Utah Water Log

No Famine at Starvation

2012-01-29T18:47:00.002-07:00

With a heck of a cold messing with all facets of my existence lately, I only fished for a couple of hours on the Provo River last weekend. It wasn't extremely eventful, but I did end up with a really pretty rainbow.

Finding a rainbow on the Lower is a bit of a rarity for me, especially below the Olmstead Diversion, where the special regulations end and general regs are in effect downstream from there.

It came from the deeper part of this run, about 5 feet in front of the fallen branch below.

With this world famous river flowing through my stomping grounds for the last 27 years, I've spent my fair share of time near its banks, although I find myself neglecting it these days. It's nice to pay it a visit from time to time when traveling to distant venues isn't on the agenda.

A couple of the typical dink browns came to hand, but there was one really nice brown in the 4-5lb class that I could see right below my feet. Unfortunately, I couldn't get its attention with anything I threw at it.

Here's the best of the smaller browns that I was able to catch.

Even though I was feeling awful and I had some conference championship games to watch, I stayed for awhile longer trying for that big brown, but had to call it quits. Missing both games just wouldn't fly for this football fan.

This week:

With the warmer weather over the past week, I had word that Starvation Reservoir had a lot of open water and unsafe ice, then a last minute report stated that areas near the state park boat ramp had refrozen, with 4 inches of clear ice. This I had to see.

When I pulled up to the ramp, I noted the presence of open water quite close to where I had hoped to fish. A quick ice check gave me confidence to push on.

There was a lot of older ice stacked up on the ramp, but about 100 feet out, newer ice had recently covered over a gap. I was able to drill through that quickly and measured down to the bottom, which was around 25 feet.

Immediately upon lifting my jig from the bottom, I felt a tiny bump. I missed the bite, and the following several, but I knew that there were perch down there taking swipes. Recent reports had stated that the perch were hanging around the 25 foot depth.

After quite a few bait checks and retries, I finally got one to hang on to my jig for a ride to the top. It was no wonder that I wasn't getting connections before, since this perch may have stretched out to a whopping 6 inches. Back it went and I continued to try at different depths.

It was a long time before I felt any other bumps and those only came from the bottom. Another tiny perch came and went before something actually put a bend in my rod. It was a nice thick female rainbow of 17 inches and 2 lbs, just like the ones 2 weeks before.

It was great to break up the monotony and pretty soon, more of her buddies (although much smaller) showed up for a quick visit before going back to grow larger.

After some more depth experimentation, I hooked into the fish of the day, a large male with a mighty girth.

The day wore on with just enough action to keep me trying and I noticed that nobody else was having much luck at all. There were quite a few parties fishing similar depths to each other and I only heard of two fish being caught between all of them. They looked as if they were fishing too shallow in my opinion.

Right before I decided to leave, it happened. I finally got my first brown through the ice. Long time coming on that one. Pretty good size too!

Here's what the park looked like before I left. Yes, that's open water and it's got fishable ice right by it.

Happy Fishing, Humans.

Provo River, Lunch Hole, Starvation Reservoir

2012-01-15T11:14:00.001-07:00

Last week's fishing was pretty slow, so I didn't bother to make a report for it at the time. A really nice trip to Thousand Lake Mountain was planned, but it fell through at the last moment, leaving me with limited resources for much of a trip.

The Provo River is where I ended up and the fishing was rather dismal for what I'm used to. Despite the slow fishing (3 small browns all day), the scenery was nice and it's always a pleasure to get out and wet a line anyway.

A few bald eagles were hanging around the area and this one decided to pose for me.

Another treat was seeing some swans in the backed up section of the river, just upstream from Deer Creek Reservoir.

Nothing was working for anyone fishing the river that day. Flies, lures, bait...NOTHING! Finally, after fishing for hours, a nighcrawler rested on the bottom of a deeper pool below a riffle got some bites. Luckily, these dinks were hooked in the lip and successfully released.

In the middle of the week, I stopped at the lunch hole for a quickie and lucked into a pretty decent brown in the irrigation box.

It was nice to feel a real tug on the line, at least. This one was also released.

After reading about peoples' success on Starvation's ice lately, I caved and just had to see it for myself. It was a beautiful day and felt more like October than the middle of January. Blue skies, no snow, no wind, and healthy rainbows!

The ice was nearly a foot thick and it felt like a mile with the manual 8" auger I was using. Luckily I only needed the two holes I drilled.

Having never tried ice fishing at Starvation and only catching trout there once before, I carefully scouted out areas where I believed would be a good place to try my luck.

One spot that stuck out to me was a point at the mouth of a small bay, quickly plunging into deep water. It seemed safe to assume that any fish passing from the main lake into the bay or vice versa would need to swim by that point. I also recalled reading that the rainbows were typically around 15 feet deep.

All of this was accurate and most of the day was spent running from hole to hole, attempting to set the hook on time. Great fun!

The rainbows were all the same size, 17 inches and 2lbs on the dot. Quite a few were brought up and three round females were kept for the table.

Like I said, the conditions were excellent and it wasn't hard to stay comfortable, even though the temperature hovered around freezing all day.

My setup:

The small bay I made camp at the mouth of:

My holes certainly weren't the first in the area.

Once the bite had vanished for over an hour, my attention turned toward the Strawberry River, below the Starvation Dam. Some really nice fish are in the river and I've seen plenty.

Unfortunately, the only brown that wanted to play today was on the small side. A few nice ones teased me by following my lure though. Oh well, it was a great way to cap off a superb day on the water and a beautiful area to spend the time.

Happy Fishing, Humans.

2011: Year in Review

2011-12-31T21:10:00.000-07:00

Well it sure has been a great year for fishing. Though I didn't accomplish all of my fishing goals, there were still quite a few highlights.

During 2011, I was able to break a few personal records:

Best Rainbow (22")
Best Brookie (19")
Best Tiger Trout (Twice! 1 @ 25" and 1 @ 25.5")
Best Walleye (26")
Best Golden Trout (only golden @ 8")

Aside from breaking some personal bests, it was a lot of fun anyway, as always. I think I only got skunked a couple of times in 2011, so that's nice.

I've taken a little time and gathered up some of my fondest 2011 fishing related photos, in chronological order:

Oh, did I forget to mention my huge 36 inch albino cutthroat? N'yuk, n'yuk.

Here's my buddy Holdsworth with a splake from Fish Lake and some cool ice patterns from there:

Otter Creek Reservoir:

Holdsworth with a 23" rainbow:

Here's my best rainbow, although it doesn't look 22" in the pic, it really was. 9 Mile Reservoir:

Millsite Reservoir and the hardest fighting cutthroat I ever met. It fought harder than any other trout I've caught and it was only 18". Stubborn thing took me 5 minutes to bring in.

Straight Canyon Creek (outflow from Joe's Valley Reservoir):

Joe's Valley Reservoir:

Back to the creek:

Neat sunbeams bursting through to bid us a good morning, which it was.

Got into some pretty good tigers this year and got Holdsworth out to my big tiger spots too.

Breaking my personal record the first time with a 25" tiger:

Ice off at Strawberry Reservoir:

Nice cutthroat from Currant Creek Reservoir:

Quail Creek Reservoir, southern Utah (on the way back from Vegas):

Lunch break white bass with the lakeside power plant in the background:

My buddy Keala with a gorgeous Colorado River Cutthroat. Riley is sitting in the background.

Riley cashes in on some CR cutt lovin':

Keala with a hoggish tiger from a small stream:

Danish Meadows:

Ahh, the bulge of a well fed tiger. Pretty big for water you can jump across in spots.

Nice CR Cutt donning its spawning colors:

Fish Lake Plateau:

Gotta get the kids involved. They're the highlight of my life:

Not afraid to get dirty.

My last fishing trip with my best friend was to be epic. It certainly was and "epic" is not a word I use liberally.

Great brookies and fast catching. It was a great note to see him off with.

The Narrows of Strawberry Reservoir:

High Uinta Golden Trout Hunt:

Got it! Very rare. They are no longer stocked in Utah, for quite a few decades:

Trapped some alien fish, aka fathead minnows:

More Fish Lake Plateau:

Found a wild population of cutts in this pond and the DWR contacted me about it. They didn't know that the fish could survive there.

Family hike to Twin Lakes at Brighton Ski Resort. That was one of my skunks for the year, but I kept the trap full and made out with about 7lbs of minnows. Not a true skunk, I guess.

Some beautiful cutthroat from Lake Creek in Central Utah:

Sixth Water Creek:

Gooseberry Creek (upper then lower):

My first kokanee salmon (Flaming Gorge Reservoir):

The lunch break spots kept me sane throughout the workweek:

Wild raspberries and brookies in the Uintas:

A couple of pretty tigers from Huntington Reservoir:

More lunch break action:

A ragged smile from a Strawberry cutthroat:

And the biggest tiger I've ever been able to land @ 25.5 inches:

Got the wifey into a chubby Colorado River Cutthroat:

More fun in Central Utah:

Starvation Creek:

Price River:

A city park with a creek running through it! People thought I was crazy to fish there. So what if they were right, I still caught fish, muahahahahahahaha!

Nice rainbow from 9 Mile Reservoir. Sonia's biggest fish of the year:

Yes, more lunch break fun:

City park again, found the female:

Slot buster at Strawberry (over 22"):

Lunch:

A buried creek with about 6 feet of exposure! Downstream from the city park about a mile:

Lunch break walleye! Breaking my personal best by 8 inches (26"):

A little spot on Deer Creek Reservoir that is separated from the main lake by a railroad dike:

Some splendid cutts and tigers from a productive lake:

My buddy Keoni at the spot:

He had a great day:

Half-frozen Daniel's Creek. Gorgeous little cutts in there:

Another slot-buster from the Berry:

Dry Creek, Alpine Utah:

Super spawn-colored browns:

Big fall-run rainbows from Starvation Reservoir (Starvation Steelhead, as some have nicknamed them):

More lunch break:

Round 2 with the same walleye from before:

One of two 20 inch rainbows from Deer Creek

Family ice fishing (that's a first) at Millsite Reservoir:

Top of a splake (lake trout X brook trout):

And my last fish of 2011, a 22 inch cutthroat from Strawberry Reservoir TODAY (12-31).

Happy New Year! May your glasses be full and good fortune befall you in 2012!

Wrapping Up 2011

2011-12-29T22:27:00.004-07:00

With the recent holidays, I've been a little bit too busy to post anything, so let's catch up.

Friday the 23rd:

Happy Birthday to me, I'm going fishing! A buddy and his girlfriend took off with me to central Utah. It was their first time really ice fishing, although my friend went a few times as a little boy.

Hoping to bag some big ones at 9 Mile Res, we drilled quite a few holes near the dam and never got a bite. We spent a few hours there and burned most of our daylight before deciding to leave for what we hoped would be easy fishing at Palisade Res.

