In Western Alberta we are fortunate enough to get a break from “Old Man Winter” in the form of a Chinook. Snow eating Pacific winds blow over the mountains and descend on South Western Alberta. This gets us devoted fly fishermen out from the ice fishing shacks and vices for open water fishing. On one such trip I was joined by a fly fishing companion who had not yet experienced a mid February day on a local tail water fishery. We left town in the darkness driving south for two hours to our destination. In the vehicle both of us had our fingers crossed that the “W” (you can’t say the word wind on such outings in hope that you are not cursed all day) had subsided. When we arrived to the canyon all was calm and the temperature was a bit brisk as the sun had not yet peeked into the valley.We arrived at the river. After rigging up, I went down stream to cross the river side and my friend ventured upstream in hopes to find a willing rainbow trout. As we were fly fishing below the outflow of a dam I thought it best to go deep and use a full sink line and a weighted conehead black wooly bugger. I stood atop a man made boulder and excellent current deflector. I made my first cast down the seam between fast and slow waters. As my fly sank in the slow steady current my mind drifted to the possibility of what type of trout lay in the depths. There were rainbow trout, bull trout, brown trout as well as pike burbot and lake trout and rocky mountain whitefish. My first cast came up empty. I tried out just 5 feet further still on the same seam. Again, I waited as thoughts of what my fly was doing and what fish may or may not bite my deeply fished bugger. On the retrieve I could feel the fly ticking the bottom. Suddenly, 15 feet of line tightened and I set the hook. I was into a freight train as the line peeled of my Winston 6 weight and then in to the backing. I know this was and could only be the fish of my dreams. A lunker Bull Trout. I couldn’t budge the fish and he took more line. My friend about 200 yards away could see I was in need of some help and joined me on my side of the river. It was an epic struggle between man and beast and after 20 minutes I was in the lead and he drew nearer to the rock I was standing on. We were both giddy as my friend tailed the Bull Trout. He held it in the current for a while so we could admire this truly wonderful fish. We snapped a couple pics, taped it and the fish retreated to his underwater lair. The final measurement was 32 inches with a sizeable girth. He was the top of the food chain in his underwater world. The only thing cold that day were the beers we drank later that evening while recalling our brush with an amazing bull trout.