Family Fishing Vacation

So what does a fly fishing outfitter do with a mid-season break?  He takes a family fishing vacation of course!  I always try to schedule some time off toward the end of August before the kids go back to school so we can take a trip somewhere.  The trip doesn’t have to be exclusively about fishing, but wherever we go fishing has to be on the itinerary at some point.  This year we made the trek north to Fernie, British Columbia which is home to the Elk River and legendary dry fly fishing for westslope cutthroat.  My good friend, Jeff, is an outfitter up there and runs Home Waters Guide Service so once we got into town he stopped by to fill me in on conditions and hatches.  It’s always fun to explore new water, and with the kids there is not a much better option than dry fly cutthroat fishing near the end of summer.  The scenery around Fernie is simply spectacular and over three days of floating on the Elk river we discovered that the fishing is awesome too.  The young anglers caught plenty of fish to keep them interested, and my wife crushed trout on dries the two days that she fished.  There were lots of fat 14-16″ cutthroat that hit the net with a few approaching the 18″ mark.  If it wasn’t for some local letting all the air out of my tires on the last day it would have been an absolutely perfect trip.  Fortunately Jeff came to the rescue with a rented air compressor.  His efforts turned a potential nightmare into just a small inconvienence.  Overall it was a great family fishing vacation and the perfect break before our final push into the fall fishing season.  The kids are already working on where we are going next summer.