HOT

It was a 30 minute drive up into the mountains and the Cutthroat river. My car thermometer read 34c/ 94f. A smoke haze was in the air from fires in British Columbia (B.C.). It made the Rocky Mountains look like they were fading away. It seems B.C. now burns every July and August, and sometimes even into September. Northern Alberta too. My dog, in the back seat, was panting even though I had all the car windows down. I never use the air conditioning (AC). One exception was when I was driving home from a fishing trip in Baja in mid- June and was stuck for hours in border traffic in Mexicali city, Mexico. It was 42c/107f that day. Abby, my last dog, appreciated the cool air blasting from the cabin vents. She also appreciated the rolled-up windows as hundreds of border vendors went from vehicle to vehicle trying to sell their wares: hats, cool drinks, fruit, trinkets. Some had nothing and were simply begging. There were men, women, young children, and even very elderly people in the late afternoon 42C plus heat walking the hot asphalt trying to make a sale just 10 yards from the California border. This wasn’t an Acapulco, Cancun or Puerto Vallarta scene. Nor was it a depiction of idyllic Mexican rural life in a Diego Rivera painting. This was a “Behind the Curtain” look at Mexico. This was raw desperation and poverty I witnessed as I inched along the tall rusted metal border wall until I reached the heavily guarded portal that delivered me to the north. Justified or not, when I crossed the border I muttered to myself that “Mexico doesn’t look after its people”.

COLD

When I entered the mountain river at 11am my water thermometer read, 10c/ 51f. Almost half the air temperature. By 2pm the river was only 54f and my feet still numb. The stream had stayed cold in spite of two solid weeks and now entering a third week of extreme heat. One small creek that feeds the river was still flowing. Last year it was dry in late July. I thought that there was probably still some snow melting up high. It was probably one of many creeks helping the river stay cold when many lower elevation rivers were warming well into the 15c plus/60f and some approaching 20c/70f. Cold water in July and August is always good for trout and fishing.

The Cutthroat that I spotted in the slower flows were selective. I was able to fool some with spring creek type (barbless) dry fly patterns. Cutthroat are often regarded as being easy to catch. That’s not always true. Each Cutthroat stream is different and has its idiosyncrasies. There are no absolutes. The one I was on is usually quite challenging, especially as summer marches on and especially in the pools and slower sections. The river doesn’t hold a lot of trout. It is a quality over quantity river. Here are a couple of healthy fish that I connected with.

Troughs along bank sometimes hold trout

quigley pattern took fooled a big fish

big horn skull

clear water

small flow from feeder creek

cutthroat trout

bergamot blooming

big horn sheep

chewed hackle stacker drake