Right away, I got a few bites and missed them all, minus a small rainbow that got off at the hole after my first drop. The rod only bounced when I'd set it down and walk more than 5 feet away, it seemed. Actively jigging didn't seem to entice any strikes.

Finally, we got a few to stay on and Steve-o got his first couple of fish through the ice.

A short while later, Shannon got one. They both ended up with several fish.

After waiting all day, I finally got my birthday fish.

It's all good though, I had a great time hanging out with them again and it's always nice to get out and fish, no matter how rough it is.

______________________________________________________

Thursday the 29th:

In celebration of the nice time off we've been spending together (no work from 12-23 thru 1-2), I thought I'd try to get us all out for one last family trip of 2011. My hunch was that Millsite Reservoir would still have open water and I tried my best to find out before embarking on the 300 mile day trip.

Calling the state park's phone #, I wasn't able to get a hold of anyone for the past three days, even leaving messages, so I just dug for some recent info. One report stated that two people floated on it as late as the 16th, so I pushed the "Go" button and we were off to find out.

Here's Sonia at the Shell station in Helper, Utah.

After a long drive, we made it to Millsite, only to find a very large, clear sheet of ice covering everything up. At first, it looked like open water, but then a saw some folks walking on it.

Well that's not what I expected to see, but I was glad I brought my auger!

Turns out, I didn't even need the auger. There were plenty of abandoned holes in fishy looking spots that we fished from.

This was their first time on the ice. It was a good 5-6 inches where we were.

The action was pretty fast and we were into fish right away. We fished about 12 feet down in 16 feet of water and that was certainly the zone. Schools would come through and our rods would start jumping. Fun stuff!

We even got the kiddos into it. My daughter, Debbie and son, James were both glad to help us reel in some fish.

It's nice to see Mama holding fish again. I'm amazed I got her out on the ice at all!

We caught mostly rainbows with one cutthroat and a few splake in the mix. Here's one of the splake.

The rainbows were nice and healthy looking. The splake were pretty skinny, as I'm used to them being in Millsite.

They're all fun to catch though. Right, Mama?

Milliste is one of our family destinations where we have a good day, every trip. The area is so gorgeous in all directions that we just can't lose. Sitting right at the edge of where a desert meets the high mountains of the Wasatch Plateau, it's just the gateway to more water up Ferron Canyon and other canyons are nearby.

There are definitely better fish to be had at Millsite, but we needed to stay on thick ice, closer to shore.

Once we'd had our fun at Millsite, we thought the remaining daylight would be well spent next to a creek that I really enjoy fishing.

Heading north toward Orangeville, we got on Hwy 29 and made our way up the canyon. The sunlight was fading fast.

My Blue Fox got several followers, but they were all afraid to commit. It was still nice to see the creek again. Love that place!

So it ended up being a family ice trip and that wasn't what we were hoping for, but we made the best of it and caught a good amount of fish to satisfy us. The kids actually had fun too!

Happy Fishing, Humans.

Ice Fishing Denied / Deer Creek Res

2011-12-17T19:55:00.003-07:00

This week, I had a hunch that a certain spot "on" Deer Creek was frozen and the only way to check was to take a walk with some gear.

When I arrived at the spot, I saw about 90% ice covering the water, 80% of which was safe to walk on. Don't get too excited, it's not on the main lake and we've still got quite awhile before that caps.

So I drilled some holes to find several different levels of thickness. First hole had 1 inch of clear ice. Drilled right next to shore, I didn't trust that at all, even though it was supporting me. Second hole was 3 inches. Perfect. The next two holes were the same.

The deepest water I got over was about 25 feet and I spent a few hours trying my luck all over the area. I even found ice up to almost 5 inches. Sadly though, there was NOTHING going on. For all that time, I got only one bite, which I missed since I was standing a couple of feet away when it hit. Bummer.

Oh well, I had a goal to fish that spot on DC through the ice and I did. Accepting my failure, I decided to try the open water, even though my afternoon luck at DC has always been pretty bad. If worse came to worse, I could try to squeeze out some river fishing.

The first places I stopped to cast were fishless deserts until I finally settled into a good sized bay, where I started hooking into some nubby rainbows.

It was nice to chase off the skunk. Most of them tricked me into thinking they were bigger by the way they fought, so that was fun. 6 of those came to play until I finally stuck a good one.

Right away, I knew I had a bigger fish on and I was delighted to see some fins on this 19 inch rainbow weighing 2lbs, 4oz.

Right after that, I lost my Blue Fox and settled for my Heddon Sonar (gold), which I hoped would work out.

Second cast and BOOM! There was something nice on the line and it wasn't happy! Fighting it in was a riot, complete with aerials, drag peeling runs, and nervous moments near shore before taking off again.

Even though it was only an inch longer than the last one, it was a lot stronger and fought at least three times harder. It was a bit of a surprise that it was only 20 inches, but certainly not disappointing.

That was great and left me really smiling.

So yes, there's a tiny area "at" Deer Creek with fishable ice, but it takes some work to get there and it doesn't seem to have much going on. It's a little over a mile up the lake from the dam, along the parkway trail.

Happy Fishing, Humans.

First Ice, Many Fish

2011-12-10T23:17:00.001-07:00

Under a total lunar eclipse this morning, I set out with fingers crossed, hoping for thick enough ice to fish on at a spot that reportedly just capped this week. Armed with a piece of plywood to stand on (just in case), I was hoping for more than 2 inches to keep me from a watery grave.

The ice bug finally bit me and its poison clouded my thoughts to the extent that I was ready to take the long drive, only hoping that the ice was ready.

When I pulled up to the lake, I was elated to see that it was 95% capped, but a bit uneasy about stepping onto the frozen surface. No holes to be found from previous fish folk, only rocks that had been hurled to check the thickness. It appeared that I would be the first to test the ice fishing this year.

With some hesitation, I took my first step, then another two. No cracking sounds or pings and pangs were heard, so I drilled a test hole and was a bit surprised at how long it took.

Wow, 4 inches already? Granted, this was still pretty close to shore, so I took 30 paces and drilled another. It was slightly thinner, but still very good. New, hard, clear ice to fish from. After another hole, it was game on!

My poles weren't quite ready yet, so I got that all situated while I let the freshly drilled holes "de-spook".

On the ice rod, I rigged a Radical Glow tube with a Nuclear Ant under it. The RG was tipped with a super mealie from the pet store. The NA was left naked. On my second rod (regular spinning rod), I threw on a minnow shaped jig that I got from Wallyworld a year ago and put a minnow on the hook.

First drop with the long rod and a quick hit stole my minnow. When repeated, I met the same results. They were biting quickly and only once. There were many misses before I finally landed one.

The first fish was a 15" rainbow and I slid it back into the hole without a pic. With such fast action at this lake, I was sure to get plenty of photo ops, if warranted. Little did I know that it had been heavily stocked with dinks, just a few weeks before.

I calmed my hands,got the feel for the bite, and finally started hooking about 1/4 of the many bites that came. Tipping with bait wasn't even necessary, so I only tipped when the bite slowed. Just dropping the jig (any jig, big or small) near the bottom, bouncing it around for a few seconds, then pausing was sure to prompt a strike.

Many fish were caught during my stay of a few hours. A conservative guess would be 35+. Most of them looked like this or smaller:

Only a couple were over 15 inches, but I caught those early, when I thought I was going to score big fish all day, so they were released without photo.

But there was one big fish that did hang on to the hook. She really took me for a ride, forcing my rod tip underwater while my reel groaned. A little over 20" and 3lbs, 10oz. Not bad.

She was my third fish on the ice for the day and took an actively jigged pearl CutrBug, no tip.

At around 3:30, I felt the need to check on another water body that was nearby. The light wouldn't last long and I hoped for at least some action there before darkness fell.

Like the first lake, this one also had good clear ice of over 3.5", although there was evidence of previous auger activity there.

First drop was a minnow on a big pearl tube and it never made it to the bottom. The line stopped, but when I lifted, it was a bit heavier than I expected. A 15 inch rainbow had pounced all over it.

After that, it was very slow. My long rod got two series of bites that I missed and a small ratty looking rainbow. Then it got dark and I had to call it a day.

So my first ice trip of the season was a pretty good one. It was great to get out and finally fish some clear ice. Very cool to watch the fish come up. It was even better to see a few of the takes as their silvery sides flashed in and out of view.

Even though I caught a good number of fish, I seriously believe that i missed over 150 bites. All in a day's fun though. It was just a nice day to be out.

Happy Fishing, Humans.

Starvation Smackdown

2011-11-26T07:27:00.001-07:00

Recently, the word got out that the rainbows at Starvation Reservoir were spawning and shallow gravel shorelines were stacked with nice fish. Yes, rainbows usually spawn in the spring, but these have been historically tricked into spawning in the fall, at certain hatcheries. Kinda crazy, I know.

Having never caught a trout from Starvation, I was excited to hear about the easy pickings and went to check it out on Black Friday, instead of contributing to the retail madness.

My arrival was met with a stiff breeze and I was unsure how much fly action I'd be able to get in. The first spot I fished was a sheltered cove, although no trout were visible or biting. It didn't take long for me to realize that I was in the wrong spot and I started walking along the shore, watching for dark masses moving about.

After a march of only about 100 feet, my eyes met several of those dark masses, some of them not even two feet from dry land. Sneaking up on them, I started to cast an olive sculpin pattern. The wind was horrible and I could barely get my fly out 10 feet, if that. Not to mention, aiming my cast was nearly impossible.

Despite my difficulty casting and spooking fish with hard line slaps, I still managed to entice one of the smaller masses to give chase. Half-guessing when the fish took, I lifted the rod and had a connection!

Though it was one of the smaller fish mulling about, it was still a nice catch.

Ah, my first trout from Starvy. It felt nice to shrug that monkey.

A few more attempts at fly casting were made, but the wind was just too much to deal with and out came the Blue Fox, so I could pick on these brutes more effectively.

Bingo!

What a difference that made! She was large and feisty. I never got a tape on her, but I'm positive she was over 20 inches.

Some smaller ones also found my lure while I moved on to another area where I could find some shelter from the wind and hopefully find more active rainbows.

Once I arrived to a nice little bay, the wind was still annoying, but nowhere near as bad as the other spots. One side of the bay was shallow while the other had a steep, rocky shoreline. Though it was the most sheltered from the wind, the rocky shoreline left me wondering where the fish were, so I tried my luck on the shallower end, where many casts were chased by more nice fish.

The action was hot for big fat rainbows and I even got a little bit more fly casting in. It was a blast.

The Blue Fox was working well, never going more than 10 casts without a strike. Some smaller fish also came in, but with the super cold water on my hands, they didn't warrant a photo.

Here's another really good one, this one coming from my favorite sculpin:

The wind was still a factor and I ultimately lost that fly, trying to cast into the breeze. After that, I didn't feel like trying anymore and it was back to casting the Blue Fox.

