It was snowing this morning at the Nordegg Inn when we awoke at 8AM, 33-degrees.  It's August for cripes sake!!

 JR startled the place awake when he set off the smoke detector in our room with the shower steam. Everyone got a chuckle when they walked into our room to see JR standing on a chair, in his skivvies, waving his t-shirt at the smoke detector!

We were planning to fish the Cline River or in Banff Park or possibly the Ram river and Fish Lake today. AM & AB walked out of the motel unit and met Sonja….a local fisher-gal…who was full of good advice on where to fish in the area. Oddly enough she identified us as fly fishers and began to talk. She also showed us the flies she’d tied and offered us a few of her best. A sparse fly with a dark body and a soft red hackle. We offered to pay for them, but she insisted that we take them. Sonja also said we should try a spot up on the Blackstone River that was seldom fished by others because it required hiking thru a mile or two of woods to reach the spot. She also warned us about the bears in the area. We took down the directions and changed our plans to fishing the Blackstone. We named the fly she’d given us; "Sonja’s Fly".

Before we left the Lodge, we told Mike, the owner, where we were planning on going, his only advice; "Be careful….there’s a lot of CATS in that area!" (read: Mountain Lions).  It was still bitingly cold and the mountain tops were covered in snow from the front that came through in the evening before

We arrived at "Sonja’s spot" on the Blackstone River at 12 Noon. 54-degrees. We’d driven up many miles of the FTR seeing several deer on the way.

Sonja’s directions took us off the FTR and onto a small gravel road that lead to a gas well service area.

As we were gearing up a gas well worker drove up. We chatted about fishing in the area and he suggested we try Prairie Creek near Rocky Mountain House saying it held a lot of Brown trout. He also mentioned that he’d seen a "one-eyed" Grizzly Bear in the area several times and warned us that he was pretty grouchy. There were also Elk & Moose in the area and since the rut was beginning we needed to be cautious of them also. Bull Moose & Elk that would normally run from humans; will charge anything that moves, to include inanimate objects like trees, cars, fences & buildings, during the rut. I’ve seen this mouth-frothing activity before….they’re absolutely unpredictable & NUTS!

We geared up for the day - it was still cloudy and cool with chances of rain so we wore heavier gear as protection since we would be a long way away from the rigs during the day.

As we started into the thick woods, AB took out his compass and took a few headings, then pulled a roll of orange surveyors tape out of his fly vest and began marking our trail every 30’ or so. The snow at lower elevations was melting. The further we hiked thru the woods the more we realized that marking the trail was going to be a good idea. We found a small stream, a foot wide, flowing thru the woods and began to follow it….it must flow to the river somewhere!

After quite a hike thru the forest, all blowing their whistles and yelling so as not to surprise a bear or moose, we spotted the river thru the trees and brush. We broke out onto a gravel bar; MS & JR built a trail marker by stacking rocks and AB hung several streamers of survey tape at our trail entrance. It would be really bad to not be able to find the trail back, especially if we stayed on the river until after dark, when the fishing gets best, which the YG has been known to do on many occasions.

We moved up river, fording the river three times to get to a good looking fishing spot. We were using two man teams to cross the river to keep from falling in the swift current on the slippery round boulders.

We arrived at a spot with a huge (larger than a car) sized boulder in the middle of the river just as Sonja had described!!

 There was all kinds of great water around the area. The river was slightly off color due to glacial flour making it a powder blue hue and surrounding scenery of steep forested mountains were the stuff of fly fishing magazine photos. AM tried a small dry fly on a large pool behind a huge rock….after a few casts without any interest he told AB to give it a try with his rod rigged with a green-crystal, barbell-head wooly bugger Bull trout fly. AB pitched the fly at the back of the rock; let it sink and began stripping it in. Wham! A nice Cutthroat trout smashed the fly. Several more casts produced nothing.

AB moved over to a long pool and cast down thru the pool using the "Steelhead two-step", a process of casting across the river then swinging the fly "down & across" the river and stripping the fly back for the next cast. After a few casts, take two steps down river and repeat until you’ve covered the entire pool. Then go back to the head of the pool, change flies and do it all over again. After doing this with several different flies, AB tied on the ugliest yellow rubber-legged fly he had in his box. On the second cast he hooked a nice bull trout. AM had been fishing with dry flies for Cutthroat and came up to help AB land the Bull trout.

AM tied on a large red-headed, white-body, bullet-head Bull trout fly and began to fish a slot. AB gave him a few tips and recommended the "two-step" method. All of a sudden, you could see AM "enter the zone". It was physically visible. He was casting perfectly, concentrating on the fly drifting downstream and visualizing the fly moving just above the bottom. A short time later AM hooked up on a nice bull trout. Followed a few minutes later by another Bull trout, that managed to spit the fly after a short battle. AM was definitely "in-the-zone!"

Meanwhile JR & MS had crossed the river and hiked upstream to another beautiful pool. JR picked up a nice Cuttbow on a Blue-Winged Olive (BWO) adult pattern and had several more strikes. MS was also fishing great looking water and attracted a few lookers, but they rejected his fly. A little while later, they waded back across the river….no small task given the depth and swiftness of the river….and joined AB & AM for a little more fishing and lunch consisting of our Subway sandwiches and water filtered from the river. We took a moment and looked around in awe of the area we were having lunch…it was Awesome!

About 4:30 we decided it was time that it was time to leave the river and find our way to our trailhead. Fording the river three more times we found the trailhead markers easily.

As AB lead the way, stopping at each survey tape marker to make sure he spotted the next marker before moving on, JR, at the back of the line, removed the markers. As we reached the vehicles, it started to rain. 49-degrees.

We were also told to check out Chungo Creek that flowed into the Blackstone. We drove up to the bridge crossing the Blackstone to take a look at Chungo Creek. Due to the rain it was running chocolate brown with mud.

On the way back down the FTR, AM spotted a rise on a beaver pond and called on the CB to say we were stopping. We pulled over and AM & JR took out their 4 wt. L.L. Bean rods and tied on a small Adams pattern. AB followed with the net, while MS took a much needed nap. It wasn’t long before JR had a strike, then another. AM was first to catch a beautiful little Brook Trout, followed by AB using his rod. These fish were small, but absolutely stunning in their colors! JR caught a Brookie, followed by AB casting at a rising fish that took the fly immediately. We all caught several more of these beautiful fish and walked away with a smile.

At 7PM we found Fish Lake, we’d been told there were large, plentiful rainbows in the lake. The lake and associated park / camping area seemed to be where the locals and visitors to the area go to fishing. A couple anglers were working the shorelines in pontoon boats while other anglers were on the lake in aluminum boats. Kids were fishing from the dock.

It started to rain HARD! Meanwhile AM was talking to a local angler who gave us several fishing spots to try including the Clearwater River for Bull & Brown trout.

By 7:30 we were back at the Nordegg Lodge having dinner and recounting the day’s adventures. AB tried the poker machine in the bar, playing black jack and won $5.00.

MS’s wife called to say that his IGFA Salmon & Trout Slam certificates had arrived. Mike caught the last two trout he needed to qualify on last years trip, the Bull trout & Golden trout. The latter from our helicopter trip last year to Michelle Lake at 9,000 feet!

It was still raining as we hit the hay. 1,096 miles from Spokane. 1408 miles from Seattle.