Kelly Creek, Idaho - August 2018

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The Grand Adventure - Summer 2018 - Part Two

 

 

 

Wild & Native

One of my favorite books in my library is Patrick Trotter's Cutthroat: Native Trout of the West. I find the story of Cutthroat Trout - how they spread throughout the west, even crossed the Continental Divide, and evolved into various subspecies - fascinating. This next part of our trip would be a visit to the home waters of the Westslope Cutthroat trout in Idaho.

A plus was that this trout's scientific name includes both Lewis & Clark - Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi.

We crossed from Montana into Idaho via Hoodoo Pass.

We dropped into the North Fork Clearwater River drainage until we intersected with Kelly Creek and then drove to the start of the Kelly Creek Trail.

We found a nice spot to disperse camp.

Kelly Creek and all its tributaries are catch and release, single barbless artificial fly only special regulations, thus it is now a favored fly fishing destination. The cutthroat trout population was devastated by thoughtless anglers and poor fishery management until these special regulations were adopted in 1970. The fishery is now a testament to the success of catch & release of wild trout.The habitat is also protected because most of it is inside a large roadless area.

We arrived mid afternoon, set up camp,  and began our fly fishing adventure on Moose Creek. We quickly tied into six wonderful Westslope Cutts, all taken on a caddis dry.

We walked up the trail in the evening. The trail is high above Kelly Creek in most places. The Lady searched for swamp donkeys - moose - with her see mores.

Fog blanketed the canyons the next morning.

We hiked up Kelly Creek trail.....................................

.................... until we reached the confluence with Cayuse Creek. Cayuse is the larger of the two streams.

The air was clearer of residual wildfire smoke looking down Kelly Creek.

Kelly Creek and Cayuse Creek are larger rivers than I'm accustomed to fishing. I had much to learn. We waded up Cayuse Creek. I raised a few trout with my caddis dry but never had a take. There was a beautiful run several hundred yards up from Kelly Creek that was a perfect place to learn. I watched holding patterns, insects, and the occasional rise. I tried to be a good student but I never connected with a trout.

We had several miles back to camp - this would be more of a hiking/exploration day - so we headed back but stopped at two or three spots on Kelly Creek to continue my education. Whatever the outcome of fly fishing success would be, this was such spectacular country it did not matter much. Bald eagles, golden eagles, and ospreys flew overhead.

The morning fog was thicker the next morning.

We again hiked up Kelly Creek, but this would be much more of a fly fishing day. We dropped down to the river at around two miles up and started wading and fishing upstream. This morning I started with a grasshopper pattern. I got interest but no connections. We continued up and reached a deeper run with nice underwater rocks. I switched to a nymph.

"Shoulda been nymphing!" I said to the Lady with the solid hook up at tail end of the run. The trout pulled hard and worked the current.

"What a tussler!" the Lady said with a broad smile as I brought the cutthroat to her waiting ghost net.

A couple more enjoyed taking the nymph and pulling hard before coming to the net and being carefully released.

Ignoring my own advise, I switched back to a realistic foam grasshopper pattern. There were hoppers about. The cutts had to be eating them. I brought up a few but my offering was refused. I've often found, at times like this, lengthening my tippet helps, so I went to work. I tied six feet of new 6x tippet to my leader. I now had success on the first float down the current seam.

The Lady shimmied out on a log and then climbed to the top of a large rock in the current.

She lay on her belly and watched upstream. I waded out to my waist to a point where I could cast up into the current along the rock. A brisk wind was gusting up the canyon. Isn't that always the case? On my first cast the wind caught my hopper and looped it around the Lady's rock and out of my sight.

"Did it take it?" the Lady shouted. She was excited!

"It was huge. It came out of the water to take the hopper. Its tail was bigger than my hand!"

I felt nothing. There was no huge cutthroat tussling at the end of my line. Just seeing this trout porpoise out of the water was the day's highlight for the Lady.

"You should have seen it!" echoed above the rush of Kelly Creek.

The afternoon wind had fun with my large fly on the end of its long fine tippet. I was treated to a lesson in wind knots. I got to practice and practice all my knot tying skills. A couple of times the entire tippet was wrapped around my rod in a stunning tangle. The hopper dangled at the end, smiled at me and said, "Go ahead,  just try and undo this mess."

But, as in all things fly fishing, patience and quiet determination wins the day. The largest of today's cutts were fourteen inches, heavy and strong. It was a thrill to feel their strength on the end of my line. This was a fun day of fishing for wild, native Westslope Cutthroat trout.

And, there is nothing better for your leg muscles than a day wading in the strong current of a cold mountain river.

The wind also brought smoke from distant fires up the canyon, very noticeable on our return back downriver to camp.

We were alone the two previous nights at the large dispersed site along Kelly Creek. This evening two large rigs pulled in in the late afternoon. Somewhat disappointed with having neighbors, we were pleased they were quiet and respectful. One truck carried Alaska plates and the second was from Washington.

What a surprise the next morning when the couple from Washington, Russ and Sue, walked over because of our truck's license plate. They remembered talking with me at a music festival two years ago. It was a delight to reconnect.

It was time to move on with our adventure. We had all day to explore more of the area on our drive out. We drove up and over the ridge and dropped down to Cayuse Creek at a place called Cayuse Landing where there is a primitive landing strip. We noted river access, fishing opportunities, and possible camp sites. Cayuse Creek is beautiful here. We continued south on a primitive road climbing Toboggan Ridge.  It was a narrow shelf road most of the way. There were no turn outs or wide spots. Compounding the road's narrow width was that the majority of the route was through an old burn. The resulting brush growth along the road scraped the sides of our small truck almost continuously.

We rounded a bend. A fallen tree blocked the road ahead. We estimated in could be a mile of backing up to a turnaround point if we could not get this tree moved. We carry a bow saw, shovel, and tow strap. As I've mentioned earlier, we are young and strong so we got to work. With a lot of effort, we moved the tree off the road and over the hillside. The Lady asked for a photo of the road, visible below, that we had traveled to get to this spot.

The road improved just prior to crossing Cayuse Creek again. Here Cayuse Creek is a small mountain stream.

We intersected with the Lolo Motorway and worked our way out to Highway 12 just above Lochsa Lodge. The 64 miles had taken us over five hours.

Kelly Creek and Cayuse Creek are remarkable and will be well worth visiting again. I will continue my homework on the best tactics for fly fishing there now that I've had this wonderful introduction.

We topped off our gas tank at Lochsa Lodge and drove up to Lolo Pass, in the heart of Lewis & Clark territory.

We searched for an out of the way spot to spend another quiet night.

We were honored to spend the night at a spot used by Lewis & Clark.

This was one of the most special spots we have found to overnight and a fitting end to this part of our grand adventure story.

The wild native Westslope Cutthroat trout of Kelly Creek had whetted our desire for more wilderness fly fishing. It was time to backpack into the high lakes.