Washington Fly Fishing Forum banner

Elk River British Columbia Rising Cutthroat Trout August 2018

Trip Report 
8K views 55 replies 36 participants last post by  Stew McLeod 
#1 · (Edited)


Sky Cloud Plant Mountain Tree

We fished in August and found a nice braided area with small channels where we actually found the biggest fish.
Water Plant Plant community Tree Natural landscape

Ladin saw a big fish rise and made a great cast.
Water Plant Lake Fluvial landforms of streams Natural landscape

The Purple Haze floated perfectly and the fish came up bigger than life.
Fish Fish products Wood Ray-finned fish Plant

A beautiful Cutthroat. Over 20 inches.

We caught several large trout and many other nice fish. Mostly on the dry. The Elk is a fantastic River.
 
See less See more
1 4
#39 ·
Sounds like a great opportunity to have a drinking game....every 'awesome' one goes down the hatch, next morning might not be so awesome though. I thought the clip was 'far out' myself. :p
I think getting a group of guys together to watch would be a kick in the ass! Have everyone throw $10 in the pot and guess the number of "Awsome!"s they will hear in the next 30 minutes. A few ales, some snacks and the obligatory hooting and hollering over every "Awsome!" would be a lot of fun. And winning the whole pot would be truly "Awsome!"
 
#41 ·
Thanks, Patrick.
I'm in the Seattle area, if that helps.
Xfinity - Channel 16 KVOS and 116 KVOSD Sunday Mornings. I have it on auto record on my DVR so I can watch it from any device and fast forward commercials :rolleyes:

"Awesome" show and they fish the same waters we all do around here. No elitist crap just two down to earth fly guys that like to have fun doing what they love to do. Good Times IMHO.
 
#43 ·
OK, so now you have my curiosity up. Where does one go to see these vids? Are they on some TV network? Youtube seems only to have trailers of a few minutes in length.
Hi Richard - Looks like it got covered. Amazon Prime and Video is the best place to get them on Demand. We do have 13 seasons on Amazon. First season was put up by another company.
 
#46 ·
The footage above is the best I have seen Ladin put out. It's not just due to the size of that trout, which is impressive, but because it's not bobber fishing.

I have taped and watched the show. In the winter it's nice to watch outdoor shows. It's great that this one has dry fly action. I went through 5 shows the other day and I fast forwarded until Laddin et al. were not bobber nymphing. In 5 shows I watched about 10 minutes of footage. Some was from a lake shore casting over a ledge for "steelhead" that had been released and the other footage was streamer fishing on a river. All that footage was cool for sure.

I would watch the show more but I have no interest in bobber fishing. It seems like the show is mostly bobber fishing. Maybe that is just the state of trout fishing today. The same was true for the other show that was on with the Gonzaga voice dude, "Seasons on the Fly". It was nearly all bobber fishing. It must be easier to film or something. Maybe you just catch more fish and it's more efficient for filming.

I end up not watching any flyfishing shows for trout anymore. I will watch some of the saltwater flyfishing shows. There are no bobbers there.



Go Sox,
cds
 
#47 ·
OK, so now you have my curiosity up. Where does one go to see these vids? Are they on some TV network? Youtube seems only to have trailers of a few minutes in length.
Sorry it has taken me so long to let you know the station. Just got back into town on Wednesday and briefly forgot about it.

On DirecTV is is channel 12 KVOS and while watching the show, KFFV 44.3 Seattle was displayed on the screen.
 
#48 ·
My buddy and I spent two weeks around Fernie in July of 2016. We fished every day and self-guided all but one day when we floated the Elk with a guide. The only two bad days on the entire trip were the two days we fished the Elk. We were forced to deep nymph (ugh...) the day of the float and we caught a few fish each. The one day we wade-fished the Elk, I got skunked and my friend (who's a much better fisherman than me landed one. Granted, the Elk was off-color because of a landslide upstream a ways but still there were boats galore on the water every day that we drove along side the river.

The rest of the days we fished other water in the vicinity; fished nothing but dries, saw NO other fishermen, saw amazing scenery and did fantastic...catching big, fat cuttie after big, fat cuttie. Getting on the water other than the Elk is tricky as it is all classified water and you need to get permits for specific waters on specific days as well as a regular fishing license. The most sought-after permits are pretty limited but by doing our research and getting online the MINUTE the permits became available, we were able to score permits for several days each week on the two most-prized waters.

Getting on the Elk itself as well as permits for some other classified waters isn't too big a deal as they are available at the few fly shops. When we went into the shops and presented our permits, the folks in the shop were amazed that we held some of the permits that we had. We simply did what we had to do to get them and it was well worth it.

I've fished lakes, rivers and streams in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado, Utah, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and West Virginia. I've done 7 or 8 guided float trips. But this trip stands alone as the single best two weeks of fly fishing that I've ever experienced.
Cloud Sky Plant Plant community Mountain
Cloud Water Sky Plant Plant community
Water Sky Mountain Plant Ecoregion
Water Water resources Plant Ecoregion Sky
 
#50 ·
I went with OhioFlyGuy on the trip he describes above and thought I'd add a few thoughts. It was indeed a great trip - many nice fish and spectacular scenery. As good as it was, I won't be returning due to the permitting of the waters. We were extremely lucky to score permits five months in advance on the two most in-demand streams and without those two, the fishing would have been mediocre. We were told that a dozen years ago the fishing pressure on those streams was so high that they couldn't sustain the fishery so they started severely limiting the daily numbers allowed. Most of those daily permits go to local guide services which charge around $500 per day. Although daily permits for other streams were readily available, once bought, you could only fish that stream on that particular day regardless of conditions encountered. All in all, the licenses and permits for two weeks of self-guided wade fishing cost about $350 each. The whole process was so much more restrictive than what we're used to. It makes me thankful for the public waters that we have here in the US.
 
#52 ·
Yes, I would say they were successful. I'm not complaining about the fact that there are limited angler days. For us to obtain the permits it was necessary to go online separately and apply early in the day for the specific days we wanted - 5 months ahead on the first day they were made available. All days were sold out that first day but we were lucky enough to get the days we wanted. If one of us had gotten his days and the other had been closed out, we would have been screwed. I have no idea if the permit system is the same now as it was 3 years ago - it's very possible it could have been adjusted. But I would recommend doing the homework and getting your permits before buying airline tickets or making reservations for lodging in case you get closed out of the permits. And BTW, if I remember right, residents of BC didn't need permits - they could fish those restricted streams any time.
 
#54 ·
My recollection of when these day use permits were implemented is that this was something the outfitters in the Elk River country wanted in order to reduce the number of DIY boats and wading fishermen on the streams in the area, thus driving more business to them (or at least giving their clients a higher quality experience so they would keep coming back). Those who could afford guides wouldn't balk at the extra cost and the outfitters are able to get all the user days they need to maintain their business. I'm sure the locals were happy, too, with fewer out of province plates. The folks who complained the most bitterly were Albertans, many of whom live much closer than do the majority of British Columbia residents, and considered those streams to be home water.
 
#56 ·
Nice vid and pics.

I do at least one yearly trip to the Elk Basin every year. Been doing that since the late 90's. I've stopped for as little as 3 hours while on my way to Calgary. Worth the fee to stop and pound the banks on my favorite area.

Not too happy how three years ago they changed the permitting on some of the tribs, crying shame that it is so tough to get on some of them. Lucky there are lots of other tribs and rivers throughout the area.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top