All are up early as JR arranged a drift trip with Tim today & AM accompanied him. They’re drift starts near the base of the Libby Dam at 0800 and is scheduled for the entire day. Today we will start up close to the dam and fish the rip rap on the River Right side – really best fished from a drift boat. You can float down along the rip rap, catch fish, and then row back up and repeat the drift. A very nice way to fish in exceptionally clear water on a bluebird day – as long as someone else is pulling on the oars! Tim puts in at the Government boat launch (river left) and rows upstream about 200 yards to pick up JR and AM, the boat will then be ferried over to river right bank, and we plan to start to hammer them! The fish (rainbows) are predominantly between 0 and 6 feet from shore – after that it gets very deep – there are huge bull trout sitting down there near the bottom but they won’t come up for a #16 PMD! JR and I debated whether the background music to this morning (when they make the film of our lives!) should be Bach Pastoral Symphony or Verdi Spring or Summer. We observed eagles, osprey, and deer as we walked up to the location Tim would pick us up at. AM picks up the first fish on a black cicada – typical fish of about 13 inches. The fishing was on! JR was at the front of the boat and started picking them right away. Lots of good pictures of great Kootenai rainbows!!

Largely using a dry fly with a small nymph dropper was the way Tim likes to attack the fish. With great encouragement and enthusiasm Tim really works hard to keep us catching fish – which fortunately fo him is possible because of the great fishery on the Kootenai and because he knows where to put us over the fish!! Consistent catching all day.

We were fishing a short section of the river when a jet sled cruises up – it is the Montana Fish & Game out checking licenses. Of course we had ours and all was well with our boat. Again as the day wore on, JR kept catching but I increased my missed hook-ups percentages – again I think I was getting weary. We finally took out at 7:54 pm – AM must have missed a dozen fish at the end!! – so we only landed 49 fish on this float!! Bummer!!

GK, MS & AB had another great breakfast at the Libby Café this AM. Then back to the Kootenai Angler Fly shop where GK & MS picked up Ketchum Release de-hooking tools, based on AB’s success with the tool. The Ketchum Release tool is easy on the fish, you don’t have to touch them, and easy on your flies, compared with gripping & subsequently tearing up flies with forceps.

Tim had told us about a good fishing spot on the Kootenai down river from the Riverhouse. We decided to check it out. We drove down river on the River Road until it dead-ended at a boat ramp. The fishing area was a ¼ mile walk down a trail. The area looked very good, but we decided since the temperatures were in the 90’s that we’d save this area for a trip later in the evening.

Back to Libby, with a stop to wash and vacuum AM’s van, we traveled up Hwy 2 from Libby to Troy where GK, MS & AB research Lake Creek near Troy. Temp. is 94 degrees.

Along the way we stopped at the Kootenai Falls and hiked the ¼ mile trail down to the falls & the suspension bridge over the falls. Spectacular, rugged, awesome falls! Several kayakers working the standing waves below the falls….I think I’ll pass on that sport.

We continued towards Troy and missed Lake Creek Road ending up on Iron Creek road. After many twists and turns we found ourselves near Keeler Creek. Stopped the van to admire a band of 15 wild turkeys walking near the road. A local saw us stopped in the road looking at our Gazetteer map and took pity on us. He stopped and told us how to get to Lake Creek & also said that Keeler Creek was closed to fishing. Spotted many deer on our travels along these back roads.

We went back down the road, found the bridge over Lake Creek and parked next to a young man getting ready to go fishing. We asked him is this was Lake Creek, he said "Yes it is" as he proceeded downstream with his girlfriend…..to fish? AB was first to scramble down the rock riprap near the bridge and was just unstringing his fly when MS came running across the bridge yelling, "Stop!", "Stop!" "This isn’t Lake Creek, it’s Keeler Creek!" Another friendly local stopped MS as he was walking to the stream saying, "I don’t mind if you fish here, but since Keeler Creek is closed, the Game Warden may care!" MS, "Is this Keeler Creek? Another young man just told us it was Lake Creek?" "He’s wrong, Lake Creek starts at the next bridge down river." Wow! That was a close call. We packed up quickly and moved down steam to the next bridge.

The waters at the next bridge looked good, nice pools and chutes. Fish were feeding in a slick just upstream from the bridge, where MS hooked a couple, including a 10" Bull Trout that he immediately & carefully released. GK & AB proceeded downstream fishing some very productive looking water with little success. About ½ mile down steam GK found a beautiful chute terminating in a huge pool filled with logs. A few fish were raised by GK when AB arrived and fished the entire area with several flies & nymphs. A few strikes but no hookups. AB switched to a green crystal wooly bugger, dead-drifted it thru the pool and stripped it back. A nice 15" Rainbow was following the fly. AB hesitated the fly for an instant, then tried to take it away from the trout with a fast strip. He smashed it! Another hour on this hole produce no action. We left the stream at 7:30PM and returned to Libby. Great broasted chicken dinner at the Montana Grill. Met up with JR & AM at the Riverhouse where they reported on their great trip on the Kootenai.

Watching football on TV, JR illustrates illegal use of hands