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U.K. Blind Adventurer Miles Hilton-Barber Comes to the Long Sault   By Lawrence Euteneier

The 3rd and final leg of my fishing adventure with Mile’s Hilton-Barber involved fishing for Carp on a section of the St. Lawrence River that is now known as St. Lawrence Lake. Miles contacted me through my website ( www.blindfishingboat.com ) to set up a Blind Canadian fishing adventure, and what adventure wouldn’t be complete without a session of monster Carp fishing on the St. Lawrence Lake.

The St. Lawrence Lake was formed with the construction of several dams and locks in the 1960’s to allow ships to pass between the Atlantic and the five Great Lakes. Flooding of this section of the St. Lawrence River resulted in three communities disappearing.

Miles and I were joined by Alain Danis and Mark Macie, who served as our volunteer guides for the three-days of Carp fishing. Jeff and Marian Vaughan , owners and operators of both the Canadian Carp Club and the Long Sault Motel, were our hosts for the next three nights.

We left Ottawa at 3: a.m. in order to secure a prime swim on the banks of the St. Lawrence. The spots Alain and Mark had in mind were still available when we arrived at 5: and by the time a van and three other cars pulled up at 6: we had already landed and released our first Carp of the morning.

The morning bite that day was quite active with the majority of that days catch being caught by 9: a.m. This included two Carp in the teens for Miles, and a 33lb 8oz Fish for me, my new personal best.

Alain had brought his portable BBQ and camp stove which meant a hot breakfast, lunch and supper was enjoyed by all with no interruptions to the fishing. Total caught on day one equals eight Carp.

We packed up at 8: that night and headed back to the Long Sault Motel where Jeff and Marian Von were busy serving up a feast of their own on the front

lawn of the motel to their 30+ guests for the weekend. They were all there for one thing – to catch Carp, and had come from across Ontario and the U.K.

Day two didn’t look very inviting with the morning weather calling for continuous heavy rain. Instead of setting up and getting soaked, we elected instead to go exploring. By noon we were back and fishing, with Alain catching his new personal best, a 35lb 2 oz Carp, which was a Mirror to boot. We caught a total of ten that day.

Jeff stopped by our swim that afternoon as usual to check if we needed anything and to find out how we were doing. He showed Miles and me a way to introduce an audible marker into my line so that I could make casts at a consistent distance.

The morning of our third and final day had us set up in the same two swims we fished the previous two days. The bite was furious necessitating the cancellation of that morning’s hot breakfast opting instead for some of Alain’s wife’s excellent cake. By nine the bite on the swim Miles and I fished from had slowed, netting us five for the morning, and by 11: the bite on Alain and Mark’s swim had cooled as well netting them 15 for a total of 20 Carp that morning.

We packed up by noon so we could get Miles back to the airport in time for his afternoon flight to the U.K. Jeff and Marian were quite generous in letting us check out well past their posted checkout time, and of course, the trip wouldn’t have been complete without spending a few minutes in Jeff’s Carp tackle shop admiring all the wonderful gear Jeff brings in from the U.K. – much of which isn’t available here in Canada.

A big thanks to Alain and Mark for their excellent company, knowledge and sighted guiding assistance throughout the three days, and to Jeff for his hospitality, swim suggestions and expert advice on making Carp fishing a truly accessible sport to fishers with vision loss.