My day started a bit later than I would have liked and the evening was approaching, so I started moving back toward my car, picking up a couple more rainbows on the way out. Here's the best of those:

On the way back home, I stopped in and fished some moving water for about 10 minutes, catching three browns and seeing a lot more hanging out in an eddy. One of them was huge, but he wasn't interested in my measly Blue Fox. I could only pull in two little dinks and this one:

What a day! Sight fishing for big rainbows all day long, overcoming the tenacious wind, and finally catching some trout from the mighty Starvation Reservoir. It was a great time.

Happy Fishing, Humans.

Dry Creek

2011-11-19T20:13:00.001-07:00

Since Ma Nature seems to only throw tantrums on the weekends lately, that has left me no choice but to fish in the snow. Not wanting to take a long trip this week, I decided it was time to finally fish a local creek that I've overlooked for a long time.

Dry Creek flows above the town of Alpine, which isn't far from where I live, and I've always felt a subconscious tug as I've passed through that area. The tug came from the water that I knew had to exist somewhere around there, since the high peaks immediately to the north collect plenty of snow each year. It has to go somewhere.

Being the map hound that I am, it was somewhat surprising to me that I wasn't aware of exactly where the creek flowed or its name. A few months ago, someone mentioned that I should check out a little creek in Alpine, told me how to get there, and all the dots were finally connected. Dry Creek, eh? Sounds nice.

Well today was a great time to go and check on it and several hours of map study had been donated throughout the week, getting a feel for what I should expect to find. Granite stream bed, steep gradient, brown trout, possible brookies...This was going to be fun.

My first look at the creek had me wondering if I was properly equipped to offer the trout something they would bite.

The pools were there, but they were mostly small. The current was quick to sweep my Blue Fox away from the sweet looking spots and when I could find a good enough pool to drag it through, nothing struck or followed. Spinners would have to sit this game out while the jigs got to play.

How's this for a jigging pool?

That pool was so nice that I also tried my luck with a heavy sculpin pattern on the fly rod. It worked, although it was impossible to get down into the wash, where I wanted it. Luckily, a brown followed it out and took it right where I could see it.

Yeah, I got two fish, but covered a lot of stream before I lucked into them. They were quite focused on their spawning and seemed lethargic to attack my jig or my fly. Something needed to change, so I switched my jig to a Gulp! emerald shiner (soft plastic) on a 1/8th oz jig head.

First cast, blind catch. Perfect! It was nice to be able to cast into the wash, jig a couple of times, and pull in a fish without having to see it take the bait.

Now that I had their attention, the catch rate increased nicely. Most holes that looked fishy ended up with a fish in the hand. I even switched back to the fly rod on occasion, just to see if I could work something out. A couple more fish came from that as well.

It's a beautiful creek with plenty of good pockets.

Here's the biggest fish for the day:

It wasn't a big fish trip, just a good time to satisfy my curiosity about that little nook in the valley that we call Alpine.

The weather ended up cooperating too. It warmed up enough to melt a bunch of the snow, that was covering everything this morning.

Those peaks will be white until July.

Great little canyon. I'll be back next year, although I'll probably do a summer trip so I can hike up to the brookies.

Happy Fishing, Humans.

Daniel's Creek / Strawberry

2011-11-13T13:06:00.001-07:00

This weekend's forecast called for snow, pretty much everywhere around the state. The only proper way to deal with it, I thought, would be to fish through it.

As I left home, the weather in the valley wasn't very bad at all; overcast with visible snowfall in the mountains. Even in Heber, it was hardly sprinkling rain. As I made my way up Daniel's Canyon, it seemed necessary to pull over at a couple of spots on the creek.

Often overlooked by others, Daniel's Creek is a beautiful little stream with rough access through thick brush. Historically, it's had a lot of beaver activity, providing some great ponds to fish for the lovely locals, though most of them were washed out by this year's overwhelming runoff. Wild cutthroat, browns, and sometimes rainbows can be found throughout the canyon.

The first hole I stopped at was fishy, but the crystal clear water and lack of a good spot to fish from alerted the wary residents to my presence. Further up the canyon, I got out to check on some beaver ponds that I hoped survived the spring.

Unfortunately, I found myself wading through shallow runs where grand ponds existed, only a year ago. There were, however, a few small pools remaining and I was able to catch some gorgeous little cutthroat from those.

Much of the water was imprisoned under a shelf of ice, but the open areas were ripe for the picking. Same fish as above, but showing the pool:

It was actually a lot of work to get to the tiny pool where I found most of my catches. A good chunk of time had already slipped away and I had some other water on the brain, so I navigated my way back to the car and cruised over the summit and on to Strawberry Reservoir.

Conditions at Daniel's Summit were snowy, but the road remained wet (rather than frozen) so I continued without incident. The Strawberry Valley was very windy though and the snow was blowing sideways, drifting across the asphalt in several areas.

The lake didn't look very inviting in the sustained winds of 20mph or more. The water was white-capping and large swells were visible from the highway. Visibility was low, but as far out as I could see, the water was brown around the shallower shores.

Knowing I was crazy to even attempt fishing there, I pulled over at a rocky spot on the Soldier Creek side, where the shoreline dropped off quickly to deeper water. On one rod, I rigged a weightless minnow and side-armed it as far out as possible, making sure to keep my rod tip low to minimize the amount of line exposed to the wind (acting as a sail for my bait).

Setting that rod aside, I worked a gold Kastmaster on the other. Surprisingly, the catching was phenomenal for small planter rainbows near the surface. Hooking fish quite often on consecutive casts, I pulled in and released many while hoping for something a little bigger. No need for photos of the dinks, but there were a couple that were more noteworthy:

Still somewhat small, they brought a smile to my face and broke up the monotony of catching 9 inch carbon copies.

Occasionally, I brought my minnow in with a twitch/pause retrieve and tossed out again, hoping for a bruiser to take notice. While my attention was on casting my lure, something had grabbed my minnow and was taking quite a bit of line when I realized what had happened.

Picking up the rod and closing the bale, I allowed the line to tighten until I could feel the resistance of the fish on the other end. Once I felt it, I jerked back firmly to set the hook and the battle began. Immediately, I knew the fish was a good one and from the drag it was taking, I figured it was a rainbow. The cutthroat in the Berry aren't known for a good fight until they hit the net or touch your hand, so it was a bit of a surprise to see a large cutthroat, once I got it close enough to view.

I knew right away that it was over the slot and it appeared to have some girth as well. It actually took me awhile to get it into my hand, as the typical shoreline frenzy ensued and resulted in several more strong runs to deeper water. It was a delight to finally get it on the rocks, a quick tape, then onto the chain.

Nice fish! It measured a little over 23 inches and weighed 3lbs, 9oz. It's hard to beat the taste of a good sized cutthroat from Strawberry, so I was thrilled to get myself another slot buster for the oven.

So the fishing was faced-paced in the cold wind and it was one of my most productive days at the Berry, as far as quantity. My stay was rather short and I took note of the bad weather getting even worse. It was time to go while the roads were still passable for my little Sentra.

The ride home was pretty treacherous and I was on high alert for the other vehicles on the road. Just as I started climbing the hill to the summit, the previously wet road had turned to ice with slushy snow and I was nervous for the people in the Rodeo that passed me. Just a couple of minutes later, they attempted to pass another vehicle and spun out of control into the oncoming lane, where another SUV had to swerve to avoid hitting them, resulting in their own spin-out, off the road.

Of course, I saw all of this coming, so I had already pulled over and turned my hazards on. Had I kept going, I surely would've been hit at high speed by the oncoming SUV. Each vehicle stayed on its wheels and I had no way of towing the other vehicle back onto the roadway, so I got going.

Just a few minutes after that, after cresting the summit, a tanker (fuel) hauling doubles was having a hard time keeping his load in tow. The rear tank slid into the oncoming lane three times before the driver regained control and pulled over.

It was nerve-racking. Making out of the canyon was a big relief. Hopefully other people using the road were cautious because the highway was hungry for some wreckage last night.

Happy Fishing, Humans.

Big Tiger Trout / Fat Cutthroat

2011-11-05T15:57:00.000-06:00

Originally planning to head south for pig brookies, my buddy Keoni and I made a wise decision to avoid the big storm forecast for that area. Instead of trying to jig and fly fish in gusting winds and snow at a small pond, we ultimately chose to go and hassle some test tube babies and beautiful cutthroat at another lake with a better weather outlook.

Arriving very early, we were the first people at the lake. The air was very cold and frost covered the ground. Ice had formed at the inlet and extended out about thirty feet. The float tubes would remain in the car, we decided.

Not wasting any time, we got busy throwing hardware in the shallows near the outflow, but couldn't get anything to strike. A second vehicle motored in and parked at a spot near mid-lake when we thought it best to relocate near the inlet. It was a good move.

Right away, I picked up several healthy cutthroat on the Blue Fox.

They're really putting on weight, these days. That last one was the smallest fish of the day for me. I'm used to catching much smaller cutts from the lake.

It was too shallow and weedy for Keoni to work his Lucky Craft, so he moved to an area with a better drop off, where many fish were visible and cruising close to shore.

Joining Keoni, the cruisers weren't cooperating with either of us and I chose to make my way down the shore to my favorite hump, where I'd previously had a lot of success for big tiger trout.

The tigers didn't want to bite anything for quite awhile, but many were cruising by in groups of up to four at a time. The smallest tiger I saw was likely about 18" and many were substantially larger.

Finally, I got one to bite a J-11 Rapala (firetiger pattern) that I had found on the shoreline of Deer Creek, the week before.

Not bad. Not the biggest one in the lake, but it gave a good tug and filled up my hand nicely.

The other fish in the area would only give chase without striking, so I switched to the fly rod and did some sight fishing.

Dropping a tiny black chironomid below a killer caddis, I was able to get another female of similar size and a brightly colored male before my lucky 'mid broke.

Once my productive fly broke in half, I sifted through my fly box in search of another. Sadly, my supply of those was exhausted and nothing else I had seemed to work.

Meanwhile up the shoreline, Dr. Kauwe was putting on a clinic (Keoni's a professor at BYU):

Nice fish! Looks like it's been caught a few times already with that crooked smile.

He had been catching quite a few fish while I was away, so I missed a lot of photo ops. Apparently, his largest catch was even bigger than the last one pictured. He had a very good day and caught his personal best tigers, twice over.

The rest of my time at the lake was a frustrating bout of rejection with the picky tigers. Bouncing flies off their snouts couldn't even provoke a reaction. It was rough and my bugs weren't doing the trick.

Finally, I switched back to the trusty Blue Fox and picked up one last cutthroat before we took off.

It was a great day and we were both glad to have avoided the awful weather we initially planned to endure at the brookie pond. Thanks to Keoni for the good company on another excellent adventure in Utah.

Happy Fishing, Humans.

