Stories by Scott

May 31, 2022

Although I've been fishing for years, and flyfishing for the last 20, most of my flyfishing has been on a lake, one trip a year. Fishing moving water appeals to me more than still waters, and in the past several years I've started flyfishing streams and rivers more often. As I've done so, a fishing trip to the East Kootenay region of BC to fish streams for westslope cutthroat became a goal of mine. With a new truck in the driveway, I finally had the vehicle that I could trust to make the trip.

Aug 17, Day 1

Awoke to pouring rain, a heavy rainfall warning, and 7 degrees C. So cold, I could see my breath and so wet, the Elk River rose 1 ft today. Not the weather I was envisioning when I was preparing for the trip!

Initially, it wasn’t my intent to fish Michel Creek much. I’ve read about how busy it is and how some fish show mutilations from so much catch and release and how some of you no longer fish it, but I did want to see what all the fuss was about. I planned on fishing Michel my first day, but a quick look at the stream showed it to be running muddy, so I recalibrated and drove to another stream. This one was running clearer, with just a little colour.

Because it was a rainy, cold morning I opted to start off with an indicator and a Euro nymph. Not long into it, my indicator dipped and I saw a flash. Since the hook didn’t sting him, I figured he’d be interested again, so with a second drift I had him. My first westslope cutthroat! “Holy sh!t, I caught one!”, I exclaimed aloud. All the planning, preparation and long hours of driving had brought me to this.

Encouraged, I worked my way upstream, nymphing the pocket water as I went, hooking one or two fish at likely spots. At one nice pocket, I got three. At this particular spot, just as the nymph hit the water a cutthroat leaped out of the water at it. Recalling how surface oriented westslopes are I wonder if I should be fishing dries instead…

After the long trek back to the truck, I decided to test the waters heading downstream. Caught a couple more, including the biggest of the day at around 13”, capping off a 13-14 fish day in the pouring rain. Not the size or numbers of fish that many of you are used to here, but for my first day in new waters, fishing for a new species, fishing self-tied Euro nymphs for the first time, I was pretty pleased.

Aug 18, Day 2

No rain today, but the rivers were running high and slightly coloured. I started off at Michel at one of the bridges. Drifting nymphs, I got three small cutthroat and a big scrappy whitefish. Walked and fished downstream a bit then drove upstream and walked into a run where I was fishing above the riprap. Drifted a black beetle pattern and got a cutthroat right behind a root wad where I expected him to be. My first westslope on a dry! I changed to a hopper that drew no interest but I saw some fish rising, and a few scattered mayflies in the air, so I switched to a #14 Parachute Adams and watched a nice fish sip it right in front of me behind the same root wad.

Following the cold deluge yesterday, I suspected today’s sunny warm’ish afternoon weather would have produced good hatches and lots of rises, but it was now 2 PM and I reluctantly left the river, even as fish continued to rise along the riprap. I gritted my teeth as a drove along the Corbin Road and saw other anglers continuing to fish well past 2 PM.

I still had the rest of the afternoon to fish so I drove to another stream and walked/waded upstream, nymphing as I went. I came across a sweet little pocket with some structure, tucked alongside a grassy bank; the kind of pocket where you do a little inhale and go “oooo”. I stayed back from the pocket, saw a fish rise and some mayflies fluttering about, so I crossed over well downstream and changed the nymph to a #14 Parachute Adams.

A big fish refused the fly at the tail of the pocket and a smaller fish at the head of the pocket took a few swipes at it but didn’t connect. (In hindsight, I’m glad I didn’t hook the smaller one as all the commotion of playing and landing him might have put the big one down) I sized down to a 6x tippet and #18 Parachute Adams; I’ve never fished a dry so small. Observers might have thought I was resting the pool. Not so! I couldn’t get the tippet through the eye of the hook! One my second or third drift through the tail of the pocket, I thought drift had gone far enough when I lifted the fly from water. JUST as I did that, the fish appeared right below the fly. I had literally yanked it away from him. Shoot!

He didn’t come back with subsequent drifts, so, hoping I hadn’t put him down, I tied on a third #18 mayfly pattern and drifted the tail again. This time he rose and took it and I landed a big, thick, beautifully coloured 16” fish.

Knowing there was still a precocious smaller fish in there, I drifted a nymph, hooked and lost him at the head of the pocket, and then it got quiet.

