Smalley's Canada adventures, or lack thereof

I made the trip across the 49th Parallel into Canada last week. Actually, I made two trips.

About a month ago I floated and fly-fished the Flathead River from Columbia Falls to Pressentine with two friends.

The trip was especially fun because new friend Roy brought his brand-spanking new Clackacraft drift boat, a gift from the Stanley Cup champion San Jose Sharks hockey team.

Roy is head coach of the Barracudas, the Sharks’ top-tier minor league hockey team.

It’s not very often I get a chance to pull oars on a new driftie.

We’d caught a few small fish, but when I drifted the idea of a late August trip to the Elk River in British Columbia, both guys bit.

The trip was one of those “anticipation exceeded results” trips. In other words, catching was slow. Very slow.

First day we floated Olsen’s gravel pit to Hosmer Bridge. A few small cutties.

Second day, Hosmer Bridge to Fernie. A few small cutties.

Until we were within a few hundred yards of the take-out and Roy’s PMX fooled a beautiful 16-incher.

As we approached the ramp, a boy about 14-years-old was hollering about catching a “25-incher.”

“It nailed my sunken beetle.”

“Okay,” he re-grouped, “I’m excited, maybe it was only 22!”

When asked if he’d taken a picture, he exclaimed, “My mom took my phone when she dropped me off!”

Second trip was two days later when I took wife Nan and three friends to Waterton to begin their 4-day hike back to Kintla Lake.

The deal was I would take them, if I could stop at Duck Lake on the way home.

Unfortunately the tribe’s watercraft inspection station was no longer operating at St. Mary, so I would have had to drive back to Browning or East Glacier for a personal pontoon inspection.

I opted instead to wade fish in Duck Lake. Which lasted about a half hour until the wind kicked up.

With a passport, all border crossings were quick and easy.

Jerry Smalley’s Fishful Thinking column appears weekly in the Hungry Horse News.