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TRAVEL:
7/28 & 7/29. Martin parked his car in our garage and we departed home about 0800 on Tuesday morning, 7/28. Drove 370 miles to Williams Lake, arrived about 1800. 5 minute delay at border. Lunch at Old Towne Inn, Boston Bar. Same lunch spot both ways. Neat old roadhouse with country music. Coast Fraser Inn, Williams Lake, nice hotel with Boston Pizza sports bar for dinner, hotel continental breakfast.
7/29 drove 380 miles to Smithers, arrived about 1530. Hudson Bay Hotel pub good for dinner, hotel restaurant for breakfast.
Temperatures in the 90's both days enroute - 101 at Cache Creek.

7/30 drove to floatplane base and left our car there. Had to wait until about 0930 for late arriving luggage of other guests before departing on DeHaviland Otter for Spatsizi. 1+45 to lodge at Laslui Lake. On arrival about 1200 put our gear in cabins and had lunch at 1300. Hot at lodge, mid-80's.
We were scheduled to fly with Clay after he took other guests on first shuttle. After waiting a couple of hours for him to return Billy took us in boat to inlet of creek flowing into Laslui Lake. Later learned that Clay had trouble starting his engine in the hot weather.

Guides:
Clay - Cessna 184
Tim - Skywagon 185
Billy - Labonte, Ray's son-in-law (Carrie). Now manages the lodge operation.
Ray - Collingwood, owner and founder
Tyler - Young cousin (We never fished with Tyler, he was fun to have a the dinner table)

LASLUI LAKE
Inlet creek: Got MANY RB on dry Coachman. Martin and I fished the current channel well out from the creek mouth, at the drop off. After catching many fish Martin tried a Morrish Mouse and fish attacked it as well. Susan stayed in the boat with Billy and also caught fish. After an hour or so Billy took us to the other end of the lake to fish for Bull Trout. Caught a few nice Bull Trout at the lake outlet.
Rain showers and cloudy in PM. Comfortable. Lots of lightning in the area over night. Several fires but none near the lodge, or Firesteel lodge. We learned a couple of days later that there were 700 fires in British Columbia.

7/31 ROGNASS w/ Clay
Super day. Max fish on dry flies all day. Parachute Adams, small caddis (#10-12), etc. Most fish 16 - 18", a few larger. Even got some on Morrish Mouse. Missed many hits on mouse but it's still fun to watch large fish follow mouse and hit it hard. Some larger fish downstream in large rocks on Muddler. Rognass Creek is one of my favorites. Lots of good size fish, fairly easy wading with small gravel bottom with some variety in the rocky area lower down.

09/01 JUMPING RAINBOW LAKE w/ Tim
Tim flew at low altitude (200") entire 1 hour route along Stikine River. Great tour narration about the area, old native villages, etc. Saw 16 moose along the way. At one point we circled above several moose in a series of switchbacks of the river. There were also 5 wolves visible, 4 in a pattern stalking a cow and her calf in the river. The wolves ran off after hearing the airplane. One stayed quite a bit longer than the others - focused on the calf. This flight with Tim's tour was worth the day.

Martin and I walked to the lake outlet while Tim inflated the Super Cat float tubes. Caught a few 12 - 14" RB on drys. Then got into the Super Cats and worked our way up the lake. We each got a couple of fish on wooly buggers but pretty slow. Had lunch about half way up lake at a small creek. After lunch I fished a wooly bugger in the creek outlet and got a couple of nice fish, Martin then took over and got a couple more. We then loaded the Super Cats on the floats of Tim's plane and taxied to the upper end of the lake. Very pretty spot with 3 waterfalls coming down the mountain.

Martin and I tubed to the third creek and had a great time. He was there first and noted a number of fish sipping small flies in the slot of current at the creek mouth. We cought quite a few on #16-18 BWO's or similar. The only time we used such small flies on the trip. It was lots of fun, though. Could often see the fish come up for the fly. My largest was measured 20". Susan spent the afternoon with Tim near the airplane, reading mostly.

There were many Black Flies at Jumping Rainbow. There was enough breeze most of the day to keep them away but when the breeze let up they were thick. We used lots of Deet. It was a little cooler at Jumping Rainbow but still around 80.

08/02 TATLATUI LAKE - HEADWATER OF FIRESTEEL RIVER w/ Clay
Another excellent fishing day. Started at the outlet of Tatlatui Lake catching many RB on various dry flies from #12 Adams to Stimulator. Fished a number of other spots downstream with good catches at all. Susan got biggest RB of the trip - 21-22". All these fish were very fat and heavy. Most in the 18" range. Used a variety of drys as well as an olive bugger. Martin got several on Morrish Mouse. They "stalk" the mouse and hit it hard, but difficult to hook them on the very large fly. Got a couple of movies of Susan and Martin with fish on but didn't manage to catch the fish putting on a jumping show.