This big fish was so satisfying. I was fishing a stream that no one told me about and I found on my own by research. I was fishing unfamiliar water, exploring, hunting, being observant and reading the water. I applied what I had learned and kept at it by adapting my approach. I was stealthy, I kept low, I checked to ensure the sun wasn’t at my back and I paid attention to mending and my drag free drifts. It all came together to catch my biggest fish on a dry fly and my biggest westslope of the trip so far. It was a perfect moment. I thought to myself… this is what small stream flyfishing is all about, and honestly, I began to feel like an honest to goodness flyfisher.

Aug 19 Day 3.

I wanted to fish a section of Michel that I had heard about from a couple of sources. As I walked downstream, I met another angler walking up. We got a talking and learned he was from the state of Maryland. He bought his fishing license at 12:01 AM on April 1st (3:01 AM local time on the east coast) to ensure he got one of the limited non-resident licenses, not even knowing if the borders would be open. For all the talk I’ve heard about how popular and busy Michel is (and the E. Kootenays in general), this was the first angler I had met or seen after two full days of fishing.

At the hole I wanted to fish I met a local angler from Sparwood. I had already caught a fish nymphing when he asked if I had been fishing long. I turned to speak to him just as there was a tug on the line from behind me as a fish took the nymph. After I had released the fish, we had a chat. He asked where I was from. I said the Lower Mainland and he asked if I was driving through returning home. I said no, I came here to fish. He was surprised, then I told him about the guy from Maryland! He explained that he was a spinfisherman at heart, had recently been diagnosed with stomach cancer and had just taken up flyfishing. He pointed to the chemo dispenser hanging from his side, and said he would be having surgery in Kelowna to remove his stomach and then 2 more months of chemo. He showed me the dry flies he had purchased, so I gave him a nymph and an indicator and showed him how to rig it up. I gave him a touch on the shoulder and wished him well in his healing journey. I caught 4 cutthroat on nymphs here (the biggest being a chunky fish in the low teens) and a large whitefish full of piss and vinegar. I hooked the whitefish midriver, it screamed across the pool to the far bank pulling drag, then turned around and screamed across the pool to the near bank. My second Michel white fish and, after this one, I was looking forward to catching more! I noted that a couple of my fish came as the nymph hung and swung in the current after the drift was complete.

I explored downstream finding little productive water until I came to where the river hit the rip rap at the shoulder of the highway. I saw a fish rise so I drifted the nymph down along the current seam and hooked a 16”er. There I was, rod bent over, playing a nice fish in full view of the traffic roaring by. Not the environs that I prefer to fish in, but heck, even I make exceptions for big trout. Fish continued rising but it was hard to get a good drift with the eddy in front of me and nothing I threw interested them. I timed out at 2 PM .

Leaving Michel, I drove to another stream that I had visited earlier and worked my way downstream, prospecting likely holding water as I went. I wound up at a hole that I had fished previously when the water was murkier. On that day I had two refusals on a grasshopper pattern, so I knew there was at least one fish there, and likely more.

I didn’t see any mayflies in the air, but so far the Parachute Adams has been working so I tied that on. I got two (one was 15-16”) but then a big fish rose from the depths and missed the fly. I wanted that fish, and it was hard to get the drift I wanted from where I was, so I crossed over the stream to fish from the other bank. Keeping low because now I was much closer to the fish, I put a cast into the foam line that the strikes had been coming from. First drift I had him. He ripped across the pool and gave a great tussle. When I netted him, he had taken the fly deep and was bleeding. I cut the line and supported him for a long time in the current until he swam off. I hope he makes it! This fish was 18” and proved to be my biggest of the trip.

The fish stopped rising and further drifts elicted no interest. Either I caught all the bitey fish, or put them down; probably the latter!

Aug 20 Day 4

Back to Michel at the rip rap run I visited two days ago. I had seen more fish rising than the two I had caught, so I wanted to see if I could entice the others. Water was much clearer than my previous visit and no fish activity save for one splash. I worked through the run from bottom to top with a beetle searching patten, and then repeated that with a nymph. Not a sniff. Interesting…and I tried to work through the possible scenarios. Rather than flog the water, I decided to continue downstream and prospect new water. I heard someone yelling downstream and I wasn’t sure if they were yelling at a bear, or yelling to warn bears. Rather than go bumbling into the brush and come up against a bear that had just been yelled at, I decided to cross the river to the more open floodplain.

