Day 11, Saturday, September 1, 2006 (Coleman, Crowsnest & Castle River, back to Fernie)
Up at 7AM. Walked across the street from the "Stop Inn" to the "Crowsnest Café & Fly Shop", (Hwy. #3, Coleman, Alberta, 403-563-8510, owner: Susan Douglas-Murray). A great fly shop! Susan gave us some great tips on places to fish in the area. We purchased a few of Susan’s personal favorite flies, "the little man" fly, and emergers. She also had great ant, hopper and stimulator patterns that we hadn’t seen elsewhere. We turned her on to one of our favorite fly sources; Hill’s Discount Flies (www.hillsdiscountflies.com) incase she needed a source that could produce a particular fly for her or to stock up on standard flies. We spent quite a bit of time chatting with Susan; she’s a great fly fisher and full of local information that she’s more than willing to share.
Breakfast at Stone’s Throw Café (13047 – 20th Ave., Blairmore, Alberta, 403-562-2230) and picked up sandwiches for lunch.
Off to the Crowsnest River at 10:20AM, 73-degrees, sunny, partly-cloudy, windy. We’d fished this spot on the Crowsnest last year and found an area of the river that had been rehabilitated in conjunction with Trout Unlimited Canada to create fish structure. Fishing on the remainder of the river was tough, but the restored area produced many nice Cutt-Bows & Browns. We were looking forward to trying the spot again.
AM & JR headed thru the brush upstream to a spot JR had found the year before, MS & AB came down the steep hill and crossed the river, returning to the lower restored area of the stream.
JR immediately started to hook up with fish as he had last year as well!! He seems to have the "touch" for this section of the Crowsnest!!
AB made a cast with a Chernobyl Hopper and immediately got a strike. A nice Cutt-bow. MS worked a hole higher in the stream where he’d hooked and lost a big Brown trout the year before. He wasn’t there this year, although there were other large trout checking out his fly.
AM & JR were also finding fish in the higher pools, JR using a brown Hopper pattern and AM using an emerger pattern.
AB moved to a pool above MS where he’d caught fish the year before. There were fish feeding in the pool, but AB’s hopper didn’t fool them, they’d come up and reject the fly. Switching to an olive-green LaFontaine emerger did the trick and produced a nice Cutt-bow. Further casts only produced rejections. Switching to a BWO emerger fooled another Cutt-bow, but they quickly figured that fly out also. A BWO adult was the next choice and …..Katie – bar – the – door, they wouldn’t leave it alone. These are strong fish….combining the jumping characteristics of the Rainbow with the bull dog deep-digging antics of the Cutthroat.
AM was intently concentrating on fishing a pool when he "got this feeling" that something was behind him. We’d been in bear country long enough that those instincts were finely turned. As he turned around he saw two black animals right behind him. He jumped! As he recovered from his "flight or flight" response, he notice two small black calves quizzically watching him fish.
JR also had a run-in with a couple young bulls, seems they either wanted his fishing hole for a drink, or they wanted him to scratch them behind the ears, but they kept pushing closer and closer to him until they ran him out of his fishing hole!
After all had caught a fair number of these beautiful fish we decided to head back to the vehicles and try another spot. MS & AB returned via wading across the river, but AM & JR were bushwhacking their way back. JR was in dense willows and heavy brush when something jumped up at his feet and ran thru the brush….scared him to death! He wasn’t sure what it was and furthermore wasn’t sure he wanted to know. As he broke into a clearing a beautiful fawn was looking back at him.
We arrived at the vehicles at 2:30PM, 76-degrees, still very windy.
Stopped in Lundbreck, O’Bies General Mercantile, LTD., for sandwiches and a lunch break.
Then down Hwy. 507 to the Castle River. Several cars parked at the pullout. JR & AM took off down the hill to give the Castle a try while AB & MS took a siesta. JR had the hot hand and caught nice fish.
They returned saying that they’d like to try the Crowsnest again in a different location which Susan had indicated to us in the morning was productive – boy, was she right!.
We drove down 507 to the Crowsnest. AB & AM went downstream, MS & JR upstream. We came across a beautiful hole with a fast water chute crashed across a solid rock bottom into a deep black pool lined with logs on the far bank. Soon AM caught one, then another large Cutt-Bow.
AB also picked up two really nice fish on BWO’s. As AB/AM moved downstream they called MS/JR to let them know the fishing downstream was good. As AM worked downstream pools he found some fish but not nearly as good as the first hole upstream. AB found similar results fishing holes behind AM.
MS & JR came downstream and were catching nice fish from the hole AM/AB had fished earlier. BWO’s seemed to be the fly de-jure.
AM returned to the pool and noticed a large thick foam line on the far side of the hole, but it wasn’t fishable from this side of the stream. He waded the swift current and crawled along a cut-bank to reach the foam spot. The foam was more than an inch thick in the back eddy. He dabbed his BWO emerger fly in the thick foam…..WHAM!!! …a HUGE Cutt-bow slammed his fly. Now he was stuck….perched on loose gravel footing, above a deep pool with a nasty root wad placed to preclude landing a fish in the back eddy. While he was fighting the fish, several other large fish swirled in the foam grabbing bugs washed into the back eddy. AM gave the fish it’s head, walked back upstream on the loose footing along the cut bank, then across the swift boulder strewn river. Making it to the near side, JR netted the beautiful, huge fish.
JR was next, he repeated AM approach and technique of "foam-dabbing" and within minutes hooked another nice fish! As he repeated the, cross the fast water with the "fish-on dance" that AM had just performed, AB was yelling, "Get your hand off that reel JR….let the fish have his head until you cross the stream!" JR was successful in the tough crossing and AB helped him net a beautiful fish.
Meanwhile MS, fishing the hole above, yelled "fish-on" "a big one" on his radio. AM ran upstream to assist. It was a huge fish. AM netted the fish and took pictures. MS’s fish was the same size or maybe larger that AM’s huge fish just a few minutes earlier.
Then AM said, "you’re next" to AB. Oh, I don’t have studs in my felt sole boots, I can’t make it across the river. AM said he’d team with AB to cross. We made it and AB repeated the "foam-dabbing" process for a third time….also catching a beautiful Cutt-Bow.
We left the "foam-hole" after catching three fish figuring that was a great way to end the trip with all four YG members catching great fish!
While walking off the river near dusk, AB was moving up a steep brushy trail when he heard a loud "SNORT". Looking up I saw a large whitetail buck looking right at me and stamping his foot. He was telling me that this was "His Territory" and I should move out. I called his bluff and charged him….he ran off in a huff. Upon clearing the top of the hill, I looked out into an open field near the woods and there stood the buck, staring at me, with four of his girl friends standing in the background. He wasn’t happy.
We were off the river at 8:50PM and headed back to the "Rum Runner" for another great meal. MS & AM ordered the house burger, it was 8" tall and huge. They had to eat it with a fork, you couldn’t pick it up.
AB won $5.00 on the poker machine while waiting for the food to arrive…..again.
10:30PM, off to Fernie, BC and the Super 8 Motel where AM had made reservations.
What a GREAT day!