Pluggin' Perch @ Deer Creek

2011-10-30T23:42:00.000-06:00

Needing to stay close to home this week, I thought Deer Creek deserved a day trip. Given my sour history on soft water at DC, my hopes were that the colder weather may have turned on the trout and that I could actually catch some without fishing through the ice.

Arriving early, I took a long walk along the trail and stopped to cast some lures at one bay, where I lost my only size 2 Blue Fox (Doh!) and didn't get any bites.

Now casting a size 3 Blue Fox (rainbow pattern), I kept making my way along the shoreline until I reached a spot that just looked fishy. It was a good hump that protruded out a little farther than the surrounding straight, steep shoreline in both directions.

It didn't take too long and I had a hard hit and an impressive battle with a sturdy female rainbow. She was dropping eggs at the lightest touch and I'm not big on eating "hollow" trout, so I let her go. Nice fish though and my biggest from the soft water at DC to date.

(I should explain: The rainbows from one hatchery in Utah have been tricked into spawning in the fall and Deer Creek Reservoir is stocked with some of those, as well as normal rainbows. There's a spring run and a fall run in certain Utah waters. Crazy, huh?)

Over the next half hour, I pulled in a couple more and lost some, all about this size:

After that, the bite died down and I walked a bit more before settling into a nice little spot that showed promise.

The water was calm and the air was cool. My first cast in the new spot had a couple of bumps and I was able to see a small flash behind my lure on the retrieve. The next cast got a solid hookup with something I haven't seen much of at Deer Creek for awhile:

A slightly smaller one followed after a few more casts with bumps. Figuring that I was in the middle of a good school of them and not having any more luck with the large hooks on the lure I was using, I switched through all sorts of tackle in hopes of getting more of the feisty perch for a good fish fry.

Nothing seemed to work, not even worms, so I tied the Heddon Sonar lure back on (first day trying this) and continued to get follows without hookups. Finally, I turned to the fly rod and worked a black sculpin pattern. Many hits were missed, as the perch would only take quick nips at it, but every once in awhile I connected.

Perch on the fly! That's a new one for me and it was actually a lot of fun. I missed so many bites, but ended up catching quite a few of them in that spot before it died down. It was a little surprising to find them so shallow in that spot. The smaller ones were released while the biggest hit the chain.

One ratty planter rainbow came to play as well and it was released. I had already made my decision to eat perch for dinner last night.

Now I know I've talked plenty of smack on "stupid perch", calling them "bait thieves" and whatnot, but truth be told, they were biting and the trout in DC were currently in a spawn, so the chance of getting a mushy or hollow fish was high. Not my favorite thing to eat, so seeing the perch on my line was quite welcome. Plus, catching anything on a fly rod is a good time.

One peculiar thing I noticed while at that spot was a dark mass in a shallow area, just a few feet off the shoreline. At first I didn't think much of it, but it seemed to change shape, which prompted me to have a closer look. Visibility wasn't great and I wasn't able get a really good look, but the mass turned out to be a tight school of little black fish.

They scattered when I got too close and a few of them swam right in front of me, where I got a much better visual. I can't say for certain, but my best guess is that they were fingerling catfish! Square heads, a very clumsy wobble to their swim action, and black. They were probably 1.5 - 2 inches in length and looked just like the groups of baby cats I'd witnessed on the Jordan River a few years back. Seeing them in DC was a bit unexpected, although I had heard of them being in there in the past. Crazy!

As mentioned, that bite died and there was still room on my stringer for more fish. I moved one more time to another area and starting working it over. Nothing I did seemed to do the trick, so I decided to throw on a worm and a full water bubble, throw it out as far as I could, and just kick back while it sank to the bottom. If something bit, great. If not, no biggie. I already had a couple of perch and that would be a good snack.

Having the bale closed on my reel allowed me to see when the bubble hit the bottom, as the taught line would go slack. To my surprise, there was movement and that slack line went tight again within moments.

Picking up my rod, I started cranking and reeled in yet another perch! Looks like I just had the perch mojo yesterday. Those perch were really deep, so their swim bladders were fully inflated upon retrieval. They were pretty decent in size too, although not quite as large as the ones I got on the fly earlier.

Liking the way that rig was working, I set up my second rod with the same and threw it out only about half as far as I had been, just to see what might happen.

It didn't happen quickly, but after about 10 minutes, something messed with my line and it felt bigger than the perch I had been catching. Bigger it was and I was happy to see a largemouth bass thrashing about. It wasn't a big one, only about 10 inches, but it was round and angry. Sadly, it escaped while I was getting my camera out. Oh well. It would've been released anyway.

Dropping my next cast on that rod to the same general area, another wait ensued and I pulled up something I was used to seeing at DC, the dink smallmouth.

The wind picked up and the sun got closer to the horizon. I took my cue to leave and embarked on the long walk back to my car, perch in hand.

Not a bad haul for the day's efforts, especially since I let most of them go from the shallow spot that I first found them in.

All in all, it was a good day and it's nice to know that I've got Deer Creek within 15 miles of my house and it's not as bad of a place as I've made it out to be in the past.

The Heber Valley Railroad rumbled by me three times throughout the day and I had to make sure to take a couple of pics for my boy, who is absolutely crazy about trains.

I got home at a quarter after seven and pleasantly surprised my wife with some white-fleshed bounty for dinner. Very tasty and pretty easy to fillet too!

Happy Fishing, Humans.

Walleye!

2011-10-27T12:01:00.005-06:00

Well the lunch break spots have still been kicking out fish here and there. Most have been either white bass or smaller browns. Awhile back, I hooked into a big walleye that I was unable to get out of its spot before my line rubbed the grill of the culvert enough to break.

I've been pretty determined to get it ever since and many a lunch break has been spent looking like a weirdo on the side of a road, fishing a "ditch".

As the days came and went, I encountered some carp and some browns and even a bluegill, but started to wonder if the walleye was still around. I know that it still had my hook, so I hoped it didn't die.

A few days ago, I picked up a bolt in my tire while on lunch break and had to take it to the tire shop for some warranty work. While waiting for that to get wrapped up, my curiosity led me to explore an area where I thought some water should be. I knew a small creek in the area that went underground about a half mile upstream from there and figured it might see some open water somewhere in the vicinity.

Well, I laughed when I saw it, but I found a small hole in the ground where the creek was exposed. It was probably only 6 feet long at most, but it was a hole, nonetheless.

I laughed even harder when I actually pulled a small rainbow out of it!

It was definitely a stocked rainbow that had swum down from another spot upstream. Catching that was pretty neat, I thought. It's still in there, so maybe I'll give it some time and hopefully the hole doesn't get buried anytime soon.

All that has been fun, but I still hadn't seen my walleye again and my quick stops on lunch and after work had started to become an obsession to land it. Fearing for my mental well being and wasting way too much time on the side of that road, I was relieved to finally get my walleye and put that obsession to bed.

Targeting walleye is something I've never done and all of my previous 'eyes were by chance. Most were between 8-12 inches with a couple going 14 and my former best at a solid 18 from Willard Bay.

Well today I beat that personal best by 8" with this 26 inch lunker that weighed 4lbs.

Darn water spots!

What a head on it! Kinda skinny I thought, but definitely not the standard size that I'm used to seeing.

After weighing it and marking my rod at its length, I revived it in the stream for a couple of minutes until it was kicking its tail every couple of seconds. It's back at home and I even got a chance to extract my old hook from its mouth before saying goodbye.

Persistence really pays off sometimes. I'm just glad I can be done with the obsession. Onto the next one!

Happy Fishing, Humans.

Family Day at Currant Creek

2011-10-25T14:51:00.004-06:00

My family and I got out this weekend to poke around the Currant Creek area. It was a pretty good trip and both Sonia and I caught fish, which makes it a success.

Using the Co-Op Creek route (gates closing Nov.1), we dropped down into the valley and my little lady was kind enough to let me have some fun on the beaver ponds before we got to the lake. The scrappy little cutthroat were more than cooperative.

Our first stop at the lake was at the north end, where we watched thousands of whitefish make their annual run to the inlets. Hoping to find some trout in the mix, we fished the immediate area for about an hour without a bite. It seemed time to find another part of the lake to fish.

We drove around to the dam, only to find a stiff breeze blowing directly toward it. This foiled my plans to get in a float on my tube, and it didn't seem conducive to a good time for my family either. Back the way we came and a little farther toward the campground, we settled into a fishy looking bay and got busy.

Happily, we found the trout and they were quick to take a spinner or a minnow. Whenever I hooked one, I let my boy reel it in for me and that kept him in good spirits, despite the chilly wind.

Momma got herself a few fish and that made everyone happy.

A couple that James and I caught:

The catching was pretty good for awhile and many smaller fish were released. There was a bigger fish that felt pretty good, but it slipped away before I could pull it in. Probably a good tiger, but we'll never know for certain.

Before we knew it, the sun crept behind the hill we were by and the wind got a bit colder. It was time to move along.

Of course, on the way down (we took the mostly-paved route back), the beaver ponds on the lower creek were too much to drive by and I just had to check on them.

As nice as they looked, most were rather shallow; on the rebuilding stage after this year's blowout spring runoff. Finding a decent hole was tricky and it was frustrating to cast into what looked to be a perfect pool, only to reel in some weeds.

Finally, I found a good run between ponds and missed a couple of bites before connecting with a surprising catch for the creek:

It isn't hard to believe that a few tigers could have washed down the spillway this year. A little brown also made my acquaintance and we hit the road.

The fishing was really good on the creeks above the lake. The lake was alright, although I really wish I could've seen the bigger one. The creek below showed promise and we all had a great time spending the day together.

Happy Fishing, Humans.

Autumn Action @ Strawberry

2011-10-16T12:51:00.003-06:00

Awhile back, one of the local forum members had sent out an invite to myself and two other members to meet up and fish Strawberry Reservoir from his boat. This was something I had never done and I also had never actually met Keoni, even though we've spoken for about three years. His brother, Keala and I have fished together a few times though.

The plan was to have everyone meet at the parking lot at the mouth of Provo Canyon at 4:00am to get an early start on the morning bite. Everyone was on time and we were on the water by 5:15 in the dark.

Despite our early arrival, the fish hadn't become active yet. We didn't get any action until the sun had risen.

Scott was the first to score and had a couple others before anyone did. They were in the slot (between 15-22 inches - mandatory release - cutthroat only) and released before I could snap a pic.

Brandon got a pretty good one in the slot:

Keoni with his first catch (Scott - background):

Keoni's friend, Jordan, who showed up later on his tube. Another slot cutt:

My first catch of the day (slot):

Keoni with a skinny one:

Jordan got quite a few while kicking around, including a chubby rainbow that we was happy to take home. Keoni followed suit with his own fat bow:

Brandon with another slotty:

The catching continued throughout our time on the Berry, but taking photos seemed less important due to the catches all being slot cutts between 19-21 inches. We headed back to the dock to drop Scott off, who had some commitments to attend to. It's sad to have to go while the catching is good.

