Running with the Bulls: The Elk River Odyssey

Fly-fish-BC returned once again to the East Kootenays for the annual migration of monster bull trout from Lake Koocanusa to the tributaries of the Elk River.

A week or more ago, three avid fly fishers, Derek, Jake and myself, hit the river for what we hoped would be an exciting and eventful outing.
The first morning on the river started out promising enough as Derek, a guy who can catch a fish in a glass of beer, immediately hooked and landed a nice bull. Unfortunately, the time between hook ups that morning got longer and longer.

In the afternoon we made a trip to the mouth of the Wigwam. A perilous descent down to the raging Wigwam left no doubt that we would not be crossing it that day. Instead we fished the pocket water and hooked a few good bulls but once they left the relatively calm eddies and were into the rushing water all hopes of landing them was relinquished, as the massive trout peeled line while racing downstream.

All one could do was hold on and run along the river's edge in hopes of finding a small pocket of slack water to land the fish, which of course we always failed to do. It's difficult to stop a 10-lb running bull in raging water with a five weight rod but still it was fun and I think Derek did manage to land one.
The next day we decided to pound some bush and head upriver from our campsite to investigate. After an outrageous hike straight up and diving headlong into impenetrable brush, we emerged scathed and bleeding onto the rivers edge and - a parking lot. A family of camouflage-clad locals with large spin-casters and spoons, had driven to the spot we just spent the last two hours bushwacking.
Ah well, such is life in unknown territory. Serendipity did eventually smile on us, however, as we soon found a beautiful pool where Derek landed two bull trout and a squaw fish and I managed one monster bull.

The third day we returned to the mouth of the Wigwam. The raging river was merely a torrent that day so we three intrepid anglers linked arms and crossed.
We fished the mouth and Derek again hooked up with a nice bull before losing it. We headed down the Elk into the canyon where we touched one and lost a few but nothing remarkable. We actually did better when we returned to the Wiggy.
I hit one and lost it, then Derek hooked it in the same pool in what would prove to be an epic battle as he struggled desperately to keep the bull trout in the pool and out of the current.
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Jake, desperate to touch anything, went up ahead and around the bend. He found a pool and was immediately into a bully but, alas, lost it at his feet, as the man with the landing glove was nowhere to be seen.
Derek did manage a smallish bull trout that inhaled his fly and we had to do some delicate stream-side surgery before release. I eventually hooked into a beauty that again took me into the current and was gone.
We also investigated the mouth of the Elk the last evening, where Derek managed another while I downed a few Coronas and took a a much needed rest.

Jake tried relentlessly to land one but after hooking up a number of times his five weight and slight leader was no match for the running bulls.

Well Jacob, there is always next year and who knows maybe we'll bring along a couple 8-weights just to give us an edge. In any case, I look forward to it.

Here is some footage from the trip - Derek still has the good stuff though.
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