KELLY FORKS, Idaho (AP) – The orange-colored artificial fly landed on the golden waters of Kelly Creek. It drifted like a puff of lint on the surface before a scrappy cutthroat shattered the mirrored surface of the creek, grabbed the fly, flipped and dove into a deep, dark emerald hole bordered by granite walls resembling the front of a church.

The scene repeats itself countless times throughout the summer in Kelly Creek country, which can be termed only as the Cathedral of the Cutthroat in Idaho.

Thousands of vacationing anglers make a pilgrimage here in the Clearwater National Forest each July and August to worship in these hallowed waters of fly fishing in north-central Idaho.

They say this is where wild country meets wild rivers.

Anglers come to meditate on the silver flash of a west-slope cutthroat trout rising for a fly, to take in the incense-like aroma of huckleberries on a hot day in the cedar and fir forests lining the rivers, or to just listen to the flowing waters where they seemingly are baptized each morning in the gospel of the wild backcountry.

Area’s beauty

“The water is so beautiful with that Kelly green color,” said Barbara Plake, who travels from Buena Vista to fish the waters of the North Fork of the Clearwater, Cayuse Creek and Kelly Creek, all about 60 miles northeast of Orofino.

“The fish are beautiful, and a lot of fun to catch,” she said. “The fishing isn’t easy, and we enjoy the challenge, as well.”

Plake and her husband, Jim Impara, make the area a fly-fishing destination as often as possible.

It’s just as much of a challenge to get to the upper tributaries of the North Fork of the Clearwater River. You have to drive miles and miles of washboardy and dust-blizzard roads to get to the prime, blue-ribbon fishing holes.

But it’s worth it once you are there and relaxing in camp along the waters of places such as Black Canyon, or in the shadows of Moose Creek Buttes or Twin Peaks.

Kelly Creek country is attractive to visitors because it includes 255,000 acres of backcountry in the Bitterroot Mountains on the Idaho-Montana border.

Included in the area is the Great Burn, the remnants of the huge fire of 1910 that changed the landscape of the drainage.

One couple from Washington camping near the confluence of Moose and Kelly creeks said they blot out all of July to fish Kelly Creek country and also the Idaho’s upper St. Joe.

They “shower up” and get groceries in nearby Superior, Mont., while going from one river drainage to the other.

And it’s not all fishing. The huckleberry crop was so good in July that some anglers are planning their trips to coincide with the berries next summer.

If you hit it right in July, you’ll have all the huckleberries you need for pancakes, granola and Dutch oven desserts in camp.

Hiking trails taking off from the rivers and also into the Great Burn, which is a proposed wilderness, lure anglers taking a break from fishing.

The area also is well-known for its numerous ATV trails and back-road touring.

Water quality

As you look at the gin-clear waters of the streams in Kelly Creek country, it’s hard to believe that the remote headwaters in the Bitterroot Mountains doesn’t have a wilderness designation, or that the waters themselves are not part of the National Wild And Scenic River System.

Without a doubt, it’s among the best native cutthroat trout fisheries in Idaho, experts say, and the reason for the fantastic fishery is the water quality.

Protection of water coming out of the mountainous terrain on the Idaho-Montana border is the mission of conservationists, anglers, businesspeople, tribal members and others who belong to the Clearwater Basin Collaborative.

For the last five years, representatives of different interests in the group have met to address the needs of the area from economic development to recreation.

There also is support for wilderness designation in some areas, special land management in others and designation of some waters as wild and scenic, or with special protection from mining.

Through the collaborative, proposals are being made for a variety of projects, including rural economic development, support for increased timber harvest in the roaded front country of the Nez Perce-Clearwater national forests and designation of cultural areas important to the Nez Perce Tribe.

Angler Barbara Plake sums Kelly Creek country this way: “We really love that area. Not only Kelly Creek, but also the North Fork of the Clearwater, where we have camped every time we’ve come here.”