We motored out again and found another good school to anchor over. More cutts came to hand and back to grow larger.

Finally, I got a break. While tending to my minnow rod, I sat my jigging rod down, but noticed a strange bounce to the tip that couldn't be attributed to waves or any wakes from passing boaters. Out of curiosity, I picked it up and it flexed downward for a throbbing fight to the surface.

It had inhaled my jig all the way into its gill rakes and was bleeding heavily, so I hoped it made the mark, which it appeared to before measurement. Confirming this with the tape, it stretched out to 22.5 inches and I was relieved that first, I got a slot buster, and secondly, I didn't have to release a doomed fish.

This would end up being the only one over the slot for the day, but we really did pretty well, overall. Having the advantage of a boat on the Berry was great and I've never caught so many nice fish there in one outing. Very fun!

After some more catching, we decided to get off the lake and do some stream fishing. I knew a good one within our range and we spent about an hour working whatever holes we could find. Having three guys on this small creek was interesting, but we made it work and all took turns working the next hole up.

We weren't expecting to catch anything with size, just some pretty cutthroat and maybe some browns and rainbows.

The first catch came on my Blue Fox from a really nice looking hole under a spill. Gorgeous cutthroat!

Immediately after my catch, Keoni tried his luck in the same hole with a black marabou jig he tied. What a surprise to see this beautiful brown dart out from under some roots to snatch it up! Great catch for this creek:

Another look:

Brandon got a cutthroat after we'd marched upstream a few stretches:

Another look:

The next cutt to hand was really nice looking. Nothing beats catching good looking fish like these on tiny mountain streams!

One more and we called it quits for the creek. Brandon had somewhere to be and we'd had plenty of fun for the day.

We got back to the mouth of Provo Canyon and bid each other farewell. It was a really good trip and I enjoyed the company of some really good guys. Keoni and I will likely get out in another couple of weeks to spank some brookies before winter locks them away for a few months.

With my house being just a short drive from our meeting place, and so much sunlight left for the day, I couldn't resist trying my luck on the raging Provo River.

Just casting my spinners I got 5 browns, all within 100 feet of each other. This was a good note to end the day on and I took my cue.

What a day! Thanks to Keoni for extending his invitation to me and thanks to Brandon and Scott for providing good company.

Happy Fishing, Humans.

Family Fish Hunt

2011-10-08T22:23:00.001-06:00

Today was a family day and our hopes were to get into some nice rainbows and maybe some tigers. Really, my goal was to help my wife catch a decent fish. It's been awhile since she felt a good tug, so that was the real objective of the trip.

Of course, catching something nice for myself is always welcome too!

In our typical family fashion, we got a much later start than we should have. It wasn't a big deal because we still arrived to find "our spot" barren of other anglers, which we thought was miraculous. There aren't a lot of shoreline options available for this particular lake and real estate tends to go pretty quickly on most Saturdays.

As lucky as we were, it was cold with a light drizzle mixed in to make for some slightly uncomfortable fishing. We both threw minnows to start, as they tend to attract the larger fish. Within the first 20 minutes, I got a good hit while keeping my bait from touching the weedy bottom, but I was too slow to release the bale and my would-be victim escaped with some new wisdom. Sonia's rod had a few takers, but they were afraid to commit and kept dropping the bait within a few seconds.

When we fish with minnows (Utah requires minnows to be dead), we toss them out and allow the fish to take the minnow and swim away with it for a short while (swallowing the bait), then set the tiny treble hook deep inside. When we use minnows, we're looking to take some fish home. It's not a good practice for catch and release.

The action was slow, so I decided to hop across the road and fish the small pond that forms against the highway, where an inlet is piped to the lake. It's usually filled with small tigers and rainbows, but they're fun to catch and can help to boost my confidence a little bit. A 12 inch tiger trout paid me a short visit and I was off to fish the lake again.

When I got back across the road, I noticed that Sonia had a pretty good fish flopping around on the rocks. It wasn't huge, but a 2lb rainbow never comes with a frown and I was glad to see that she wouldn't be skunked today. Nice catch!

Things were still dead on my end though. I tried switching tactics and got a couple of bumps on my favorite spinner, but couldn't seal the deal on anything. Meanwhile, Sonia kept getting takes, but had difficulty getting anything to stay on the line. One of the fish was a really good one that came to the surface to show us how nice it was before breaking free. What a shame! It was easily over 20" and would've been Sonia's biggest rainbow to date.

Eventually, she got one to hang on and reeled in a smaller rainbow of about 14 inches.

It was a bleeder, so it kept the other one company on the chain while we continued our hunt for bigger game.

Some time later with very little action but plenty of cold wind, my wife and kids sought shelter in the car while I fished on.

The cold wasn't really that bad, but the fish were giving me fits. They'd grab my minnow and take off with it, but there must have been some sort of fixed structure that they kept getting my line wrapped up in because every time I got a taker, I ended up snagged and had to break off. No bueno.

One fish was a hog. As it was wrapping me up on the snag, it must have also alerted itself that it was about to be hooked and went into panic mode, launching itself above the water. This was my mood killer. It would have been my all time largest rainbow. It's hard to guess from 20 feet away or so, but I'm positive it was more than 23 inches. Best guess would be around 25. What a pity.

Time ticked on and several similar scenarios unfolded, though I never got a good look at the other fish. I finally landed a 14 inch tiger trout that was fortunately lip-hooked, so it was quickly released. It was nice to break up the monotony, at least and bring something in.

The rest of my troop was starting to get restless and I knew we would need to leave soon. Realizing this, I switched back to my Blue Fox to get some last-ditch casting in.

Someone must have rung the dinner bell because it was feeding time and the flavor of the day was brass! In a short amount of time, I caught six more rainbows. None of them were very big, but a couple were over 15 inches and they were kept for fillet practice.

If I could have, I would've kept casting to take full advantage of that evening bite, but I knew I was in dangerous territory and it wasn't fair to keep my family waiting much longer.

That being said, once I got back to the car and loaded up the fish, I still took another 5 minutes to go and toss the spinner in the little pond across the road.

With an unobstructed pipe flowing under the road, between the pond and the reservoir, fish come and go as they please. This means that the fish I saw earlier could have moved on and other fish may have moved in. That's exactly what had happened, actually.

A couple of pretty nice fish (maybe 17, 18 inches) were visible and my intention was to place my first cast about 6 feet past the biggest and drag my lure past its nose. Well, that wasn't what happened for some reason and my cast was about 10 feet off the mark, putting my lure within striking distance of a bunch of dinks instead of my target.

Lo and behold, I got an immediate reaction from a tiny fish, but it turned out to be an interesting catch.

This was a cutthroat from a system where only tiger trout and rainbows had been stocked in recent times, making it a wild catch and also confirming my suspicions that cutthroat did, in fact, exist there.

Awhile back, I took my first peek at the pond and saw a pig of what looked to be a cutthroat in there, though it wouldn't take anything I threw at it. Now, I have more reason to trust my gut on that one.

After the little cutt, I still managed to trick one more fish into biting before spooking the rest of the pond. It was a 14 inch rainbow that was released.

I returned to the car and got us rolling toward home. To make up for my compulsive pond fishing, the kids were treated to some form-pressed chicken foam (nuggets) at the nearest Mickey D's and some time in the playground there.

We returned home well after dark (not that late anymore) and kissed another Saturday goodbye with a new twist on an old quote playing through our minds:

Better to have fished and lost, than never to have fished at all.

Happy Fishing, Humans.

October - So Far, So Good!

2011-10-02T22:11:00.000-06:00

This Saturday, I had plans to go and fish a river that I've had my eye on for over 13 years but never fished. While running packages as a courier for Airborne Express, I used to drive by the White River daily and the holes looked so good that even I, the reckless, non-fishing 18 year old at the time, wanted to test them out.

That never came to fruition, even though I've driven by the river countless times since, while on the way to other water bodies.

Knowing that the stretch of river I was most familiar with was all wrapped up in private land, I hounded the maps for what looked like fishable areas on public soil. After much research, my course was plotted with a solid destination.

Of course, it seemed necessary to pull over several times to fish some of the water passed along the route. Though I've fished Soldier Creek plenty of times, I had never tried the lower stretches, like this one in the "Red Narrows" area of Spanish Fork Canyon.

After burning over an hour in that stretch and only a missed bite to show for it, I hoped that wasn't a foreshadowing of what was ahead of me. Luckily, I stopped at one of the usual spots and picked up a couple of quick catches, further up the road.

The little cutthroat and occasional browns are never very big, but they're still fun to catch and there's very little pressure on the creek.

A few miles further along my route, I thought I'd check on Clear Creek, a tiny stream flowing into Soldier Creek that flows next to the north end of Skyline Drive. In the past, I've caught some beautiful little cutthroat in very unlikely spots on this creek.

This time around, the fish weren't holding where I hoped they would, but I found quite a few in a pool on the downstream side of the highway and messed with them for a few minutes.

Just a couple hundred yards from there, another creek flows into Soldier Creek and I had never taken the time to check into that, despite much temptation. Today seemed like the perfect time to give into that urge and I found myself at the confluence of Starvation Creek (top) and Soldier Creek (left).

It was at that hole where I was really caught off guard. After catching a small cutthroat and having another swipe and miss, I tossed a perfect cast right into the seam where the waters met. I allowed the spinner to sink for a half-second, then cranked slowly and smoothly until my rod doubled over and the water exploded.

A beastly brown was hooked and a violent battle ensued. Finally, I was able to bring in this unexpected treat:

The fins looked a little chewed up and I thought it may have been from navigating the shallow channels of Starvation Creek and possibly from spawning activities. What a catch! I hope to meet that brown again in the future.

Having just seen the big brown, I wondered what other tricks this area had up its sleeve and continued up Starvation Creek a little further. Most of the creek looked pretty difficult to fish, being so shallow and heavily weeded, but I was able to find a pretty good hole and got into a couple more browns.

Not a bad little spot. The bigger one was tucked away under those roots (top right).

So before I even arrived at my destination, I was feeling pretty good about the day's events, having caught a good number of fish and a really nice brown for the size of water I was fishing. There was still another surprisingly large fish that would show itself before I got on with the drive.

Another one I hope to meet again someday.

The hillsides are really popping with the "autumn bloom". It's dazzling, but signifies that it won't be too long until I'll need to bundle up and carry an auger around. Ugh.

Finally arriving to what I thought was my destination, I came upon a foreboding sign that made my heart sink.

Not knowing quite how to interpret this sign, I didn't fish the river and I left, disgusted. The disgusting part is that our public resources have gone into stocking this river with fish, but the public isn't allowed to access most of this water, as far as I can tell. A sour taste filled my mouth as I moved on.

Now with an open agenda, my mind shuffled through the nearby fishing options. Scofield Reservoir was close, but the fishing there has taken a serious dive over the past couple of years and it didn't seem too appetizing.

