CUTTIES AND BULLS ON THE FLY

I came right from the whisky and vowed never to drink spirits and champagne ever on the same night. We set out to float and the launch was smooth.  The first pool held good fish and the river was not  crowded. We got out at each pool the they held good trout.  Ellen was using a new SA Sharkskin line and loved. The aluminum made Koffler RMT with defined chines handled like a Ferrari compare to my Hyde drift glass. It responded with both dogs in the back and Ellen up front. We did about five miles and raise over twenty cutties to the dry.


The fishing was good and getting better as the high pressure built over the Canadian Rockies. I thought I had the river figured out and even thought may be it was time to pull the plug and find some rainbows for more challenging action. I was in for a surprise.

I meant several hard core Calgarian who had been floating over twenty miles.  All had streamer strung up.  Fishing was great for cutts on streamer and then there was the bulls that sulked in deep pools.  I heard stories about landing bull trout with fin sticking out of their mouths.  I had hooked many dollies and char in Alaska so how special could these land locked char be.

Scott and I parked our boats on a long deep pool where I figured I might hook a cutt on a streamer.  I attached a single hook as per regs on a white bunny with a cone head. Rolled cast the streamer on a 7 wt. sink tip line and swung the offering through the pool. After the sweep the line line came right and after several strips I felt a tug that almost took the rod from my hand.  I set the hook and the fight was on.  I wasn't a cutties. I had fought sturgeon before and even thrasher sharks  and this behave like a cousin. After five minute trying to bring color up to the boat, the fight was over. Scott wanted to know what happened. I didn't know and wanted to know what in the hell that fish could be.

"Bull trout!" he smirked. "They live in these big pools and eat trout."

Another streamer and another hookup but it got off.  What was this all about!  I returned to the white single hook bunny and swung the flies through the huge pool.  Another hookup and this time I managed to bring the fish to surface. Remember Roy Snider when he saw the shark in Jaws .  This fish had to be ten pounds and as I lowered the net he let loose.  He had never been hooked.  He locked on to the bunny tail and refused to give in until the net came out. These were fearless fish that were the fresh water cousins to sharks.  Meat eaters

 Ellen took her nap on a grassy covert  and within the hour Jim floated wanting to know if Scott was up or down stream.  He was hatless. I sense something had happened. Jim was shaken. He got caught in side channel and got wrapped, a dreaded predicament feared by all river runners.  He was young and strong and was able to break free without injury but lost his trademark hat. A weaker less prepared runner could have been seriously hurt.  Wraps are right up there with rouge waves while blue water fishing.