AM is up first and makes a pot of French Roast coffee – in the yard are 4 whitetail deer (2 were spikes) in – river is misty and gray – the day looks to be perfect with blue skies and no clouds!) The rest of the YG begins to emerge (AB first) to the smell of terrific French Roast coffee and depart the Riverhouse at 10:30AM for breakfast at Henry’s in Libby.

River House in the morning

Getting ready for the day

As we leave the driveway, MS, the trip treasurer announces he’d left the group funds (in cash) laying on his bed….we return & MS secures the funds. Breakfast at Henry’s is good & hearty – as we enter the restaurant, our senses feel as if we have been time-warped back to the TV version of the 1950's with the soda fountain decor.

12:00 Noon, we meet up with Tim at Mac’s Market, Hwy. 37, where Tim’s Outfitter’s cabin is located.

Meeting with Tim

Getting to know each other for the day's trip

and one more thing................

Tim's sign and meeting place

AB & GK teamed up in Tim’s driftboat, MS & JR were in Travis Lee’s boat & AM was in Johnny's boat. AB leaves his rods in AM’s van & GK leaves his boots in JR’s Jeep….we’re not too excited about going…a quick return trip to Mac’s parking lot remedies the problem & we’re on the way….again.

All three drift boats launch on a typical (read: rugged) drift boat ramp probably 15 miles above Libby and begin our adventure from Canoe Gulch on the Kootenai River (about 200 yards downstream from milepost 13).

The view down stream.  We'll be seeing this all day.

After a quick period of getting our casting mo-jo up and running, all were catching nice 12" to 16" acrobatic Rainbows that cart wheeled high in the air.

AM Float: Johnny and I pushed away first – he had to deal with only 1 sport and not two like Travis and Tim each did so we were more efficient in launch speed. I was using a 5 weight Sage with about a 9 foot leader and a 5X tippet. We started the float with a number 12 black cicada and a trailer (about 18 inches) of a number 16 elk hair caddis (tan body). For the first 45 minutes of the float, we hit one fish after another along the rocks – practically a fish a cast – Wow!

First fish!

and another.......

and another.....I am getting goofy with the fun and fast fishing!!

Then we hit a quiet spell for about 30 minutes – I noted the other boats were also not catching anything right then. Johnny slid our boat over onto a flat region of the flow (probably 4-5 feet deep) – and we started to nail them again! By now I had switched to a chocolate thunder hopper pattern. I think four was the most casts we had to make to catch another fish! Most often it is a fish a cast.

Johnny keeps putting me over fish!!

and another...........

Everyone has fun when fishing is like this!!!

The Motorola radio's are quiet – I worry about the other boats (for about a nanosecond!). About 5 pm we pull over on a small island with the other two boats for sandwichesa nd a lunch stop. (Fishing tip: Go onto Highway 56, 2 miles from junction with Highway 200, pull off at Bull River, hike around there for fishing) We continued our float downstream toward Libby – we stopped at Zonalite Island and hit big fish right in the soft water (River right) – a ton of fish so to speak. I can still cast, but my hooking skills have diminished over the second half of the day!! I think I am getting tired – too many fish today – such a problem!! By 08:30 pm we are heading into sunset and twilight – Troy (about the same as Libby is only 1800 feet elevation and the surrounding Cabin Mountains at 7000 feet are magically backlit by the descending sun.

Evening float towards Libby

Fishing River Left on a heavy PMD hatch we continue to hit fish. The last fish was a sound set (purely a guess by me!) as it was too dark to see the fish until we got it to the boatside.

One last fish caught in pretty low light!!  Largely a hook set by sound!

We wrapped up at the boat-launch at 9:11 in pretty total darkness. What a day of fishing!!! Johnny really got me into the areas where there were lots of fish – my only criticism might be that he was so good that I started missing hookups later in the day as I got too tired – not sure that is a criticism or a compliment – I am pretty sure it is a compliment!! AM had had a great day with Johnny

JR/MS Float details (awaiting inputs)

And we are launched!!!

JR and Travis getting the set-up just right

JR with a nice first fish of the day!

MS enjoying a tug of war game with a local denizen

Travis nets the hard fighting rainbow

MS and Travis with a beauty!

AB/GK Drift: We launched a few miles below the Libby Dam where the Kootenai is a large tail water river (running about 12000 cfs when we were there - had just dropped down). Our boats worked the shorelines, particularly in areas of large boulders, drop-off edges, current seams & huge underwater trees / root wads. The river holds thousands of Trout (largly rainbow) per mile, but also some huge Bull Trout, 15 pounds and more, so it wasn’t unusual to have two fish on at a time. Tim did an excellent job of coaching us to present our flies to the best waters with constant praise for good casts and statements like, "Perfect cast, now mend, now mend, let it hunt, let it hunt!" "Strike! Strike!" I swear Tim must have x-ray eyes, he can see a trout racing to a size 18 fly in chop & glare before the trout even knows it’s going to take the fly! We used a lot of hopper/dropper hook-ups with droppers like copper johns etc.

GK sees, sets the hook, and lands a Kootenai wonder fish!!

GK - Relax! - you caught the fish !!  And a fine one it is!!

Who knew there was flats fishing in NW Montana?  Where are the bone fish?

AB and GK enjoying the river environment

A Nice One!

AB with another Kootenai special

We stopped for a great shore lunch then continued our drift.   MS and Travis are relaxing.

GK, Tim, and AB at lunch

I think Johnny was surprised by the impromptu lunch time entertainment.  I hope they are just dancing.

Tim’s boat drifted across an area of large boulders & sunken trees. He said, "Cast to the middle of the logs." I thought to myself; looks like a really fishy area, but if I hook one in that tangle of logs I’ll never land it….but cast I did….no more did the Royal Trude hit the water when a 16" Rainbow came racing out of the logs to smack the fly. I leaned on the fish pretty hard with my 5X tippet & Orvis T3, 5 weight. Amazingly, I was able to clear the fish from the tangle and landed another beautiful Kootenai Rainbow. GK was using his custom Loomis 4pc. 4wt. and Tim asked him if he’d like to try an Orvis 2pc, T3, 5wt., which he did. A couple of effortless casts later, GK was talking about buying a T3, saying this rod casts like a dream. Tim is an excellent coach and within an hour or so had improved both our casting skills markedly. Just the casting lessons were worth the trip, the 20 to 25 fish days were just the frosting on the cake. A little further down the stream we noticed something…..something large….on the bank of the river. What’s that, Tim? Looks like a Moose. It is a Moose lying in the river…it was hit by a train a few days ago and stumbled into the river before it died. As we drifted downwind of the Moose…..well need I say more….the air was pretty bad for the next hundred yards or so.We arrived at the take-out under the bridge in downtown Libby at dark. We were all elated with our day on the Kootenai with Tim and his guides…..everyone caught lots of fish….had a great time……and we were totally exhausted!

We stumbled into the Treasure Mountain Casino for a drink & great dinner, then back to the Riverhouse where everyone reported having aching muscles, sore elbows, & tired backs. Within minutes everyone had crashed.