A Typical Day
Your day begins at approximately 7:00am with a knock on your cabin door. Hot coffee, tea or chocolate is brought to your bedside and, if you desire, a fire is started to warm your cabin. Breakfast is served at approximately 7:30am. It includes healthy foods cooked to your specifications, not the cook's. Silver Hilton's menu remains in a class by itself.
After breakfast waders are pulled on, jet boats are warmed up on the shore and you are usually fishing by 9:00 am. Since you have immediate access to all the pools (over twenty miles of unspoiled water) there is no reason to hit the river at dawn. In addition, Silver Hilton accepts only twelve guests a week; as a result there is always little fishing pressure on our waters, even when the pools are loaded with fresh-run Steelhead.
Depending on water temperatures and your preference you may decide to begin with dry flies; unlike other Canadian Steelhead rivers the Babine will produce on dries at 9am, 12 noon or 6pm when water temperatures are between 45 and 55 degrees. Wet flies produce in all temperature ranges, all day long, and all season long.
Dry fly water is usually honored as such and if you want to take your Steelhead on or in the surface, Silver Hilton staff tries hard to accommodate your preference. On the other hand some pools fish best with wet flies and sinking lines and the guides give anglers with that preference those pools. It is also possible for one angler to fish a pool with a dry fly first, and then go through a second time with a wet.
You will fish all day long, moving from pool to pool, and you will not fish behind any other angler unless you want to share a pool with a friend. In that case one angler usually takes the upper half and the other fishes the lower half. Each guest has his or her own water to fish all day long and it is always fresh. Some of the very best pools are fished twice in a day if you want. In any event they will always be rested in between fishing; since fresh fish arrive almost continually in our section of the river, each pool you fish will be ready when you are - all week long! Some of our pools are so productive we fish four anglers on them - two on one side of the pool and two on the other.
Silver Hilton fishes four rods per boat and guide. Since we have so many pools to choose from, and since they are so close together, this ratio produces no crowding, or lapse in personal attention. All our anglers are equipped with two-way radios for instant communication with the guides who are only a few moments away from each angler. Guides also rotate between pairs of anglers all day long. Anglers are also rotated on our "beats" and pools, so each fisherman gets to fish as much water as possible.
Morning runs to upriver beats are planned so time lost traveling is minimized. This means you will get an early start and run quickly in our 22 foot jet boats until you reach the uppermost pools that you will be fishing. From there you will work your way back down river hitting each and every productive pool on that particular section of the Babine.
No matter what section of our guiding territory you are on, you will be provided with a hot lunch on the river. Normal fare includes home made chili, soups and stews that are nourishing and delicious. Fresh pastries and home made sandwiches are also provided, along with a thermos of the beverage of your choice. Since the lunches were prepared by our staff earlier in the day, no fishing time is lost coming back to camp to eat, or waiting while the guide prepares lunch.
We are well aware of how precious your fishing time on the Babine is; our angling program is a focused and highly evolved way of taking care of you so that you have every possible chance each minute of every day.
Your fishing day usually ends around 5:30pm. After hot showers and some time to relax, dinner is served. Guests with special dietary requests should inform us ahead of time so that arrangements can be made with the lodge. There is a sauna available for after dinner use and cabin lights are usually turned off around 10pm.