[Pat AV]

Hey sorry for the late post on this but when trout and salmon seasons are in full swing there is too much fishing to be done, not enough time to write up long posts.

Now that the sun is setting on a pretty good salmon season and the steelies are just starting to trickle in there is some time, so I will post this now! Better late than never and I have to get to 100 somehow

This august I took a road trip with my little bro to the East Kootenays to toss some flies around. we were mostly targeting westslope cutties (1st pic), but did some bull trout fishing as well (2nd pic).

We spent a day on the famous Elk River, a wonderfull stream that is just a liitle bit smaller than the Vedder. It is full of westslopes and has great road access throughout. July to september are good times to explore this river. For locations I would say that if you were to start your explorations in the ski town of Fernie you would be on the right track.

The day we spent on the elk was very windy and cool with not alot hatching. After covering some nice runs with dries and not seeing any interest we decided to switch to large stonefly nymphs to go down and get em.

I was promptly rewarded with this nice westslope

After landing a few fish on nymphs we grew tired of the wind and decided to head for greener and hopefully less winy pastures on a tiny elk trib upstream of where we were.

Part 2 coming up later

 

[Pat AV]

Re: LATE! Kootenay pic heavy swiftwater report Part II

Part II

When we arrived at this trib I must admit that I was sceptical....it was so small you could pretty much jump across it in most places. Well we figured what the heck give it a go, I have been suprised in small Kootenay creeks in previous years so why not today.

I let my buddy who is new to fly fishing have first cast into a small trough that looked a little bit fishy. I decided to sit on a log, sip a beer and do a little coaching. After thrashing the water for 30 seconds he finally got his Tom Thum into the strike zone. A nice 12' westslope cleared the water and hit the fly on it's way down, what a strike!

After bumbling a few fish buddy finally managed to land a couple and with a ear to ear grin sat down beside me to join in the refreshment and BSing. This left the pool wide open for my little bro who flicked a parachute adams into the same pool to this result:

What a healthy little fish and very strong agressive take once again, we were all very impressed that this little creek, only a 5 minute walk from a major highway held fish like this in fair numbers!

We started to cover water and work our way down stream, catching nice fish in every favourable piece of water. Here is a nice pic to give you an idea of the size and beauty of this little gem of a creek:

A very nice place to spen a day wet wading, the scenery is great, the cutts are healthy and super agressive. They were not huge 11-16 inches but fun none the less.

Part III to come ASAP

 

[fishortho]

Great shots of beautiful fish.....Looks like some fun to me!....Sure beats flogging the rivers in the winter.......Look at you....shorts, shoes and sunshine!!!........................Ortho 8)

 

[EZ Rolling]

sounds like a nice trip and some sweet pics to go along with it.

 

[Pat AV]

Thanks for the replies gents it is a very nice area to visit, I would reccomend it highly.

You could go for a couple weeks and fish a different quality swiftwater every day.

The timing for a trip is mid July to mid September if you are planning one.

 

[Rick Baerg]

Nice report and great pictures to match! I haven't had the pleasure to fish that beautiful corner of the province and would like to in the future. You got to love those cutties, thanks for sharing!

:cheers: Rick

 

[Fish Finder]

What beautiful fish! So good to read reports coming from that side of our province.

Finder :cheers:

 

[Royal_Coachman]

Hey thanks for posting that 8) My first experience flyfishing was on the St. Marys river casting adult stone fly's to willing cuthroat. Those westslopes are a thing of beauty :happy:

-RC

 

[steely_crazy]

Great pictures and reports. Those cutties are so gorgeous. :thumbup:

The Elk is a beautiful river that I want to get to next year.

 

[professori]

I get out to the Kootenays at least every other year. This August I'll be out there again. It is such a treat to wade those rivers and have such willing trout attack your fly over and over again. We will pontoon the elk again this year (did it 2 years ago). I really noticed the drop in fishing pressure once the gov't instituted a classified water designation on all those waters.

 

[Nice_One]

Very nice report and pictures Pat!

I remember when this stream got the classified water designation...all the Albertans were up in arms about having to pay even more to fish it! LOL Good to hear that the pressure is down on this legendary system. I would like to make my way out there eventually...perhaps on my way back from fishing the Alberta foothills. If that ever happens!

Can't wait for part III Pat!

Cheers! -Nathan in NW

 

[Big Green Machine]

Nice job Pat! I grew up in the Kootenays and I know that little trib well. That part of the country has done an amazing job rehabilitating streams with some great catch and release regs.
Best dry fly fishing in the Province as far as I'm concerned.!

 

[Pat AV]

Part III

After enjoying some of the convinient easy access fisheries around Fernie we decided to head off on an adventure into some uncharted waters.
We stocked up on supplies and headed up a long but fairly well maintained logging road. We were headed to system that I have always wanted to try but have never quite bothered to hit. This system is famous for it's huge bull trout and difficult acess.

After a long and confusing drive around some backroad mazes we finally arrived at the trailhead for our first access point. After a really pleasent 3km walk through scenery like this

we arrived at the river super excited and ready to fish. We were amazed by the scenery and on my first cast- fish on a nice cutty to start the day.

We were really pumped now and thought OK here we go.........but it was not to be, we covered alot of water most of it was marginal but even in the good water we hit very few fish. we soon discovered why as two groups of anglers we talked to had fished through the section we were in already that day.

We continued on despite the slow fishing as the river was a pleasure just to be on, the mountains and early fall colors were a site to behold.

After covering about 3km's of marginal water we came to the beginning of a huge canyon and some really nice pools. we saw a few fish surfacing and noticed that some of these were hatching.

My brother started casting to the risers and managed to hook a few fish but loose them all. Meanwhile I was looking down into the depths of the firts big canyon pool and I almost fell of my perch when I saw what appeared to be chinook salmon sitting stacked up on the bottom. I knew then that we had found the bulls and all of our walking would be worth while.

I grabbed my 8 wt that I had carried all of that way and dead drifted a big barbell eye bugger through the depths of the canyon. The bulls would not move up for the fly, they were sitting lazily on the bottom. I was very surprised as most times when I fish bulls they are super agressive and smash anything that swims near them.

It had been a good day but a little bit frustrating, when we finally made it back to the car we were exausted having covered close to 6kms of water and walking over 12k's that day. We had figured out where the bulls lived and would try again tomorrow and our luck would change- BIG time!

Part IV to come

 

[steely_crazy]

Great reports and pics Pat AV, I'm waiting anxiously for the next part!!! Lets see those big-ole-bulls!!!! :happy:

Awesome report! :thumbup: :cheers:

 

[reelangler]

Beauty pics. Nicer fish. Thanks Pat.

 

[Rib]

Great Reads PatAV...a pleasure. Looking forward to the 4th installment... :thumbup:

 

[King Fisher]

great report and pics...thanks for sharing!

 

[tuberdude]

Man, wheres part IV. Great read so far.

 

[HOOK]

I think im going to start following this guy around :happy: so I can fish some of these prestine areas LOL :thumbup: great read but wheres part IV "oh the suspense"

 

[professori]

I think im going to start following this guy around :happy: so I can fish some of these prestine areas LOL :thumbup: great read but wheres part IV "oh the suspense"

HOOK - You got to go out to the Kootenays one day. There are lots of great rivers to fish there.