After a bit of thought, I figured that my moving water mojo was working pretty well for me so far and that I should keep that flow alive. The Price River would be my next stop.

Having never really fished this river, my hopes were up in the air. I had paid attention to the stocking records over the years and knew that my possible catches were plentiful. Browns, tigers, cutts, and rainbows could all be in the river, either from stocking or washing out of Scofield, then downstream.

My first stop was near a bridge (I love fishing around bridges - fish love bridges) and my first cast painted a broad smile on my face as I latched onto a thug tiger trout of 21 inches!

This broke my personal record for tigers on moving water, so I was pretty pleased. It also made this the third week in a row that I'd caught something over 20 inches and that's a nice bonus too.

Tons of fun and a terrific fight. My luck at bridges has always been pretty good. It seems like there's always a good fish or two that will hang out under a bridge. Speaking of which, here's bridge fish #2:

What color on that brown! Its belly was black, which isn't something I see everyday. I guess the black on its belly was making up for the lack of black in its speckles. Another satisfying catch for the day.

The river provided plenty more entertainment with smaller browns and a couple of cutthroat, none of which were very noteworthy but still fun to catch. I wasn't sure I could have topped what had already happened anyway, although I did have something on for a few seconds that pulled like it may have been a real hog.

Once again, I was beaming as I drove home from yet another excellent day of fishing in Utah.

_______________________________________

SUNDAY:

As if Saturday wasn't good enough, there was one more treasure to be had today.

I promised my kids a trip to the park today and had recently found a local spot with a tiny creek running through it. After running some other errands, we stopped by for about an hour and while the kids enjoyed the playground, I took advantage of the wet stuff.

Would you know it, a well-placed Blue Fox provided me with one of the prettiest rainbows I've ever had the pleasure of holding! The photos don't do the colors justice, but this wild hog was practically glowing with deep reds and purples, as well as gold. Just amazing, especially considering where it came from.

It gave me an excellent battle too. Jumping high above the surface on a creek that was only about 8-12 inches deep and only two feet wide, it was a real thrill ride fighting it to hand. Unbelievable.

It seems to me that the community surrounding this park is oblivious to the treasure flowing through many of their back yards. Had they known otherwise, I seriously doubt I would have met this hog. This next shot really captured the girth of this porker.

I'll be back to see if I can find this guy again. He swam off forcefully after I held him in the current for a moment.

I'm beside myself with this catch and the incredible fishing of yesterday. What a way to start October!

Happy Fishing, Humans.

Big Tiger Trout

2011-09-25T14:21:00.003-06:00

Yesterday, my wonderful Mother was kind enough to watch the kids for us all day so my wife, Sonia, and I could go fishing together. This meant that Sonia could actually focus on fishing instead of being distracted by our little ones. We missed our kids, but it was really nice to have a peaceful "date" type of fishing trip.

Because of our rare opportunity, I decided that it would be a good day for her to try for a hog at one of my big fish spots. We enjoyed the morning drive and it was neat to see the fog on Strawberry as we drove by.

The Soldier Creek turnoff was pretty thick with it.

Pretty cool to see that.

We eventually made it to our lake and got to work, casting anything and everything at the fish, who seemed to taunt us for hours. At times, we could see up to 5 large fish swim into view in front of us. Many of them would follow only to snub the offering at the last moment.

It was frustrating. We couldn't get them interested with any of the usual gear and nothing else was working either. At that point, I decided to get jiggy with an extra rod and tied on a 1/16oz olive marabou with a black body. To the hook shank, I tied on a green killer caddis dropper.

Same story, chasers and sniffs, but no commitment. That rod was set aside while I got back to casting spinners of all colors. It wasn't until I threw the orange/brass Blue Fox that I was able to hook into something. It was a medium sized cutthroat. Nice to catch, but not what we were there for and nothing like the brutes circling around at our feet from time to time.

Back that one went and I wasn't able to get any more action from that color. Switching through all types of gear, I finally looked back to my jig/fly setup, which seemed like it was the best option for getting something down to where I knew the fish were and it was small enough that it likely wouldn't spook them off.

Just a few casts later and a big one hit it on the drop. I'm lucky to have noticed the line move differently with the breeze blowing, but I set the hook and the tug was on.

This happened on my reserve rod and my faith in the crummy reel and older line was low. It was a nervous battle for me and it was great to get it in. The shoreline was loose and footing was bad everywhere, so it was difficult to find a place to beach the fish.

Even when it was in my hand, it hadn't quite struck me how big it was and I was underestimating it at 22 or 23 inches. Turns out, this tiger was 25.5" and 4lbs, 10oz! A new personal best tiger (length)!

Big Tiger Trout

It had one bad eye and wore a mean grimace. This fish had seen some battles before I came around. It wasn't the prettiest specimen we'd seen, but really made the trip worthwhile.

Big Tiger Trout

A definite handful.

Big Tiger Trout

As soon as I the hook out, I handed Sonia the rod and told her to get busy. I had a goal of getting her into something big and I really wanted to see it happen.

On her second cast, she hooked a round-bellied cutthroat, chasing off the skunk, but it wasn't the pig she was after. Still a nice catch though and she did it using something she usually didn't on a tough lake to fish. That was something for her to be proud of.

We tried for another couple of hours before taking off to try another fishing hole. The high desert scenery was appreciated as we rolled along.

We eventually arrived at Starvation Reservoir, where we fished a short while in the shadow of the bridge. My first cast with that same jig/fly combo produced a 6 inch smallmouth and then Sonia did the same. It was slow fishing after the two bass and we called it quits for the day. We were missing our children and it was time to go.

Though the fishing was rather stagnant throughout the day, we still enjoyed the trip for just the two of us. It's nice to experience a day together every once in awhile. It's sad that Sonia couldn't hook a monster, but she was content and that makes me happy.

Happy Fishing, Humans.

Strawberry from Shore

2011-09-20T07:04:00.000-06:00

This week, the cooling trend of late had me wondering about Strawberry Reservoir. The trout are known to stay in deeper water while the summer sizzles, but they really hug the shorelines in the fall. Needing a trip within an hour or so from home, it fit the bill nicely and I was off.

Normally from shore at Strawberry, the action is slow, yielding only one or two fish per hour, if that. A few times in the past, I've been able to find a good school and follow it while catching a handful of dinks, but my usual Berry experience is full of casting, waiting, casting, and more casting with an occasional fish coming in.

The fish are usually pretty long and it's almost a sure thing to get into some 20+ inch cutthroat, but to find the slot buster (over 22" / slot = 15-22") is not as common for the bank tangler.

This trip would be slightly more productive than most others, in terms of catching quantity, but I failed to find a slot buster this time out. A couple of fish came close, but it just wasn't meant to be. Still a fun day though.

Here are some pics:

This snake was my longest fish of the day. 21.5", but skinny and kind of roughed up. A good percentage of these fish have been caught before.

My first stop was the bay just north of Pine Hollow. Parking on top and hiking down to the rocky areas, it wasn't long until some fish were thrashing on the end of my line. Plenty of structure to work around here.

My second stop was the cliff area near the dam. I found some fish there too.

This one went over 20", but it wouldn't stretch out to the mark on my rod.

These Bear Lake (strain) Cutthroat have some teeth. I've cut my finger many times while handling them.

So it wasn't a spectacular day, but I have to say that I'm pretty satisfied with the catching, as compared to most outings I have at the Berry. The fish are pretty close to shore right now and fishing points is a sure way to find schools passing through.

Happy Fishing, Humans.

Huntington Tigers and Lunch Break Browns

2011-09-13T23:10:00.000-06:00

It's been a pretty good week for fishing. The lunch break spots have been treating me right on most visits and I even got a chance to visit with a really good friend, whom I hadn't seen for a couple of years.

Lunch Break:

While I wait for the next weekend to arrive, the only way my fishing itch can be scratched is by fishing the remains of a farm creek that flows near my place of employment. To be honest, I can't say that I know its name, but its murky waters hold some great browns, an occasional rainbow, and a slew of non salmonid species.

Here are a few pics from the last week:

Weekend Trip:

When the weekend finally came, my plans of going solo had happily been altered so that I could fish with an old friend of mine (Steve), and his girlfriend. Neither of them had been fishing much and I knew I could help them out, at least by showing them some great country.

We departed and set our course for the Energy Loop area, near the tops of Fairview and Huntington Canyons. Our first stop was Huntington Reservoir, where I hoped to get these two into some feisty tiger trout.

Shannon, Steve's girlfriend, was the first of us to score and a 14 inch tiger got the shore tap.

My first catch came shortly after, but after releasing it, I realized that I'd failed to grab a photo. It wasn't much to brag about, but all tigers exhibiting male characteristics are fun to look at.

Speaking of which, my next one was actually pretty nice for this lake's average:

So was his buddy.

They really get colored up in the fall as their bodies undergo a false spawn.

Here, Steve does the dirty work for another of Shannon's catches: She ended up catching three, I believe, and poor Stevo got the skunk.

They were both pleased to see this pretty little fold of Utah's many landscapes though.

At over 9,000ft, it's a great place to spend some hours.

Wanting Steve to get something going for himself, I thought the next best option would be the dam at Electric Lake, just down the road. We'd spent so much time at Huntington that I was somewhat worried that we would run out of daylight. There was also a pretty good storm brewing and it looked like we would get wet.

Wet, we got. Just as it started to sprinkle, Steve said, "Okay, now I'm going to catch a fish". Just like that, he caught a pretty male cutthroat that put up a good fight, giving him something to smile about.

Good job, Steve.

Right after that, it really started pouring for a few minutes, then trickled off to a gentle sprinkle again.

It was kind of neat to be able to watch a sunset while getting lightly rained on. Personally, I thought the cold rain felt good.

We thought it fitting that Steve was the only one of us to catch at Electric, since he'd been skunked at our last spot. The remaining daylight faded quickly and we took our cue to leave, all of us satisfied with a great day together. We vowed to do it again soon.

Bonus Lunch Break:

As usual, the beginning of the work week initiated my yearning for the weekend to come. The only cure for this, of course, is more lunch break brown fishing!

Monday provided a couple of small scrappers and a foul-hooked carp that slipped away, but I had once again left my camera at home.

The camera came with me today and I was glad to bring this thug out from under the freeway:

Casting into that little tunnel is actually pretty hard. Normally, I spook whatever fish lie in wait while I splash around, trying to get some distance under there. Today just happened to work out.

Who knows what the rest of the week will hold?

Happy Fishing, Humans.

Uinta Fix

2011-09-04T15:00:00.001-06:00

Ah, nothing like the high country to satisfy a fiendish addiction to ice cold waters, breathtaking vistas, and finned friends!

After last week's failure to get to the Uintas, thanks to vehicle problems, it was very rewarding to make it up the scenic HWY 150 (aka: the Mirror Lake Highway) on a sunny Saturday with my family.

