Dog Days of Summer Chasing Cutthroat Trout

Wow it is hot out there! The weather reminds me of a time about 10 years ago when we were fly fishing the Blackstone River. It was so hot that Karen and I sat in the water every 30 minutes or so just to cool down. The last week started off cool enough. We even wore our waders once. That quickly ended with the 30C weather. We headed off to the west country to relax, fly fish with friends and unwind a bit. We usually are in Northern Saskatchewan but the horrible forest fires have destroyed a lot of our favourite areas to camp along the Churchill River System and unfortunately, they are still burning. Yuk!

Cutthroat fly fishing is awesome presently. We all are hoping for rain to increase the flow of all our streams but at the moment the rivers are hanging in there in the west country. Where we were camping, two good thunderstorms dumped much needed rain but more is needed.

The dry fly fishing is great right now but the cutthroat are wary after seeing lots of flies. We emptied our fly box in a couple of great spots but mostly the cutts are cooperative.

We have been fishing early too. Fly fishing at 8 am on a cutthroat river seems a bit early but the fish are rising and its reasonably cool too!

We have had to resort to small flies (down to size 18) to get strikes but for the most part a parachute adams, a stimulator, or a hopper pattern will do the job. 

If camping, be sure to check the Alberta Fire Bans web site. Karen and I opted to not have a fire just to be safe.

Tiki finding a great cool spot to hang out!

The wild flowers are out!

Don't Turn Out the Lights Yet!

The hexagenia hatch is waining but a hatch chaser like Steve Luethi was still out there several days ago hoping for another opportunity to catch a beast of a brown trout. Steve waited for his opportunity to get out. He wanted the water temperature to get down. Two evenings of thunderstorms did the trick. Karen and I also experienced these thunderstorms in the west country. One storm was quite impressive. The water temperatures were fine so Steve went out after work to his usual brown trout spot figuring the hexes were done for the year but hoping to catch a drake or PED hatch. After landing a couple Browns on the little caddis pupa he usually hangs under his dry, he started to see large duns on the water. He recognized those wings and they're hexes! One large brown started rising right across the river from him but the bats were intense out there and he didn't want one of those things grabbing his fly so he sent a quick roll cast! The fish grabbed his fly almost immediately and it was on! The recent cooling of the water had definitely helped the fish.  The brown was feisty!  Steve landed him, took a couple quick pics and sent him back. As quick as the hex hatch started it had stopped! Sounds like the experience that Karen and I had a few days earlier. Steve’s night was done which was ok with him because of the early get ups for work! Well done Steve!

The Showdown

We only had a few hours and I wanted my buddy, Jay, to have a showdown with some wise cutthroat trout that will refuse everything in your fly box because they have seen it all. We stumbled our way across some deadfall and stubbed our toes on rocks (especially me) to pay these wise fish a visit. Once we finally came to this slot on the river we just stood there and watched what was going on. A previous experience suggested that it maybe one and done. We thought we could see 5 rising cutthroat. The interesting thing about this spot was the wood. The cutts knew how to use the deadfall to their advantage. A lousy cast would bid the dry fly possibilities adieu. We decided to work our way from the bottom up hoping to steer a hooked fish well away from the wood and spooking the other cutthroat. The cutthroat at the back of the run would not budge from its lane for Jay's offering, so now it was time to try to hook up with the cutthroat that stayed close to the wood. Jay laid a perfect cast just up stream of the log that was partially in the water and his tiny size 18 fly was slammed. Jay knew that he had a split second to keep the hard fighting cutt out of the wood. Working with light tippet and a small fly meant you had to quickly steer the trout away from disaster with precision. He did exactly that. A beautiful 16 inch cutthroat came to hand.

Jay repeated this 5 times. The second last cutthroat broke him off in the wood.

Before leaving, Jay decided to try for the beast at the back of the run. We figured that we already had our chance but Jay put a perfect drag free cast right down a shadowy riffle and up came a beautiful 20 incher to take his offering. Game on! Jay quickly landed this giant cutthroat. We wanted to get a picture but we were out of battery power. No matter, 4 for 5  with these wise fish was a pretty good score for my buddy.

We hiked our way back to where Karen was fishing and told her the story. She laughed. My buddy headed to the truck with a big smile because his time on the river was gone.

I wondered  what my buddy contemplated on the way home. Working on the fence or his showdown?