had traveled 15 miles in one week.

We wanted to catch some.   The trip was arranged by fly fishing guide Marla Blair of Ludlow, MA, and was coordinated by Michael Miller of Athol.  Also joining us was Gary Hebert of Richmond NH.  (The four of us had previously fished Lake Tierny together in Quebec two years ago).  Accompanying Mike Miller was his son Darren Miller of Bedford, his grandson Brandon Jones also of Athol, William Waight of Westminster, MA and Ron Amidon of Templeton, MA. Dr. Robert (Bob) Wilson of Naples, FL and Michael Lange of Newton, PA, joined us a day later.

Lorraine and Jack Cooper have been operating camps on the Minipi river system for nearly 40 years following Wulff’s philosophy of Catch & Release.  They monitor anglers’ catches in notebooks, listing the weight, location, fly and angler’s name. The Coopers have two lodges, one on Minipi Lake and the other on Anne Marie Lake.  We stayed at Anne Marie, the newest one, built in 2011.   It was absolutely gorgeous.

We took off from Boston and spent the first evening in Goose Bay, Labrador.   The following morning we flew by Twin Otter float plane to our destination camp on Anne Marie Lake, some 25 minutes south of Goose Bay.  Upon arrival, we met our guides (one guide per two anglers, rotated daily).  The camp boss was Ray Best and he had a team of excellent guides:  Todd, Ralph, Herb, Junior, Hebert and Wadsworth.   All resided in the Goose Bay area.  We met the cook, Nancy from Quebec and cleaning lady, Dru (Wadsworth’s wife).  We immediately unpacked, ate a light lunch, suited up and were out fishing that afternoon.

Fortunately, I can report that no bear attacks, calamities or other fearful events took place on this trip.  The only injury sustained was by Bill Waight and that was a hand injury.  He hurt it banging on the wall one night, trying to quell the loud snoring of a guy in the next room.  The next morning he was seen checking out the lodge rafters to see which was strong enough to hang the snorer.

Incidentally, the largest brookie of the trip was caught by Bill, a new comer to the sport having flyfished for only a year or so.  One afternoon while fishing the Little Minipi River, he sat down on a flat rock along the edge of the river to take a rest.  He drifted a mouse patterned fly downstream and, don’t you know, a big fish hit it and he caught  an 8 pounder!  That’s ironic in itself but the real interesting part is that his guide had forgotten to bring his big net.  The only thing available was a 5 gallon pail and after some effort, they caught it using the pail.

That night the more experienced flyfishermen were checking out that same rafter to string Bill up.

I developed a case of the shakes early on.  For a while I thought it was the DT’s from perhaps drinking too much wine at dinner but it turned out to be caused by something else.  Gary, Ron and I were the early morning risers and Gary usually made the coffee.  That coffee was so strong it could get up and pour itself.  The shakes disappeared when I eased up on Gary’s coffee.

We saw some interesting sights.  One morning a moose passed within 25 feet of our lodge, munched a while and then he swam away to another area.  On another morning there was a spectacular rainbow.   One evening, we all piled out onto the lodge deck to witness the aurora borealis (northern lights) while being entertained by the melodic call of a loon in the distance.   In Labrador, you get up close and personal with the northern lights and loons.  Daily we were entertained by shore scoters, eagles and ospreys.

It didn’t take long for some of us to connect with the large brookies and there were 6 or 8 big ones in the 5 – 7 lb category caught that first afternoon by Mike Miller, Ron and Gary.  Fish under 3 pounds weren’t even counted.

The weather couldn’t have been better with sunny skies and temperatures into the 70’s.  The only time that we got wet was when we were returning to the base camp crossing the lake.  Often the waves were good size and would splash over the bows of our boats drenching us.

I cannot speak more highly about the Cooper Camp on Anne Marie Lake.  The 6,000 square foot lodge accommodations are truly outstanding, the food was great, the staff and guides were wonderful and the brookies really do average 5 lbs.  If you are thinking about going, check out its website for prices, etc.  (http://www.minipi.com).  Allow yourself some time for there is a waiting time of 12 to 18 months.

So did everyone catch lots of fish?  I’ll tell you about one who didn’t next week.

