Daddy Daughter Fly Fishing Trip

Each year my dad and I go on a fly fishing trip on the Elk Rivier in Fernie, Canada. This year ended up going a little differently than we had planned.

We got up early on Friday morning so I could work before we headed up to Canada. To save time my dad bought my fishing license online. We packed the car and just as we were pulling out of the driveway my dad asked "do you have your passport?". My heart instantly sank because I realized that I left it sitting on the kitchen table in Utah. I'm so organized that I couldn't believe that I would forget such an important document. It reminded me of the New Zealand Temple all over again. My dad handled this all too well which made me feel a pinch less horrible about forgetting my passport.

We quickly decided to head south to the Clark Fork River in Montana. Neither of us had fished on this river before so we thought we'd give it a try. After 3 hours in the car we arrived. We asked a local guide which part of the river would be the best and what flies were being used that time of year. We ended up on a 13 mile stretch of river that was supposed to be the best. Well, as our luck would have it we ended up having our worst day on the river. My dad had to paddle 11 out of the 13 miles and I only got about 5 bites on my line. By the end of day both of us were exhausted and we decided it wasn't worth it to stay the night. We headed back to Libby.

Our second day on the Kootenai River didn't end up being that great either. Between the rain, strong winds, and occassional lighting we didn't get that many bites. However at the very end of the day I did catch one fish (above). Even though it was tiny it wasn't an easy one to catch. It somehow wrapped itself around a log underwater and I thought it was going to die.

The past 3 years we've had excellent fishing trips so it probably was about my time to have an off year. And, really it isn't about the fishing, it is about the time spent with my dad. I'm looking forward to next year and a few more fish:)

My dad on the Kootenai River