By Mickey Dunaway | Reprinted with Permission by Currents Magazine |July 2023 | Cornelius, NC

These days, and for as long as I can remember, any time I pass a body of water large enough to hold a few bass or bream, I am spiritually drawn to it.  Driving to my cardiologist’s office, I pass by two beautiful ponds just sitting out front between the house and the road.  Except for my Honda’s electronic safety systems that keep me between the lines, I would have already pulled into the driveway and inquired about fishing in those ponds.  After all, big fish live in small bodies of water.

More likely than not, I developed my attachment to water growing up in southwest Alabama, where a rite of passage in the Dunaway family from toddler to contributing family member came with a fishing pole, to overcoming the fear of baiting a bream-hook, taking the fish off the hook, and flipping him into the ice chest with our lunch and snacks and drinks.

I have written about the river of my youth before.  The Mississippi-Alabama state line is paralleled for much of its length by one of nature’s wonders—a black water river.  The Escatawpa River, whose name was taken from the Choctaw word, Uski-a-Tapà—a place where cane is cut—is a natural wonder. 

The river is relatively narrow, but the water flows constantly, carving out deep holes on the inside bends filled with limbs and fish.  The crystal white sandbars on the outside bends occur where the current has pushed up alluvial sand from the time the river was merely a current in the Gulf of Mexico.

Blackwater rivers are found primarily in the Amazon and the Southern United States where rivers tend to flow through forests picking up tannin from the leaves of oak trees.  This tannin stains the water a dark brownish red in the deep holes but is clear where it washes up on white sand bars. 

“So,” I asked myself, “Are there blackwater rivers in North and South Carolina?”

Absolutely!  And many are found with state park facilities, including canoe rentals where a river widens just right for swimming, canoeing, and fishing. 

Check out this YouTube video from South Carolina Parks about the Edisto in South Carolina, one of the longest blackwater rivers in the U.S. Enjoy this video of S.C. State Parks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pdc870uxC4.

Check out this from North Carolina State Parks: https://www.ncparks.gov/state-parks/lumber-river-state-park about the Lumber River State Park, one of North Carolina’s premier blackwater rivers.

Georgia has a very famous blackwater area into which the 13 mile Black River flows— The Okefenokee Swamp.

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Instead of fighting boats, wakes, skiers and traffic, opt for canoes, paddles, and peacefulness.  This Summer declare your personal independence and discover the natural wonder of a black water river near you. 

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The river has great wisdom and whispers its secrets to the hearts of men.

– Mark Twain