We’re up & out of our hotel early this morning……8:30?? Another stop at Ned’s fly shop for another daily Conservation license & a few more Blue Wing Olive flies.

We learned that the shop had sold 300 day licenses on the Elk River in July with an estimated percentage of out-of-town vs. local fishers on the stream on a given day being 90% out-of-towners, 10% locals. – we surmise that most folks are going out on a guiding trip and most are two to a boat, we project a fairly small number of wader fisherman. That is pretty much what we experienced. In late August, the water is low and the river is very wadeable (not necessarily to cross but to fish). It is a fast and big river however and safety always need to be in mind as it is also likely unforgiving of careless or ill-advised behavior.

We downloaded our digital pictures from the previous days fishing Stream X into Ned’s computer. He was impressed with the photos and we gave him permission to use them in his future advertising.

At 9:15 we were on the road back to Stream X. The plan today was AM, GK & MS would go downstream and JR & AB would go upstream.

The fishing started out a bit slow, but when the Blue Wing Olive (BWO) hatch came off at noon, the action went nuts as it had on previous days. The BWO fly patterns worked best, but as the hatch drew to a close the team changed to several other patterns that drew strikes.

Flies used; Hopper, Trude Green Drake, BWO Adams, BWO emerger, Beetles, Ants, Royal Wolf, Royal Stimulator, & Comparadun. JR & AB found several nice chutes & pools on their upstream trek, but the first few pools didn’t show much action. JR finally connected with a small fish in a beautiful pool. Traveling further upstream JR found a beautiful stretch of water consisting of a whitewater chute coming into a 30-yard long pool with large logs and rootwads on the far bank. We began to notice a few BWO’s coming off the water and JR’s first cast produced a sipping strike from a huge fish. After a pretty good tussle AB netted the fish, photos were taken & high 5 smacks filled the air.

AB was next, casting an adult size 14 BWO pattern into the whitewater and letting it dead-drift along the logs produced another smashing strike.Cast after cast AB & JR landed some of the most beautiful wild Cutthroat they’d ever seen. The action continued for over 2 hours!

As the hatch subsided, JR & AB moved upstream to try some new water. Fly changes to terrestrials produced a few strikes, but the action had definitely slowed. We returned to the pool we’d previously fished to see a second hatch coming off and fish leaping to catch the bounty. JR & AB hooked several more smaller (14" to 16") fish, then began to fish their way back to the van. The hatch had cooled somewhat, but both found a few more fish to catch.

AB stopped to fish a large pool that JR had fished earlier, the first cast produced a small fish. JR cast and also caught a small fish. AB sunk his fly into the hole and a huge trout took a swipe at it, but missed it. A few more tries at the big guy and it was apparent he wasn’t interested. AB said, "I’ll bet he’ll take a bugger." and tied on a black bead-head bugger with red mylar strips in the tail. One cast up into the chute, and the bugger dead-drifted back deep into the hole. Nothing, then AB began to strip the bugger back, the first strip, nothing, the second strip….SMASH!, the big guy was on! He immediately raced up the fast water chute and tried to get into the branches of a fallen tree. AB resisted with all the might his 5 wt. rod/4lb. tippet could stand and managed to hold him off. The fish made a second attempt to get into the brush and was successful. @#$%&%^*$, this fish is a gonner. I don’t want to leave that fly in his mouth!! The fish had the line around one branch of the tree that was driven into the mud on the far bank, then he ran upstream into fast water and more brush. Given the hopelessness of the situation, AB hatched a plan. Let the fish have line and go further upstream. When he gets far enough upstream, pull on the fly line and see if I can pull the branch out of the mud. I gave the fish line and he darted further upstream….the plan was working….then I began to gently pull, harder & harder on the fly line. POP! The branch came out of the mud! Wow! This might work. Just then the fish took off and AB, standing in a jumble of fly line, didn’t react fast enough. SNAP! The leader broke. Damn, the last thing I wanted to happen, leave the fish with a fly in his face. Well sometimes you just can’t help it…..I’m convinced these big fish have their escape route all planned out….and have practiced it a few times before.

AB looked at his fly line….it was a disaster….the tree branch & brush had torn it to shreds.

JR continued toward the van and found another hot hole that produced 7 more fish before he finally said he’d had enough.

Meanwhile the downstream gang, AM, GK & MS were having similar luck. Anything resembling a BWO would rise fish andbig fish at that. GK found a great pool and set up shop there and kept catching and catching and catching and…well, you get the idea.

MS worked over two main pool areas and dialed in the local finny denizens quickly.

AM was somewhat giddy – he stopped fishing for a while just to take pictures and help the others net theirs. Fishing was too easy in many respects. But not too easy not to go back and still hammer them hard!!!!

It was great – a true ego boost in a fisherman’s life. Could be the greatest couple of days fishing in the history of man – and certainly a top contender for the Yellowstone Gang!!

We left Stream X at 3:15 to start our trek back to Yaak.

4:10PM we’re back in Fernie, gassing up and icing the coolers. Gas is $1.03 per liter, ~$3.39/gal. U.S. JR’s rig guzzles $50.50 worth & AM’s $43.24.

Hwy. 3 and Hwy. 93 back to the Roosville boarder crossing, Boarder Officers asked the typical questions; any guns?, food from Canada?, have more than $5000 cash, leave anything in Canada (AM responded, yes, our money!), liquor/smokes? Where do you live? Again the passports made the crossing uneventful.

Hwy. 37 to the Lake Koocanusa bridge and up FR 228 to the Sullivan Creek Road (FR92). Many deer seen on the east side of the mountain pass, less deer on the west side, but no cars on the entire mountain road. We took a stretch stop at the East Fork Yaak (junction FR 337) and continue to Linehan’s Yaak Cabins.

6:54PM up a long gravel driveway, we arrive at the Yaak Cabins. There are three log cabins & signs have been put up directing us to the two cabins we’ve rented. The log cabins are….Fantastic! Peeled logs, green metal roof, nice kitchen, bath & living room, large bed room, a loft with two beds and a deck w/ a BBQ grill!! Awesome!! Even the kitchen cabinet, fridge & freezer are stocked with most all the essentials. The MS/JR cabin even had Elk/Deer hamburgers & steaks in the freezer!

MS prepared moose sausages on the Barbie, he’d brought them along for a dinner, along with chips and a couple stiff drinks we recounted the adventures of the day. Statements like; "We caught trout of a lifetime!", "How can we ever better this trip?"& "When are we coming back?" along with detailed recreations of "When the big one hit!" stories which went on until near midnight, when we all crashed, totally exhausted.