Like many people our impression of Massachusetts was solely based on our experiences in Boston and even Logan Airport - not much sign of wilderness in those images.  Although I once lived in Andover, MA for a few months I had never been to western Massachusetts and so a trip to the Berkshires was a highly anticipated journey.  Just two hours from the hustle and bustle of Boston is a New England get-away called the Deerfield River.  It had been reported to us that the Deerfield River could give many western trout waters a good run for their money in not only quantity and size of fish but also in beauty – as it is a magnificent river.  I saw a few YouTube videos this spring that showed some smallish 7-10” trout being taken so I didn’t have the highest expectations upon arriving.

As we began to enter the Berkshire region the beauty was unmistakable and my anticipation was growing.  We met our guide Jim Dowd who is associated with Zoar Outdoors in Charlemont, MA around 9am.  Our first order of business was to check the water release schedule for the dam upstream.  You see the river is not floatable unless the dam is releasing significant water.  Fortunately the release began at 9am so by the time we would get to our put-in spot the water would be in great shape.  As Jim was readying our boat Taylor grabbed his spinning reel.  Jim mentioned to Taylor that this was a PhD section and didn’t offer much hope that we would catch a fish from shore here.  On his second cast Taylor landed a beautiful 14” wild rainbow – Game On!

Throughout the course of our 3+ hour float we landed one pig after another, rainbows, browns, stocked and wild trout, and even brook trout.  Taylor had the hot hand again today boating 12 beautiful fish to my 6.  These fish weren’t scrawny fish either – football shaped trout and fighters.   If you’re tracking our fish count you’ll note that Taylor is making a serious run at catching my fish total for the trip.  He is now just 31 fish behind with 7 States to go.  He has beaten me soundly 5 days in a row now.

Dad (330 fish); Taylor (299 fish) with a Grand Total of 628 fish to date.

In conclusion I can honestly say that I was not only pleasantly surprised by what we caught today, but I would tell you this is a world-class river and the people from Massachusetts should be extremely proud of what this river offers.

We also had the pleasure of having Gary Waleik of National Public Radio in Boston join up with us today.  Gary is the Senior Producer of “Only a Game”.  Gary is hoping the taping of our conversations will be a feature story on their broadcast on Saturday morning, August 1^st.

We left the Deerfield River with great memories – great fish stories, and the friendship of a great guide - Jim Dowd (please look Jim up as he is an awesome guide and as good a conversationalist as I’ve ever experienced on the water).  I’d also like to thank Karen Blom of Zoar Outdoors for hosting us today.  Karen and her husband run a top notch adventure operation out of Charlemont that would be the highlight of any vacation whether you’d just like to float the Deerfield or go after some trophy fish.