Last May my wife Jan and I were camping at the Indian Hollow Campground along the East Branch of the Westfield River in Chesterfield, MA.  The Massachusetts/Rhode Island Council of Trout Unlimited (TU) rented the camping area for the weekend and delegates from both state’s TU chapters were there to conduct business and do a little fly fishing.

Next to our campsite was a sizeable group of men.   I commented to Jan that we wouldn’t get much sleep that night with that many guys there probably partying all night.  I knew the group leader, Bill Manser, from Royalston MA, a TU member, and inquired about the group. He explained the group was made up of veterans and mentors participating in a therapeutic fishing trip as part Project Healing Waters.

Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, Inc.™  (not to be confused with Wounded Warriors) is dedicated to the physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled active military service personnel and disabled veterans through fly fishing and associated activities including education and outings.

The Montachusett Veterans Outreach Center (MVOC) in Gardner, MA joined the program and runs its group at its Stallings campus in Winchendon where they meet bi-weekly.  The idea behind Healing Waters is simple – to provide a therapeutic and fun outlet for physically or mentally disabled vets by teaching them the basics of fly fishing, casting, tying, and rod building, and then going out on fishing trips to ideal spots such as the Indian Hollow campground.

Nationwide, Healing Waters raises its own money with a budget of close to $3 million and administrative costs are kept low, in the 15 % range, reserving as much as possible to fund trips and provide gear for the vets who take part.  The entire program is completely free to the Veterans.   In addition to funding from Healing Waters, the MVOC group is sponsored by the non-profits TU and the New England Fly Tyers.

The group is open to any veteran who has a disability, whether physical or mental.  “ 95% of what we have here is post-traumatic stress,” said Manser. With that in mind, MVOC counselor Michael Young is the therapeutic support for the group, joining Manser and the volunteer mentors who bring a variety of outdoor skills to the group, some of them being vets themselves.

Later that day, I saw them out fly fishing in the river, each with his mentor, and each doing a good job of fly casting.

Jan and I had no problem with the vets that night.  There were no drugs or alcohol at their campsite.   During the middle of the night I saw a small campfire still ablaze, but there was no noise.  Some guys were standing around it talking low with their mentors or with one another.

Although they brought their own food, the TU Council invited them to its own picnic so that they could co-mingle.  It was at that time that I had a chance to talk to a few of them.  There were veterans from Viet Nam, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan.  One veteran, Mike Bousquet, really got involved with the group and recently received its Participant of the Year award for New England from Deputy Regional Coordinator Richard Diamond.  Nominated for the award by Manser, Bousquet heard about the program while living at Hero Homestead in Leominster, a transitional housing facility for veterans run by the nonprofit Veteran Homestead.  He had been an avid angler throughout his life and recalled that after his first meeting spent tying a fly, he went out with the group that weekend and was successful in catching fish.

“Fishing is a pastime to me, something that I can stay calm with even when I’m not with the group.  I enjoy many, many things about it – the serenity about the environment and where you are.   It’s been a blessing.”

“He started as a participant and has now worked up to be a mentor, so it’s an accomplishment,” said Manser

John Sherwin, an Iraq vet said that Manser has saved his life.  “He helped restore some hope.  Sometimes the right person being there makes all of the difference…….someone who is interested.”    The mentors are dedicated, skilled and passionate in what they do.   According to Manser, some mentors travel great distances to attend the meetings.  Also, there would be no work or volunteers were it not for the generous donations of gear and outfits.

I couldn’t help but feel for the Viet Nam veterans who are still struggling after nearly fifty years.   I believe no one who returns from serving their country in war, comes back the same.  Some come back with physical scars, others with invisible ones.  Some come back in coffins.  Some turn to drugs or alcohol, get into trouble, end up homeless or in prison or take their own lives.  They need help, understanding and compassion to get over the hurdles.

With funding available and the group thriving with the help of volunteer staff, Manser encourages more veterans to join so they can be helped.  Veterans or volunteers interested in participating can reach Manser at (978)895-5261 or bmanser@msn.com.   Its home website is projecthealingwaters.org, and facebook page is project healing waters – Winchendon.  Donations are always happily and gratefully accepted.

So how does fly fishing help?    Perhaps it is as fly fishing author Tom Meade wrote in his 1994 book entitled Essential Fly Fishing, “The rhythm of the rod carries your body, mind and spirit to the water.  Whether you catch a fish or not, the water will always give you a little of its strength, some of its energy and much of its peace.”