Ingress was smooth and our first look at the river had us chomping at the bit and full of anticipation for the coming days. Surprise #1, although flowing relatively clear, we would come to learn that the river was at a 40-year high for flows/volume for this time of year. We fished our camp pool (rumored the best on the upper river) hard for the better part of two days and if not for AP scratching two out while Stam and I bushwacked our asses of in relative vain, we wouldn’t have had a fish to show for it.


I guess if you are going on a float trip, you should probably have a float that boats.







Raise your hands if you are psyched to be here.









Camp water, tasty from the get go. Two tugs for the team, two fish for Aaron. Stam and I went hiking. Bad call.







There were a few chinarks around. Pound for pound, the Dean kings just might be the strongest fish on the planet. Lower in the river I would find a hole stacked with fairly fresh ones. Couldn’t keep them off the fly, despite my best efforts. Darn near lost rod, reel, and line to a few of them.

(Sorry for the snapshots. There will be a few photos mixed in, I promise.)

To be continued...