2006 Adventurers: Al Miller (AM), Andy Batcho (AB), John Richardson (JR), Mike Shaunessy (MS), Greg Koenig (GK)

Waters fished: Elk River, Wigwam River, Stream "X", Stream "Y", Alexander Creek, Michelle Lake, Oldman River, Racehorse Creek, Lookout Creek, Highwood River, Blackstone River, Sheep Creek, Crowsnest River.

During the winter of 2005 - 2006, the members of the Yellowstone Gang (YG) were asking themselves, "What could we ever do to come up with a better trip than our 2005 adventure to the Fernie area of British Columbia?" It was an awesome trip and we didn’t think we’d ever be able to come up with anything much better.

We had asked ourselves in the past, "What are the elements of a great trip?" and came up with several criteria that seemed to drive an adventure to a memorable status.

One criterion that the YG have always professed from the beginning was to include "new waters" in each trip.

A second criterion we discovered was a trip with "goals" made the adventure more interesting, as we discovered on our "2004 Wyoming Cutt Slam" trip, were the goal was to catch the four sub-species of Cutthroat Trout that live in Wyoming and apply for the Wyoming Fisheries Cutt Slam certificate.

And of course, just seeing the beauty of the outdoors, the awesome wildlife and the joy of catching fish in beautiful surroundings have always been part of the formula for a great trip.

So using those criteria, the YG decided to return to Fernie, BC and fish a few of the rivers we missed on the 2005 trip, return to sample again the awesome Westslope Cutthroat fishing of Stream X, and fish the new waters of the Wigwam River noted for World Record Bull Trout.

While researching the California Golden Trout Adventure (see YG website—2006 Golden Trout Trip), AB ran across Dave Jensen’s Alberta Golden Trout Helicopter trips ( http://flyfishalberta.com/ ), and forwarded it to the members of the YG for their consideration. There was immediate interest, so we contacted Dave for details.

AB’s California Golden Trout trip also qualified him for the International Game Fish Association’s "Royal Trout Slam", which requires an angler to catch each of the IGFA listed 7 species of trout. Rainbow trout, Brook trout, Brown trout, Lake trout, Cutthroat trout, Bull trout & Golden trout. Several of the YG members were close to qualifying for the "Trout Slam", needing one or two additional species. Given that the Bull trout and Golden trout are two of the most difficult species to access, we decided to add a helicopter trip to the Golden trout waters of Michelle Lakes to our itinerary.

Golden trout only exist above about 7000’ in remote alpine lakes & streams. They originated in the Kern River drainage of California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains and have been transplanted to many states of the west, including only 6 lakes in Alberta Canada in 1977. Given their remote locations, Golden trout are amongst the most difficult for most anglers to access.

The Bull trout is also a difficult species to access, as it is illegal to directly fish for Bull trout in most U.S. rivers since the species is listed as endangered due to impacts to river drainages (logging, dams, grazing, etc) & indiscriminate over-fishing in the past. This is not the case in Canada where the species is doing well.

Several of the YG members were interested in adding these species to their life-time list and AB & MS also wanted to try break an IGFA Bull Trout fly rod World Record.

AM purchased a couple great books about fishing in Alberta ( "Trout Streams of Alberta" by Jim McLennan" and "Fishing Alberta's Trout Highway - the Forestry Trunk Road" by Barry Mitchell.  The books proved to be a great resource of information about the spectacular rivers of Alberta, including the Blackstone, Highwood, Oldman and Crowsnest to name just a few. The rivers of Alberta contain many species of trout including, Brook, Brown, Rainbow, Cutthroat, Bull, Cutt-Bows & Grayling.

So armed with a year of research it looked like the 2006 trip would turn out well given it included elements of our criteria; "new waters", "goals" & a "beautiful part of the world". Little did we know just how well the trip would be?