Well, another week and now a couple of reports to share. I have been grousing a lot lately about the bad hip and such, but I decided to make the trip up to Big Elk Creek anyway, especially since my wife wanted to go. We arrived at around 9 a.m. and started fishing around 9:45. Nothing by the parking lot was producing so I suggested we go up the trail a bit, which we did. After jumping off of the trail at around the 3/4 mile point I decided to "bushwhack" it as far as the bad hip would allow. Man what a tough trip!!! I had left my wading/hiking staff in my truck which the kid had on his overnighter to the spring creek, so I found a useable substitute from the undergrowth. I was able to get to several different pockets and found myself in a traditional pocket-water fishing situation where one or two fish only lived near a boulder in a fast moving mountain stream.
It was great fun and I hooked up but it was more work than I was really up to and I ended up paying the price a bit later. Maybe I can author an article for FAOL on the foibles of aging and fly fishing. This has truly been one of my toughest years physically, although I have had a better fishing year than any other previous year...
I hooked and lost a beautiful 20-inch Cutt that hit the rim of the net and then got off, but I landed another that taped at 17-inches and was just as beautiful.
After trudging quite a bit further upstream through thick brush I finally came to a point where I could access the trail again, and, wouldn't you know it, the stick I was using as a walking stick broke just as I put my weight on my left foot and I rolled my ankle. It's bad enough having a bad right hip, but add to that a sprained ankle, and, well, you can imagine what I looked like hoobling out of there.
Good part is, I had ended up a bit more than a mile up the trail, bad part is, I ended up a bit more than a mile up the trail...
It was a bit rough, but the memory of those native Cutts softened the pain and I hiked out OK.
Later we traveled to a little known creek called Bear Creek and had a riot catching very small Cutts and Bows until we were forced to leave due to inclement weather. This time I laced on my hiking boots and really cinched them down and it helped with the ankle, but I had to find a better walking/wading stick and it seemed to work, plus the brush along this creek wasn't near as bad as the Big Elk.
In all a great day and a lot of fun, despite a bit of pain. I realized had I put as much effort into just going up the trail rather than the brush-busting I would probably have been able to reach the better fishing and stream access upstream and foregone any of the other difficulties I had - live and learn.

Here are some pics:


In the net!


Typical Big Elk Cutt


Where we fish: Big Elk Creek, Idaho


Bear Creek beauty


Where we fish: Bear Creek, Idaho

Hope you enjoyed this post. I've got one coming from the Kid's overnighter to the spring creek where he had quite a trip...

Tight Lines,

Kelly.