The reports from the rivers left no doubt, the fly fishing is as good as it gets. So I decided to wait until Saturday so Boo and Farley could go with me. Saturday morning Boo has a sore throat and fever and Farley has a eye filled with puss, to heck with them I'm going alone.
I head for the Couer d'Alene River the head waters, the North Fork to be exact where the cutthroats are wild and hungry. The nice thing about fishing the rivers around here is that they don't stock them, the fish are wild, they are natives and reproduce on their own just like me. (!?)And the fish hit dry flies so you don't have to compromise your own principles by nymph fishing the bottom of the river like a scum sucking parasite. I haven't tied a nymph on all summer and that is how it should be, Nick caught a big ugly whitefish on the Clark Fork when he was here with a nymph and I still haven't got the slime out my net from it, I will probably have to burn it next full moon. Anyone who thinks a whitefish is a trout shouldn't be trusted with sharp objects like fish hooks. I digress.
I fished all day on the river and never saw another fisherman, a few hunters but no one else on over 30 miles of prime river on a saturday no less. Reminds me of why I like it here. The fishing was great, no other way to put it. There was a caddis hatch that kept the fish looking up and I caught probably 40 fish, most in the 10 to 12 inch range but one big fatty, about 17 inches. At one point I stood in the same spot and caught at least 15 fish, when I finally moved my legs were numb and I about fell in. It was a beatiful day sun and clouds alternating, they temperature about 65. Fly patterns varied, just about any caddis pattern worked in size 12 or 14. Parachute Adams was my favorite because it is so easy to see, but a elk hair worked and stimulators, I caught the big one a size 10 orange stimulator, he probably thought it was a hopper. At one point I sat on a big log jam and daydreamed for half an hour, someone has to do it. I finally got tired of catching them and drove home at a leisurely pace through the mountains. I
