We were all moving slow this morning. Up at 8AM to some great Starbucks coffee brewed by AM. After two pots of coffee we finally began to move with a bit of purpose. Discussions on fishing spots today swirled around the Elk River and finding new access points.

At 9:30 we were at Ned’s Fly Shop picking up Special Waters licenses ($21) to fish the Elk drainage and picking up a few flies & access tips from Becky & Paul. We put our digital photos from the previous day’s fishing adventurers on their computer; Becky thought AB’s Bull trout was a nice fish.

A quick stop at the Subway to pick up lunch (10:10) and put on a load of fuel (Gas - $1.04/liter, Diesel $.99/liter….around $4 bucks a gallon!) then we drove down the highway to the Elk River access. Of course we took a wrong turn on a gravel road and went a few miles out of our way before we discovered our error. The maps we use are pretty good, but we miss not having the Gazetteer style maps we use in the U.S., they aren’t produced for the Canadian Provinces.

The first spot we were considering fishing had a vehicle parked in the access spot. We moved on. AM & JR hiked thru the woods into a second access spot, blowing their whistles while walking thru the brush. The report came back on their radios that the location was ok, but possibly better spots could be found down the road.

AM & JR hiked into a second location, they were gone for about a half-hour. They had found a road coming to the river a little farther downstream. We loaded up and moved down to the location at a railroad bridge crossing the river.

JR was first to cast a fly into a large, deep, log-filled pool under the bridge. He immediately had a strike and an LDR (long-distance release), followed quickly by a second strike and another LDR.

AB & AM fished a chute below the bridge with hopper patterns. AB had a rise and rejection on the first cast, but no other fish showed themselves in the pool. MS was working the water above the bridge with similar success.

AB & AM crossed the RR bridge and ran across two anglers returning to their vehicle. They said they’d hooked several fish each, but only on nymphs…..the fish weren’t rising to dry flies. There was a good looking green slot of water downstream of the bridge, but after a half-hour of bushwhacking AB & AM gave up trying to reach the area and returned to the bridge, then headed upstream.

We reached a couple good looking pools with a large rock point focusing a plume of current into the pool.

AB focused on a root wad in a back eddy, casting a hopper along the current seam. A nice Cutthroat immediately grabbed the hopper. A second cast produced a rise, but it was a "swing & a miss".

Meanwhile AM was nymphing the pool when his line stopped, he set the hook and found his fly stuck in the bottom. He shook his Orvis 6wt. rod several times trying to free the fly, then gave the rod a pop to try to break the 4# tippet free. The $600.00 fly rod BROKE OFF AT THE BUTT at the same time the fly broke off the line! - with 7’ of tip section sliding down the line, and disappearing into the river – it was a heart stopping moment. Good thing Orvis rods have such great guarantees, the rod will be replaced. Two years earlier AM had broken a 6wt. Orvis with a ferrule failure and this rod was a replacement. The radio chatter teased AM about a third 6 wt. rod being 666, the "devil rod".

AM wasn’t happy about the situation, but called JR, who was at the vehicles, and asked him to bring down his 5wt. rod when he came to join us. MS was working the pool from the opposite bank without much success and AB picked up another Cutt on a tungsten bead-head pheasant-tail nymph. JR had a couple more strikes on a hopper pattern.

We wandered back to the vehicles, had our Subway sandwiches and about 2:30 headed down the river to do a little more exploring. At the town of Elko, we saw the dam with a huge backwater behind it that separates the upper Elk River from the lower section.

Headed down highway 93 we were off to explore the mouth of the Elk River where it entered Lake Koocanusa, a huge impoundment behind a dam in Montana on the Kootenay River that floods not only the U.S. but extends into Canada. Therefore the impoundments name; "Koo" for Kootenay, "can" for Canada, and "usa" for the United States.

Our maps showed a road off to the left that lead down to an old bridge over the Elk river. We found the road, blacktop at first, then gravel turning to ruts. The road ended with a huge pile of rocks blocking the road at the top of a cliff. AM & JR hiked down what was left of the road and reported that the trail was very steep. Talking to a resident that drove up we learned that the bridge had been dynamited a few years back and the road was blocked.

We returned to the base of the highway 93 bridge and followed a very rough road upriver for about a mile. Again the access to the river was steep and brush covered. The river below was wide and somewhat featureless with brush lining the near shore. A tough fishing spot.  It looked as though we might not be the first ones to locate this location - apparently it may be used by French trappers in the winter who survive on Fireball hooch during the heavy winter snows?

We had to make a decision, either climb down to the river and try to fish this area, or pick another place to fish. It was 4PM and we were quickly loosing prime fishing time. We decided to head for Stream X. (Note: We call it stream X due to the quality and fragile nature of the large fish in this particular stream. Not that we want to prevent you from fishing this stream, it’ just that we don’t want to advertise the stream on the internet. If you’d like to fish stream X, stop in at Ned’s fly shop in Fernie, he’ll tell you where it is.)  Trying to leave the area, MS took a narrow single lane dirt road which apparently led back to the highway only to discover at the top that it was gated closed!  He and AB had fun backing the truck down the hill very carefully!!

Turning off the highway we headed up Stream X road, just before the turnoff we spotted a Moose feeding in a pond. Unfortunately we were so intent on getting on the water we neglected to take a picture of the moose, each saying; "I thought you took a picture?"

Stream X had changed structure substantially since last year. Heavy spring runoff had blown out pools that we’d fished the year before and formed new pools 50 yards away. We had to do some exploring to find holes that held fish.

MS & AB went upstream, with AM & JR going downstream. It didn’t take long before the radios were announcing "Fish On!" Pale Morning Dunns & Blue Wing Olive mayfly patterns were working well, both the adult and emerger imitations. Everyone caught several nice Cutthroat. As JR was making an approach to a pool full of fish, he stepped on one of the many round, loose, slippery rocks and took a header, putting a gash in his lower leg and possibly breaking one or two toes. AM responded to check him out and held his rod as he washed the blood off his leg. He also asked JR, if he died from infection, could he have his fishing rods?

JR went on to fish the pool, but was hurting. It was nearing 9PM and the call went across the radio that we should be working our way back to the vehicles…..JR was limping a bit.

As we left the river, there was a deer on the road, one of many we’d seen. We arrived back in town at 9:40PM and had a nice dinner at Rip & Richard’s. By 10:30 we were back at the condo, 498-miles on our journey since Spokane.