An Interesting Day On The River
by Big Red



I was having a cup of coffee as dawn broke, and the sun indicated it was going to be a clear day.

I wondered in anticipation what the day would bring. I was up early to head out for the day fly fishing for steelhead on the Skeena River.

To tell you more about the Skeena River would be another whole story, of which any fly fisherman that has fished these waters year after year, would tell you, " its incredible".
Some of the biggest steelhead in the world swim these waters.

Anyway back to this day. I left my driveway early to catch a cup of coffee in town and to gas up the truck. As I crossed the Bulkley River bridge, the sun almost up full, and the skies were already bright blue. I noticed there was a little mist hanging in shadows down river where the warmth of the sun had not reached yet.

I noticed a fellow fly fisherman sitting on the gunwale of a three man drift boat at the edge of the river. It was early so I stopped to talk with him, and I thought besides, it would not be fair to him, not having some Big Red Fly Box flies. It is a pleasure for me to meet and greet fly fishers from around the world.

As it turned out Gerald and his fishing partner already had some of my flies, The Demon Dancer and Ruby's Rage were already attached to their Spey Rods, "sigh"!
( thats another story, as my friends could tell, I'm a set in my ways single hand man and although spey rods do have their place, it is not the pure art of fly fishing, but yet an art I admit.) they were ready for a day of fly fishing.

While I was sitting there talking I noticed movement in the river at the edge of a drop off behind Gerald's boat, the drop off was only 6ft. from the sandy shore.

It was a Bull trout that looked to be about three pounds and had tried to swallow another bull trout head first that was half his or her size, but it wouldn't go down, and he or she could not get it out. I then spotted a bigger Bull Trout coming to help out---"sure!, I thought". We then spotted two more even bigger Bull trout, deeper, and below this gluten.

These guys could have been around ten pounds apiece, and knowing the Bulkley River, there may have been even bigger bad boys eyeing the hole lot of them as breakfast.

The glutton headed for the bottom, I'm sure to try and hide from the others, and even maybe try to dislodge the hungry man meal, the others followed and were quickly out of site. It was time to go, fishing. yee!ha!
The rest of the day is another story, and the results of rest of that day are seen on this site.

I wish the pictures had turned out better, but I only had a 4mp digital. This was just another day of many, viewed by fly fisherman. The Bulkley and all our rivers are very special but when they are crystal clear, they reveal their story. All this is forgotten in the moment when my line goes tight, and I say here we go!, you can be sure I will always end my day on the river with a smile.

Big Red