08/03 & 08/04 FIRESTEEL RIVER w/ Ray
Flew with Clay. VERY smoky in valley part way to Firesteel - viz less than 1 mile. Wind came up later and cleared up nicely. Ray and Beanie staying at Firesteel, along with Ulie and other dog.

Fished several spots downstream from camp. A little slow by Firesteel standards but still got a fair number of nice fish. Ray worked boat for Susan while martin and I waded. Black or Yellow Stimulator type flies, or Adams BiVisible worked well and are easy to see. About 1600 we stopped at a wide sweeping bend in the river where fish could be seen rising. All of us were catching fish on every cast for about an hour. Elk Hair Caddis or similar small drys.

Beanie prepared lamb for dinner with corn on the cob, vegetables, and salad. Super pie. Ray started a fire outside in the evening . Nice visit around the fire. Today was cool and breezy, overcast, most of the day.

The second day we expected to leave in the morning but the plane didn't arrive. No way to communicate to find out what's going on so we waited until around 1100. Then Ray took Martin and me to a spot not far upriver. We had fun catching some 12" fish for awhile. When the plane still hadn't come by noon Ray returned and picked up Susan. We then went to several excellent spots up the river. Adams or H&L Variant or other parachute drys continue to work well and are easy to see. At lunch there were a number of fish just off the stern of the parked boat. I took a movie of Martin standing by the boat, catching a fish, with Ulie chasing it around. Quite a show. Weather was quite nice today with comfortable temps, no wind, clear sky.
Clay arrived to pick us up about 1800. Apparently there was a misunderstanding of the schedule. "HQ" thought we were to spend two full days at Firesteel, we thought one. It was great anyway, we had two super days.

08/05 TUATON LAKE w/ Billy
Flew to lake just up from Laslui with Clay. Billy flew up with his Piper and kept his plane at the lake.
In the AM Billy took us in boat to upper end of lake and fished the inlet. I got one fish, others about the same. We then moved down to the outlet where Susan and Martin both did very well with wooly buggers while I walked downstream quite a way and had no luck. As I worked my way back up to where they were fishing I managed to hook a couple of fish before we got in the boat and moved on down to where the stream flows into Lower Tuaton Lake (the Bull Trout hole).
Had lots of fun watching RB and Bull Trout in the hole taking sculpins or other streamers. Martin got largest Bull Trout - about 30" plus. After lunch there were a number of RB we could see in fairly shallow water. Took turns trying to get photos of fish taking dry flies. Got plenty of fish but not so good at the photos.
About 1500 we took the boat to the lower end of Lower Tuaton with the canoe in tow. The canoe had been left at Upper Tuaton near the outlet and Billy had brought it down. Fished the outlet area for an hour or so and got several nice fish. Billy spotted some Bull Trout and Martin had fun catching a couple of nice large ones. I got a complete movie of him catching and landing one.
Martin and I then canoed down the Stikine River to the lodge while Billy and Susan returned to Upper Tuaton, got into his Piper and flew to the lodge. Susan got a few photos of Martin and me canoeing down the river. We took 2 ½ hours to reach the lodge. Stopped several places to fish with little luck, although Martin hooked one huge Bull Trout but lost it when his leader broke immediately. We passed up several likely looking spots along the last part of the river as we had spent too much time stopping earlier. Near the bottom of the river we came upon a duck with her ducklings. She got her brood into a hole in the bank and then stayed in front of us for at least 15 minutes pretending to be injured to lure us away from her ducklings. Finally we came upon another family of ducks and now there were two faking injury in order to lure us away. Finally we came to a wide bay where we could go far to one side and the mother ducks could leave and find their babies. We arrived at the lodge about 1945.
Weather was perfect all day. Clear, warm, no wind.

08/06
The Otter arrived at 1030, offloaded the arriving guests, and we boarded by 1100 and landed at Smithers about 1230. We loaded out bags in the car and headed for Quesnel. 304 Miles to Sandpiper Inn at south edge of South Quesnel - excellent stopping place, nice hotel has sports pub attached at one end and Denny's at other. Had dinner in sports pub and breakfast at Denny's.
08/07
446 miles home from Quesnel. After 1+30 delay near 108 Mile for truck accident that had highway blocked we arrived home about 1800.

Most used flies: Elk Hair Caddis, small Parachute Adams or similar, Stimulator. Sculpins or baitfish for Bull Trout. Olive or brown Wooly Buggers for the occasional time dry flies aren't working.