7 pound bull trout stream fishing in Jasper

[Heff]

It was a beautiful July summer day, my friend and i had all our fishing gear packed and we hit the road. Today the objective was to hike in and find a tributary of the Athabasca River, When we found it the plan was to work our way upstream, fishing undercut banks, submerged log jams and deep pools where ever we thought small rainbow trout, or a bull trout would be hiding.

The fishing itself was slow, but the scenery is something your mind would paint a picture of if you were thinking of fly fishing heaven.

We kept working our way upstream , kept asking ourselves is there fish there, and if so, are they not liking what we are presenting to them. Whatever , we didn't care, it was a beautful day and we are in one of the most scenic places i have ever had the opportunity to fish at.

We have made it a few kilometres from where the stream enters the Athabasca River , and for the most part the water is ankle deep, but is a little deeper around bends.

We come up to an opening where the stream bends and creates a deep pool around a corner, with an undercut bank, submerged holders, and is the deepest hole we have come across on this stream. I thought to myself, wow, this looks promising, and looking up at the surrounding mountain peaks i thought this is fly fishing heaven.Its time to catch a fish!


i started to fish the undercut bank first, with my first cast i casted upstream by a fallen tree and let the current take my fly downstream by the undercut bank. Nothing . Second cast, i was able to get my fly a little closer to the bank, and BAM. Right in front of me all i saw was this wide open mouth break the surface and smash my fly. FISH ON!!! Huge bull trout!

The fish fought like hell on my 5wt rod, it was peeling line out making some great runs and i was fighting him for awhile and he still had a lot left in him but i wanted to to get him in as soon as possible because i didn't want to tire him out to much to make sure he could recover and survive when i released him.

He made his way downstream at this point by the submerged holders where it is slow moving current, I'm standing in ankle deep water and I'm at the edge of the pool so I'm in a good position to land this monster.

Problem was, we only had one of this tiny little trout nets, we had no idea we could hook into anything of this size on this stream, i had the little trout net clipped to me so when i went to unclip it to hand it to my friend in hopes that he could maybe get the fish's head in there and we can land this Hog.

SNAP!!!, when i tried to unclip the net i pinched the fly line with my hand i was holding the rod with and when he tried going for another run my line snapped, what a bonehead error !!!!



As we made our way back to the vehicle we still couldn't believe what just happened. We found an amazing spot, and i knew i would be back to catch that monster.

a week and a half went by, and i could barely sleep at night, i kept thinking of that bull trout.

it was again a beautiful summer day, i worked late the night before, and my year and a half old daughter had me up early. i put a pot of coffee on. Today was the day, i quickly packed my fishing gear, this time with a big net, and i packed up my daughter and off we went.

As soon as we arrived at the spot, my daughter was getting pretty fussy so i knew my fishing time was Very limited.

i tied on a big pike fly and targeted the area where i hooked into him a week and a half prior , the undercut bank. I fished it for 5 minutes to no avail.

By this time, my daughter was extremely fussy in the child carrier, so i only had a couple casts left before we had to hike back to the car and head home.

i walked to the other side of the bend where the submerged rocks are.
i casted and started retreiving my fly in 6 inch pulls , on the third strip, BAM!


HOG ON!!! grinning from ear to ear as my spool is screaming that all to familar sound from a week and a half ago. what a magnificent fish, what a magnificent setting. I knew i had to stay focused until this hog was in the net, it made a few more memorable runs and i was able to FINALLY land this fish.

i will remember this day for the rest of my life.

tight lines everyone!

[Jason.seaward]

Wow! Awesome moment! Thanks for sharing. I am hoping to hike/fish that area this summer. Fingers crossed I can be as lucky.

[Bowhntr4life]

Great story. Thanks for sharing! Gets me excited to do some spring fly-fishing.

[biggyJ]

Awesome!

[Flieguy]

Makes me itch to go throw some meat streamers

[FlyTrapper]

Awesome!!!! Cannot wait for opening day to come around and start fishing some bulls, I definitely miss them.

Nick

[Speckle55]

Grats Heff

its those memories that make us all keep coming back

Thanks for sharing yours

David

[McLeod]

Awesome ! Great story and nice pics . Thank you for sharing. There are some decent trout in our Rockies still.. Nice thing is not many people fish them.
Found a lake last year with some nice Brookies that no one fishes. And the scenery is unbelievable !

[Stryker2]

What a fantastic story! I'm so glad you were able to go back and catch one in the very same spot! You can tell that story to your daughter when she's older and hopefully you can make the trip together again so she can catch one there too!! Thanks for sharing with us! )

[SNAPFisher]

Wow! That is a beauty alright. Hog!

Way to go and on telling the story. Best post I've read in a while.

[Heron]

Awesome fish and story. One of these years I'll make it to Jasper again. Lots of possibilities.

[Steven Noel]

Awesome story, beautiful fish! Thanks for sharing.

[Heff]

thanks for taking the time to read the story guys, tight lines !!

[Fucha]

Awesome story and pictures, thank you for sharing!

[JimPS]

Thanks for sharing.

Great fish and a really nice story.
I love these summer fish stories at this time of year - can't wait to get out again.

Cheers and Tight Lines

[shallowrunner123]

Verry nice :-)

[Darren N]

That is a sweet fish and great memory when you are in your rocking chair.

[WhitefishLady]

That's a great story. I have a similar story of a bull trout in the oldman. I landed him but before I could get a picture the line snapped and he fell outta the net. It wasn't a very big one but was my first bull trout. I know what you mean by thinking about it all the time. I've gone back to the spot and only catch rainbows haha. I did not realize those streams were open now that's good to know!