Up at 7AM….well most of us….Continental Breakfast at the Riverside Mountain Lodge and were out the door at 10:30AM headed down the Elk River to find a access point. Ned had told us the area wasn’t an early fishery….music to our ears….and there was no need to get on the river too early.

AB talked to a couple from Pasadena California who were headed out with a guide to fish the Wigwam River. We’d heard about the Wigwam, big Cutthroat & Huge Bull Trout. Today was the last day that the upper Wigwam would be open. AB also talked to their guide, he said the trip down to the Wigwam was a 45 minute walk down into a canyon, and being in reasonably good shape was a requirement for fishing the area. Humm….reasonably good shape….I guess that leaves us out? This is the last day of fishing on the Wigwam this year as it closes early.

The Pasadena couple also offered to send AB some information on catching Golden Trout in their area. They have packed into the Golden Trout Triangle several times and have had great trips. The Golden Trout is the only trout AB hasn’t caught & he’s itching to catch one.

We drove down river from Fernie checking access points along the way. Most accesses from Hwy. 3 to the Elk River were rather steep. We chose a spot near the tunnel on Hwy 3 that had a pretty good looking abandoned road leading from the parking place to the water…..we thought. As we walked to the lower end of the road it ended on a plateau above the river. To reach the river we had to scramble down large riprap rocks. AB tried a classic stretch along the riprap that terminated as the stream washed around a large root-wad. Soon joined by AM, we both fished this classic looking, fish holding area with no success. JR is first to hookup in a side channel on a 10" Cutty. The area we’d chosen to access the stream cut off access to move upstream or downstream due to high cut banks and fast, deep water. AB, MS & GK continue to fish the main stem with little luck when MS decided to cross the river to gain access to some great looking braided, log filled water downstream. Against our advice, MS, a big guy at 6’-4" decided to go for it. He was wet wading and was doing well as he reached mid-current, then he must have been a bit overheated since he decided to take a dunk in the river! He quickly recovered and tromped to the opposite shore, grumbling something like a wet Grizzly Bear.

Once at the opposite shore he worked his way downstream and began to catch a few fish. Although when we called him on his radio, all it would do is buzz….seems it had gotten a little wet. MS worked the waters about a ½ mile below our entry spot with moderate success.

Meanwhile AB worked is way back to the "frog pond" water JR was fishing in the backchannel. AB made a long cast with a Royal Stimulator across the pond to a slight current flowing across huge riprap rocks where he’d seen a fish rise. A nice fish took a pass at the fly but rejected it. JR joined AB as he tied on an Ant pattern. A second cast to the same place with the Ant produced an immediate strike and as AB was bringing a nice 14" Cutthroat to the net, we saw a large fish chasing the hooked fish.

AB netted his fish & JR immediately cast an Elk hair Caddis to the second fish, which took it immediately. Wow! The second fish was even larger Cutthroat, 16". All we could surmise is the dominant fish was trying to take the fly away from the smaller fish???

GK also fished the lower end of the frog pond and picked up several fish

…. AB fished the lower part of the stream and picked up a couple more fish. AM opined that this was junk water – too much like sewer pond fishing compared to real river fishing. He was disgusted with this section of water – called it "f**** pond water". Of course, he didn’t catch any fish either. Hmmm.

The call went out via radio it was time to leave, all hiked back to the vehicles and we headed back to Fernie, had Subway sandwiches for lunch and headed upstream from Fernie to explore the upper Elk River. We drove thru Sparwood, home to the world’s largest truck that’s displayed in a city park (it’s truly HUGE mining dump truck). Left off Hwy. 3 and north on Hwy. 43 thru Elkford onto a gravel road for several miles. With JR in the lead AM & AB are beginning to wonder if this road actually accesses the river. A quick call on the CB, AM says, if we don’t find the river soon, we should turn back. JR says he’s going down hill and it looks like the road will end up near the river. We get to a pullout that has a 4WD road heading off to what appears to be the river. GK volunteers to hike down the road with his radio and let us know if there’s water and how it looks. As we waited for GK’s report we looked up at the grand Rocky Mountains of BC, and in fact the mountains we were looking at formed the Continental Divide. GK hiked for 15 minutes and calls back that the river looks great, come on down. We all gear up, grab GK gear and head for the river. GK’s right, the upper Elk river looks great, logs, pools, braids, all the right stuff. JR hooks up on a small fish followed by another. AM & AB take a tough hike down river about a ¼ mile following game trails thru a woods filled with downfall timber looking for good un-fished water. We suspected that this area was seldom fished and certainly wouldn’t support drift boat traffic, so our expectations were high as we broke out of the woods and gazed across some great looking water.

After an hour of fishing the prime spots, we looked at each other and asked, "What gives?" "Why aren’t there any fish in this area?"

The answer came later when we posed the question to Ned back at the fly shop. "Oh, we never fish above Sparwood, the waters are too clean and there isn’t much food to support the fish." We did notice the rocks were essentially free from moss/algae. What a lesson we learned about high mountain streams.

AM & AB made the hike back thru the woods to see a local truck driver for Elk River Coal who had driven his pickup truck out to the edge of the river. We stopped and talked; he said he fishes the area nearly every day and occasionally catches a trout. Meanwhile, JR, GK & MS were still fishing several nice areas with some luck with 12" fish.

On the way back to Fernie, we took the lower Elk Valley road from Elkford to Sparwood. From the map it appeared that the road came near the river to allow access in a few places. It didn’t.

Back at the hotel with only an hour of daylight left, AM & AB head down to the river behind the hotel. AM catches a trout immediately followed by an AB hookup. AB is using an olive body Comparadun & AM is fishing an emerger. AB is fishing a small back eddy pool, in the dark, casting 30 feet across the river and swinging the fly into the seam, then allowing the fly to sink. The small fly was inched back along the seam and as the fly line came to the tip of the rod, the 10’ leader was lifted ever so slowly out of the pool. About halfway thru the lift a nice fish smacked the emerging bug. AB played the fish for a couple minutes, but ended up with an LDR (long-distance-release). The evening produced several fish for both AM & AB and we had a great time. As we walked back to the hotel we were tired…..a good tired…from a great day of adventures and catching fish in a great part of the world. Back for another dinner at Rip n Richards – our favorite evening spot!!