Along the route, the upper reaches of the Provo River flow parallel to the road and make it quite difficult to keep from pulling over. This proved to be too much for me to handle and I found it necessary to try out a nice run that was beckoning me.

Sadly, the action was lacking at this run, but I was fortunate to find something very special: wild raspberries. Yum!

It's always a treat to find these, especially at the perfect time when they're ripe for the picking. They were growing right next to the river and I made sure to grab a good handful to take back to the car. My family enjoyed that and I redeemed myself for making them wait for me.

The next stop was Provo River Falls, a mandatory distraction for us. The falls are always full of people, but what those folks don't always realize is that there are fish there too.

Somehow, they tend to hold in any spot that looks fishy and sometimes in places that seem impossible for them to get to.

Though my success is usually a lot greater than it was for this visit, I was still able to pull in a couple of chubby little brookies with the trusty Blue Fox. I've found that I can usually catch stream brookies on the BF, but they won't touch it when I'm fishing still water.

Even James loves the falls, although we couldn't locate one of our usual diversions of the area, the chipmunks. On a normal visit, they'll be all over the parking area, looking for handouts from the many tourists.

This hole provided one small brookie and a couple of missed strikes from something a bit larger than what I'm used to from this stretch. It looked like a cutthroat and it was about 4 feet behind the log pictured below. It would've been nice to confirm what species it was. Catching cutts in this stretch is somewhat of a rarity for me.

I could spend hours fishing the falls and the stretches surrounding it. Staircasing down the rocks, they provide endless opportunities to hook up in the splash pools.

After our fun at the falls, it was time to get moving toward some lakes. Our first stop was a place recommended to me by an old friend from work, who is full of great fishing information. It's very small and it isn't far from the road, but most people don't stop to fish it, as they're normally on their way to more popular destinations up the trail a bit.

At first, I questioned the presence of fish since I was getting no play on the rod at all and the only signs of life I could find were in the form of flying insects and tiny little frogs.

Finally, I felt what was unmistakeably a bite and that encouraged me to keep trying. Eventually, I dialed in on what and where to throw. Then it was solid action, catching pretty good sized brookies for easy-access Uinta puddles.

Not bad at all. Nice place to catch some low pressure brookies.

Pretty soon, we'd spent enough time there and my boy's patience was wearing thin. We decided it would be good to take a hike and enjoy a change of scenery.

Only a mile of gentle terrain and a clear trail brought us to Wall Lake. This is a lake that I'd always wanted to visit, but never got around to. Today was a great day to change that and I'm glad we were able to drop in for a short while.

Right away, I caught a small brookie with great vermiculation.

Wall Lake is amazing and I'll certainly be back someday for one of my solo trips, packing my tube. It's a bit larger than many other Uinta lakes and being able to cover the water would really help out.

Aside from its size, its geographic features are also something I'll make sure to spend my time exploiting. A great "wall" of cliffs lies along the west side and the lake and the water gets deep very quickly. Kick trolling meaty streamers on sinking line seems like a lock along this side.

It's a great looking place with much potential in my opinion. I'll be back to give it a solid effort in due time.

A breeze picked up and made my wife feel a little chilly, so that was it for our day's adventure. James led the way back to the car (he insisted to be the leader) and we gave our state's ceiling a kiss goodbye.

It was a good day and much needed therapy for all of us.

Happy Fishing, Humans.

Brown and Out

2011-09-01T19:47:00.004-06:00

Keeping it Local

For the past couple of weeks, I've been fishing the lunch break spot here and there. For the most part, it's been slow when I've remembered to bring the camera and better, of course, when I've left it at home.

At one spot, I like to try my luck using only a bare hook and this last go around produced several large carp. Sadly, there is no photographic evidence of this, but one of them was easily over 10lbs. Certainly not my preferred target species, but it's better than getting skunked!

Another stop at one of the nearby lunch spots, after work, provided some pretty good white bass action. Most of them are pretty small and identical, but one was slightly larger than the usual catch:

A few days later, I thought it would be fun to check in on another spot that I had ignored so far this year. Seeing how it's the closest hole to my workplace, it's odd that I had left it alone for so long.

Using custom plastics that were sent by a forum member to try, I was able to coax quite a few healthy browns to swipe at them, although I had difficulty getting anything to stick. Several good browns and one really nice one bumped the jig enough to tear it up, so I found it rather frustrating that I couldn't connect with any of them.

Finally, using a neon green plastic minnow, a really aggressive little guy picked it up and after jumping out of the water for it a couple of times on previous retrievals.

It was nice to finally hold one of the browns that had been teasing me, although it wasn't the big one that I've been hunting ever since. He'll come around soon enough and I'll be sure to report when he does.

Enter the weekend trip:

Normally, I like to get out of the valley and go on exciting trips on the weekend and this past Saturday, my family and I had plans to visit the High Uintas, fishing some easy-access ponds that are usually overlooked by most people in the area.

After the usual morning delays, we finally set off to accomplish this, but only made it about 20 miles to the city of Heber, where I noticed an awful sound coming from my engine compartment. Long story short, I still had power and decided to reverse course and head home while I could. The fishing trip was over before it ever began.

It was a good move to go back. Turns out, my timing belt tensioner went out and it would only be a matter of time before my engine missed, causing major damage to my valves and possibly other internal necessities. Needless to say, I'm not driving the Rodeo until it's back in shape and for now, I'm driving the Sentra, which has its own issues, although not severe and it will do.

Still requiring a fishing fix, I took a couple of hours on Sunday and zipped a few miles up Provo Canyon with my boy, James. Father and son exclusive trips are a rarity for me, so it was a great opportunity to enjoy his company without other distractions.

Unfortunately, he still hasn't caught the fishing bug entirely and tends to get bored with it rather quickly. Considering the river conditions, it wasn't the best situation for him to catch anything either and that didn't help. Regardless, it was good to get out with my little man.

The fishing wasn't great and my head certainly wasn't fully engaged (I was really jonesing for the Uintas), but I was able to pull in a couple of browns. The first was the biggest at around 15 or 16 inches:

The other brown wasn't too impressive, but it was nice to feel another tug before calling it a day. James was getting homesick anyway.

Back to lunch:

Just yesterday, I felt the urge to check the teaser hole again and I'm glad I did. At first, it looked like a skunk since the fishy holes seemed empty. Then I got a wild hair and decided to throw my favorite spinner into the darkness, where the creek is piped to flow under I-15.

Reeling back quickly to avoid unseen snags, I felt the bite and the bout was on with a thrashing brown. It still wasn't the big one that I'd seen last week, but it was larger than I'd seen recently at an estimated 17 inches.

Not bad for 5 minutes of my time, not to mention within walking distance from work!

He was released to entertain me on future visits. He also helped me have a better attitude at work, which was much needed on such a busy day at the grind. Thanks, lunch spot!

Hopefully I can get the family into some good fishing this weekend, despite the holiday hoards.

Happy Fishing, Humans.

Flaming Gorge - Cherry Koke

2011-08-22T18:41:00.009-06:00

About a month ago, I was graciously invited to join a member of one of our local forums here, "Dodger", who had spent most of the month of August at Flaming Gorge Reservoir. He was nice enough to offer me a spot on his boat, using his finely tuned equipment to hopefully pop my koke cherry.

That's right, up until now, I'd never had the pleasure of catching a kokanee salmon (land-locked sockeye). Dodger fishes for them quite frequently, so my hopes were high.

Flaming Gorge is a huge body of water; an impoundment of the Green River and many smaller tributaries. Its claims to fame are the very large specimens of its sport fish including lake trout, kokanee salmon, rainbow trout, and brown trout. Other species include smallmouth bass, channel catfish, burbot, cutthroat, and a small population of tiger trout.

View Larger Map

Saturday was determined to be the best time for us to meet and we did so at Lucerne Marina, near the Wyoming border. Our plan was to troll for kokes and macks (mackinaw - lake trout) on the Wyoming side for a bit and see where the day would lead us. On the boat were Dodger, his wife, his brother, and his wife.

We ran two downriggers with two lines each, plus lead core and pop gear out the back. Somehow we only had one tangle all day with 5 lines out. Dodger knows his craft.

Though it wasn't very fast action, we did have some luck for smaller kokes, pulling in several after a couple of hours of trolling.

My first kokanee:

A couple of others from this stretch in Wyoming (my first time fishing outside of Utah):

Faces blurred to protect the GUILTY (by request).

Face and sweatshirt blurred to protect the Ute fan on this Cougar boat.

Here's a very small lake trout, caught by Dodger's brother.

Ominous storm clouds eventually moved in and cued us to cruise back to the Utah side for shelter in Hideaway Canyon. What an awesome place!

For the next couple of hours, we caught some rain, but every once in awhile we got to reel in some kokanee and a couple of planter rainbows. Eventually, we found our way back to Sheep Creek, where the red rocks provide a fantastic backdrop for our trolling.

Mimicking the landscape, the last kokanee of the day appeared, dressed in red.

We also tried trolling deep for macks for a little while, but nothing came of that. I'll have to add that notch to my belt some other time.

It was a lot of fun to get out and try fishing a different way than I'm accustomed to, and with good people.

Leaving the park, several pronghorn antelope were gnawing away at the manicured lawn by the forest service office.

The drive home took three hours, but that's not beyond my day trip threshold. The drag through southwestern Wyoming can really put you to sleep, but luckily the skies were exciting enough to keep my eyes peeled.

The clouds intensified as I got closer to Ft. Bridger, showing serious potential for an exciting thunderstorm, which I was about to drive right into the heart of.

The sky went dark just after that last photo and my next half hour was spent in awe as lightning bolts struck all around the truck and everywhere else. The flashes of lightning would seemingly crawl through the clouds, occasionally dropping a bolt in front of me or somewhere very close by.

Very intense. I wished I had pulled over to get some shots since they were so frequent, I couldn't miss.

By the time I reached Evanston, it was beyond downpour status. Sheets of rain were falling and the lightning hadn't let up. It was a real storm. The kind I love seeing.

What a day! I finally got to cross kokanee off my list, meet some good folks, and drive through an incredible electrical storm. Good times.

Central Utah Stream Fishing

2011-08-16T19:33:00.013-06:00

Sunday was supposed to be a family trip, but the forecast called for some possible foul weather and that never plays out well for our group. Personally, I don't mind the rain, so I went on ahead and got into some streams!

My first stop was about halfway up Fairview Canyon, at Cottonwood Creek. This stream holds some pretty good browns if they can be found. Getting to the creek is really rough though. There's a steep hillside to descend and thick brush to chug through. Not recommended for the novice hiker.

As can be seen, once the creek is reached, further navigation either requires getting wet or getting beaten by the brush even more. The holes are deep and snaggy with plenty of obstacles to keep the angler's offerings from finding an open mouth.

It's very scenic though and as previously mentioned, the browns are pretty stout...if they can be located. Today wasn't my day to find the fishy holes and I didn't want to spend too much time looking, as I had higher altitude on the brain.