As I worked my way down, I met a guide and his client working their way up. So this water is a guide’s preferred beat. Noted! The guide mentioned that they hadn’t hit any fish, except one, and he held his hands up a fair distance apart to indicate a sizeable fish. Yes, it was the guide that had yelled, but only as a warning. The guide and I spoke about where we each were going next so we didn’t interfere with each other’s fishing. He mentioned that he saw my truck and thought I was working upstream. Instead I was fishing downstream of the truck when we encountered each other. Note to self: it appears to be the expected form to work your way upstream, but it is also a fishing tactics best practice.

I continued downstream, fishing water that the duo had already covered. Not expecting to catch anything but more to see what was in that stretch and what attracted a guide to it. I found lots of structure filled water and had one splash at a beetle pattern but that was it.

Drove to another section of river, this time using a Parachute Adams as my searching pattern. I came across this pocket, and got a small one but it was really hard to get a good drift with two eddies and the current down the middle. It was tough to mend and, even when high sticking, just a little bit of leader in the water caused drag. I suspected there might be more fish present, and while I enjoyed the challenge of managing my line, I was not able to get a good drag-free drift for more than a few feet. More learning and practice needed!

Further downstream I came to this beautiful glide up against a grassy bank and some overhead cover. I gave a little inhale and went “oooo”.

I was casting well and was able to lay my casts up close to the bank. There were no conflicting currents so I was able to get nice buggy drifts. I got two cutthroat out of here, one being this 15-16”. I had a nice drift going and he just angled up and sipped the fly. Absolutely beautiful.

By now it was 2 PM but I continued walking and exploring downstream to see what else lay in wait, before returning to my vehicle. There was no fishing in the late afternoon as I returned to Fernie to pick up my wife to go to Fernie Brewing and take her on a sightseeing drive, the highlight of which was a moose running on the road in front of us. Oh yeah, if you think you might want to stop in at the Silver Fox Pub in Sparwood for dinner with your better half…don’t!

Aug 21 Day 5

After a gondola ride in the rain with my wife at Fernie Alpine Resort, and some hiking, I got a mid afternoon start to my fishing and decided to explore FSR’s and to fish a stream that I had researched earlier. First pool I came to had fish rising, so I floated my trusty Parachute Adams #14 and had a strike and another fish hooked, but then their interest died. I went to a smaller tippet (6x) and downsized to smaller flies, both mayfly and terrestrial, but nothing interested them. They continued rising happily, unbothered by my presence, but ignored my flies.

Their riseform gave me pause. Some were coming out of water and twisting a bit, so I wondered if their prey was not mayflies, but perhaps an insect that was not placidly floating downstream. I switched to an elk hair caddis and hooked/landed this big one.

Game on! I had a similar size one break me off and landed three more. Then the pool turned off. I tried nymphs but were having none of it.

I worked my way upstream and landed a bull trout on a nymph. OK, a 4” bull trout, but still a bull trout. The stream was a boulder garden of fair gradient. It was tough wading, with minimal holding water, the long upstream stretch didn’t look any better and I wasn’t convinced that around the corner there was anything different. I reversed direction, went past the sulky cutthroat in the pool and waded downstream, probing likely spots as I went. I landed a very nice cutthroat from a small slot, but similar to upstream, the downstream section didn’t have much holding water and it was a long walk to the next corner. With evening approaching I decided to halt my explorations and return to the pool to see if the cutthroat had forgotten about me. They hadn’t...however I still nymphed up two whitefish. So despite a very late start to the day, and fishing a completely unfamiliar stream, I managed to net five cutthroat, two whitefish and, yes, a bull trout. Quite satisfied with my results, especially after working out the puzzle of what dry fly would interest them.

And that was my trip. For my first time in the area, fishing for a new species of cutthroat, and pressing into dry fly fishing in a more determined way, I was very pleased the results and caught more fish that I deserved. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, even while catching smallish fish in the cold steady rain on the first day. It was a joy to wade unfamiliar streams among the peaks of the Rockies, to read the waters and observe my surrounding, to apply what I have been taught, to hone my skills, and to slide my hand into the icy water and cradle the belly of a magnificent wild westslope cutthroat.

Will I be back? You bet!

Other pics...

Sliced potato, anyone?