No doubt about it last weeks success was hindered some by the high water and extreme heat, but that has changed greatly! The water level is now down to 2.4m and 275 cubic m/s, and has cooled to 58-60F. Excellent conditions.

The fishing has been stupendous. We had two Eagle River first timers in camp this week, and 10 repeat offenders. They all seen some of the best atlantic salmon fishing that anyone could see anywhere in the world. Eagle has a lot of big fish in it. There were multiple 20+lb hookups this past 5 days, and dozens of 12-18lbers. There are some nice chunky grilse in the mix as well.

One well travelled guest who has fished everywhere abroad exclaimed that he has never seen anything like this. So needless to say, a happy bunch depart. We can only hope that the action continues for our incoming group. I think they are in for a treat.

I have to mention 'the rod case'. Every now and then during guests travels a bag gets misplaced somewhere along the way. Usually by an airline. This week it was Robert's rod case. Not just any rod case. A beautiful Loop rectangular case with two complete outfits, sunglasses, and his entire fly collection. Some with great $ value and others with great sentimental value. It did not show up when bags were distributed at the lodge. Immediately the back tracking started. Called float plane operator. Not on the plane but it had gone onto another flight before it could be double checked. Called our bus driver. She checked the bus, outgoing guest luggage, and the hotel. Nothing! This had not happened before. When the water is really high we usually leave our open boats below and just use the more stable jet boats in the gorge. Just an added element of safety. When this happens we still use open boats to unload the plane. So there was a transfer of luggage. I had to run to Cartwright, so on the way I stopped by the open boats and circled them to look for the case. Nothing.
Nothing.

That night I had confirmation from the pilot that he swept the aircraft. I even went as far as to email the outgoing group. Of which 2 came back and said they noticed a case of my description going aboard Theo's open boat from the plane. So now I'm convinced that this bag came into our possession. I called camp manager, Dwayne, to double check the sides of the atv trail at camp to make sure it didn't bump out. Called Hedley to question placement of gear in the boats…could it have been knocked overboard? This was getting stressful. I was preparing to open the flybox and let Robert have his pick of 100 flies and permanently hand over my Loop 7X and optirunner reel for good! What happened to this beautiful kit??? I had no reason to question the integrity of anyone involved. There was no way this was stolen.

I returned to the river next morning and just for the sake of it made another sweep of the open boats downriver. This time, rather than float around the boat I took it by the gunwales and thoroughly looked. At first, nothing, but as I got to the nose of Theo's boat, right tight to the front side of the front seat, was a blue loop rod case!!! The feeling of relief was great! I went upriver and personally handed it to Robert as he fished 'The Slick'. He was pretty pleased as well. Robert, if you are reading this, Thank you for your patience because you never did pressure us hard to find that case, but rest assured we put the pressure on ourselves to locate it. And to my wife…you have been right all these years. I do look with my mouth instead of my eyes!!

We end this report of these great photo captured by Craig, as Hedley releases a couple of the many beautiful fish they caught, boatside.
-DL