Stellako on a dry fly

I had a bit of time this weekend and my choice was take the boat out to a lake or wade the Stellako river again trying to fool rainbows with a dry fly. Well, dry fly fishing won, so off I went.

Last night I tied up a few dry fly patterns and had one on and ready to go before even reaching the river. Having fished it just last week I already had a plan for where I wanted to fish and went straight for those spots.

Despite some pretty good wind, all it took was one cast and I was already into fish. A healthy rainbow who put up a nice fight and some acrobatics came to hand and was released. The first stop produced a few decent fish and then went quiet. I wandered downstream, hooking into a few small fish on the way. I stopped at a nice pocket of water and happened to look upstream just in time to see the back end of a black bear duck into the shrubs on the opposite bank. As I looked down stream around the corner I could see another black bear, on my side of the river, standing on the bank.
I figured I had better leave them alone and went back up stream to where I started.

When I reached the head of the river, the rain and hail decided to make an appearance which made my decision to leave a little bit easier.

Today wasn't the fast and furious action of last weekend but some nice fish were caught. I think something was trying to tell me to put away the fishing rod and pick up the rifle. I saw six deer on the short drive to the river and two bears on the river. We'll see what happens next weekend.

The fly of the day was a cinnamon caddis type pattern, larger than I would have thought seemed to be more effective in bringing the rainbows up.

Hook: standard size 10 or 12 dry fly hook
Thread: 8/0 tan thread
Body: rusty brown dubbin
Body hackle: brown dry fly hackle
Rib: extra small copper wire
Wing: elk hair

Stellako River

I ventured the 40 minute drive today to a gem of a river, the Stellako River. It is a fly fish only river, a class two classified water and catch and release only. After fishing the river, I can see why.

Upon arriving at the river I took in the beauty as I rigged up my fly rod to the sound of sockeye splashing in the river.
The river itself was quite low and an almost limitless visability. The sockeye were chasing around the various runs and the rainbows were following looking for eggs and holding behing the many boulder within the soft current. Keeping an eye out for local bears (plenty of signs of them along the bank) and working my way down stream i fished a few beautiful runs. And the best part is the solitude. We had the river all to ourselves.

I was told the cinnamon caddis would be the best bet if the fish are rising, if not then a stonefly or egg pattern.
It didnt take long to get i to a fish. My first fish took a dry fly caddis pattern off the surface. It was a beautiful 10" wild rainbow which was soon followed by another about 12" long.

As the day progressed I managed to catch fish on the dry fly caddis pattern, a golden stonefly nymph, an olive stonefly nymph and an egg pattern. The fishing was great and the scenery was fantastic.

The last fish of the day was the biggest (about 16") and was sight fished. In fact it was less than a rod length from shore right in front of me. I literally dangled the stonefly 2 feet down from the rod tip and watched the fish come out from behind the rock and slurp in the fly. I set the hook and the fish took off jumping down stream. After putting up a valiant effort the fish came to hand and i removed the fly from its upper lip and sent it on its way.