Blackwater Canoe Trips

When I was about 14 years old, my parents bought me a canoe.  I spent much of the following Summers paddling the creeks and millponds of Eastern NC.  I got to see a lot of beautiful and quiet places, full of fish, that the average person with a motorboat couldn't access.  As I got older, HP and bigger fish replaced the paddles and quiet millponds of my youth.  

I've been guiding since 2012, and powerboats, busy boat ramps, and ego crushing fish have become a part of daily job.  I do love it, it's what I do.  But I have to be honest, a while back, I started missing those quiet moments on small bodies of water, empty of other anglers, and full of forgiving fish.  In early 2023, I got the idea of purchasing another canoe and escaping into the black water creeks and swamps again.  I have a friend in Florida, Joe Mahler, who turned me on to Merrimack Canoes, and I fell in love with his white Merrimack Tennessean.  I decided that if I was going to do this, I was going to do it right, and I began my search for a used Merrimack of my own.

In May of 2023, I found a red Merrimack Osprey in New Jersey and made the drive up there to pick it up.  My sons and I paddled the White Oak, the Newport, Lake Phelps and more last summer.  We found wildlife, giant moss draped Cypress Trees, and lots of willing fish.  Whether we were casting a 4wt and popping bugs for Bluegill, Pumpkinseed, and Bass, or just exploring beautiful shorelines, I completely fell in love with paddling again.  The Osprey model was designed back in 1954 and was built for hunters and anglers.  At 13ft long, with a 39" wide beam, it's extremely stable and great for fly fishing.  It's a great boat, but I continued to keep my eye open for a Tennessean model.

In March of this year, I found a pristine white Merrimack Tennessean in Northern Virginia.  I made the trip up and scooped it up.  My Osprey is a fiberglass hull with cherry ribs and trim, this particular Tennessean is made of featherlight Kevlar material with the same gorgeous cherry ribs and trim.  At 14.5' long with a 36" beam, the Tennessean paddles fast and quiet, tracks very well, and is almost as stable as it's sibling the Osprey.  I absolutely love paddling this Tennessean solo or tandem.

Paddling a canoe in the backwaters, among the cypress and lily pads is too special to keep it to myself.  Therefore, I've decided to incorporate it into my guiding business.  I don't need or want to run a bunch of canoe charters every year, but I am excited to add this as an offering to any of my anglers that would like to experience something different...something special.  These will be one-on-one trips.  I'll be at the stern handling all of the paddling and I'll host one angler on the bow with either a 3-5wt fly rod or an ultralight spinning rod.  We will spend 3 or 4 hours exploring the dark tannin-stained waters, of a slow flowing river, fishing for multiple species of panfish and bass along cypress knees and fallen logs.  Plan to see little to no other boats/people, and plan to be surrounded by beautiful backdrops as you cast to hungry fish.  These are going to be very minimalistic trips, keeping gear to a minimum and taking our time working the shorelines for fish, and taking in the gorgeous surroundings.

Slowing life down and keeping it simple, that's the name of the game when fishing from a canoe.

Redfish are a challenging and exciting target, Albies make your heart skip a beat, and Amberjack pull like there's no tomorrow.  Saltwater fish are great, and they deserve all the props they get.  I've caught them all, they're great.  But honestly, I love a big Bluegill crushing a popping bug on the end of a 4wt just as much as I love pursuing any of the big saltwater fish.  It takes me right back to my childhood and soothes my soul.

I imagine this being a fishery that will start up each April as the creeks warm up and something we'll offer all summer into early fall when the water begins to cool off again.  I'll supply all the gear, from rods and lures/flies to lifejackets and refreshments.  All you have to do is show up and let me chauffeur you around some of my favorite backwater haunts.  For now, I'll be focusing these trips on the upper White Oak River and upper Newport River, but I will be scouting and adding other locations over the next few years.

You don't need blitzes, or tailing fish, or fish that take two hands to hold.  A small panfish or bass is a blast on light tackle, that being said, you never know when that 5lber is going to come up and inhale your popper.

I've always built my business around experiences more than numbers.  There are guides that can probably put you on more fish than me, but those trips don't necessarily involve fishing in the ways that I truly want to share with my anglers.  I want every person who steps foot on my boat, to feel like they are going on an adventure, and exploring beautiful, amazing areas.  We want to catch fish too, but I want them to leave with memories of an overall "experience".  That's why I'm so excited to offer these canoe trips as new way for my anglers to experience the outdoors that I love so much.  If this sounds like something you might enjoy, I'd love to talk with you about it in more detail.

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For more info about our blackwater canoe trips, click the link below.

Blackwater Canoe Trips