Though I hadn't found success from my first whim, my next impromptu stop showed promise.

Oh how I love a gentle meander.

Just upstream from Gooseberry Reservoir, its respective creek was very weedy with deep grooves where the current had carved its channel.

The only fish I saw in the first few minutes were small suckers that surely fed something larger, I figured. After about 20 minutes of schlogging through the marshy banks and missing some bite-sized trout, my suspicions were finally confirmed.

Just around a bend from this beauty was a nice undercut bank that I was able to guide my spinner into. Another good sized cutt came out and hit it, but I failed to set the hook and that was it for my interest on this stretch.

The tailwater below the reservoir held my focus at that point, having never explored it, and I set off to park at the dam. Along the way, a much smaller feeder caught my fancy and I spent the next 15 minutes concentrating on some ambush fishing on Japanese Creek.

As small as the creek was (about 18 inches wide in most spots), it was necessary to get on my hands and knees to creep up to any significant bends to avoid spooking the tiny cutts hiding in the nooks and crannies.

Several of these bends provided nips and bumps, but I was only able to catch one small cutthroat from the downstream pool of the culvert, under the road.

With that, it was time to get to the real fishing on lower Gooseberry Creek. The wash below the dam was great fun and kept me occupied for a little while as I hooked into many finless planter rainbows, likely washed out from the reservoir. Here's the longest of those:

A little further downstream, the creek flattened out into some shallow riffles and the fish were in every possible dip in the stream bed. It was fast fishing for planter rainbows with the occasional wild one in the mix.

And let's not forget the wild cutties either.

Once the riffles subsided, I hit a stretch of nice bends and deeper holes between big rocks. Plenty more fish came to hand, mostly nubby rainbows, but it was still a lot of fun to have the fast catching. Cool area, too!

This one looked like he'd met a bird one day.

The creek just kept getting better and better as I made my way downstream.

The fish seemed to get prettier too. Cutthroat were showing up with much more frequency and every once in awhile I felt the need to pull out the camera to capture the colors on these gorgeous fish.

There were still some occasional rainbows and I could usually tell right away by their aggressive fighting, usually accompanied by some airborne maneuvers.

The flowers are still out in force on just about every available hillside.

The catching continued for quite awhile and I ended up much farther downstream than I had planned. More than a few times, I told myself that my next cast would be my last before turning around, but I just kept getting seduced by the next run.

"Next cast" turned into "next fish", then "next cutthroat". Finally, I forced myself to turn around and made pretty good time ignoring the fishy holes I'd just visited.

A few spots beckoned and I found myself trying to find a couple of really nice ones that I missed. They never showed themselves, but I still got into a few more. Here's a really pretty one that required some closer examination:

They look so good wearing my favorite "gold" jewelry.

Finally, I made it back to the truck and started driving to a favorite stream of mine, where I hoped to find some bigger cutthroat. Once again, however, I succumbed to a passing temptation and had to pull over for some stillwater fishing on Huntington Reservoir. My intention was to catch a big tiger trout and to do it quickly.

Well that almost happened, but I failed to properly set the hook twice on good bites and ended up burning a couple of hours there, awaiting the next. The only thing I caught there was a good rainstorm, foreshadowed in the photo below:

It was hard to do, but I managed to peel myself away from the earthen dam, accepting my skunk from the fickle waters of Huntington Reservoir.

Pulling up to my creek, I knew my time was limited. My moves needed to be calculated if I was to get what I wanted out of this water and no time was wasted getting to my honey hole.

Due to an error of judgement, I left my gear bag in the truck and only had one lure at my disposal, a Lucky Craft Pointer. Not a bad lure at all, but it prevented me from changing up my presentation when the big one hit and wouldn't come back for more.

This prompted me to hike to another spot to kill some time, hoping that the hog would forget what had just taken place and readily swipe at my tasty lure once more.

For the next half hour, I worked some familiar holes and pulled in several smaller cutts, only two of which warranted a photo:

Back at the honey hole, my bruiser was nowhere to be found. The only explanation for this would be that he had moved into an undercut bank, just upstream in the small feeder creek that also spills into the hole.

A very sneaky jaunt through the bush and I was about 10 feet above his bank, staring at it and trying to formulate a plan to drift my neutrally buoyant pointer under some twigs and swim it right next to him in hopes of a spectacular take and an equally impressive battle.

The only problem was his buddy, that I didn't notice until right before I made my move. This buzz killing fish was right under my nose and spooked violently downstream as my arm lurched forward to drop the pointer.

Naturally, the big guy caught the vibe and I watched in horror as he blasted out of his spot, cutting a large wake as he vanished into the honey hole.

One more try at the honey hole was in order for the sheer principle of the matter. Perhaps I still had a chance.

My casts were well placed, but the beast wasn't interested. It wasn't all bad though, as I'm pretty sure I got his buddy as a consolation prize. They're probably both mocking me as I type this. I'll get the boss next time.

Feeling somewhat defeated for the moment, I fished my way back to the truck to call it a day. As a result, I ended up catching a couple more cutthroat and a decent sized finless rainbow.

All things considered, it was a really great day and I couldn't possibly be dissatisfied, catching fish almost everywhere I went, not to mention the beauty of my surroundings.

Once again, I drove home grinning as I revisited the day's events in my mind.

Happy Fishing, Humans.

Saturday Streamin'

2011-08-07T17:42:00.008-06:00

Wow, what a day I had on Saturday! For the last five years, I've known of and wanted to visit a creek that isn't even very far from where I live. For some reason or another, I just never got around to it. Well yesterday I finally made that happen.

Part of a grand water conservancy project, Sixth Water Creek is heavily supplemented at its upper reaches by a tunnel that channels water from Strawberry Reservoir, into a completely different drainage system. Sixth Water flows into the Diamond Fork River, which doesn't appear to be much more than a small stream until its confluence with several other tributaries.

While making my way to the West Portal, where the tunnel spills into the canyon, I couldn't resist pulling over a few times to fish Diamond Fork and also to do some sightseeing. The river is a tough one to fish in its lower reaches, but higher up, the gentle pools are easy to exploit.

The higher elevation stretches of the river are mostly full of cutthroat, but brown trout and rainbows can also be found. Most of the cutts are rather small, but it's always fun to fish for them.

It's a beautiful drive through marvelous terrain. Pity I didn't snap a few more photos of the canyon, which transforms dramatically from its headwaters, to its confluence with the Spanish Fork River. Cool place.

Finally reaching my parking spot to get to the West Portal, I walked down the closed road that leads to the initial pool where water collects before tumbling down the many ledges of the canyon. The flowers were in bloom and the wildlife was running about.

Arriving at the spill pool of the portal, I saw many small fish swimming around and started casting a Lucky Craft Pointer in hopes of hooking into a big brown that I hoped was hiding out of sight. It never came, but a few small rainbows bit the lure, which was almost as big as some of them.

After a short while, I thought it best to get going downstream to seek out the large browns I'd heard and seen photos of. Getting downstream, however, proved to be quite the task with the steep canyon walls, loose footing, and sheer cliffs.

It's a really neat canyon though and I love that the water drops from shelves into deep pools and so on.

After having to take a leap of faith off a ledge that was too high to get back up, I knew I'd just crossed the point of no return and that getting out of this canyon would be tough. It was tough enough just getting from one hole to the next.

Great looking water though. Every pool provided bites from tiny rainbows and I started to notice a trend. Was I too high for the browns? I knew most people fished the creek from an access point a bit further downstream. Maybe it was the method I was using.

Every pocket looked like a gold mine, but I was still only catching dink rainbows. Finally, I switched to a trusty Blue Fox on a whim and the bites were really coming in. I'd caught about 30 small rainbows for the day so far and not a single brown, but at one really big hole, allowing the lure to sink a little bit in the deeper holes brought my first brown of the day.

Prior to taking the chance of sinking the lure, I was worried about snagging and losing my gear. Add to that, the current made getting the right presentation difficult. Nevertheless, sinking the lure in the wash was what I focused on at that point and my catch rate increased greatly, and with more variety and size.

I was already having a good time toying with the tiny rainbows, but now it was just sweet! That big hole by itself consumed over 2 hours of my fishing time and it occurred to me that I need to start contemplating an exit strategy for this deep canyon. Of course, working my way back upstream required some more fishing in the holes where I'd only used the Lucky Craft before.

Getting out was really hard as I ascended the hairiest hillside I've had to take on in a long time. In retrospect, I should've followed a small trickle of water that I'd seen earlier, up to the top, but I somehow made it up the barren hillside, using the small clumps of dirt from a landslide as hand and footholds. There were many times where my anchors crumbled out from under me and I was lucky to flatten myself against the hillside before gravity could take me down.

Beaten, scraped, and elated, I made it back to my truck and started driving home. I couldn't resist fishing some small pools on Diamond Fork as I passed by though. Those little cutts couldn't resist.

Great fun!

So as any incredible day should be, mine was full of adventure as I fished a new water and caught probably over 60 fish. I'll definitely be back to find the hogs, although I may try a lower section of this awesome stream.

Happy Fishing, Humans.

Currant Creek with Family

2011-07-31T14:54:00.006-06:00

This week, the family and I set out to check on Currant Creek Reservoir, hoping that it would treat us as well as it has in the past. It was actually a hard decision to make, considering the possibilities within our range. In the end, keeping the gas $ to a minimum seemed like the best option and it worked out a little better with the late start on the day we tend to have as a group.

In the past, we've always taken the road east of Strawberry Reservoir to get to the lake, but we thought it best to try the Co-op Creek Road, which opens up much later in the year. Supposedly, it shaves off a good chunk of time compared to the usual route.

Turns out, it does save time and it winds its way through some beautiful land, eventually dropping down from Upper Currant Creek and passing some fun little beaver ponds along the way. Of course, I had to stop and pick on the locals.

Several of those little guys came to hand and there were plenty of other little ponds that I could've spent all day on, but the main destination was just down the road and I was excited to see what awaited us at the beloved Currant Creek Reservoir.

Our first stop was at the north end, where a diversion of the Duchesne River is piped in. My wife fished the lake with her standard worm/bubble rig along the channel while I explored up the river inlet with my Blue Fox.

The area where the water spills in from the tunnel is where I've had some good luck in the past, so I make it a point to try it every time I can. This time wasn't meant to be though and I left that area with only a bump and chase from what looked like a good sized tiger trout.

On my way back to the lake (a short walk), I couldn't resist fishing the downstream side Low Pass Creek's culvert.

It's a pretty good hole and every cast provided about 10 flashes behind the lure, quite a few of which connected. Nothing big, but it was fun to have fast action anyway.

Once I rejoined my family, it appeared as if the bite was off for the area and it was also pretty shallow outside the channel. Not much happening there, so we left to find a different area to fish.

The lake was packed with people and we didn't want to be in the midst of a crowd, so it was hard to find a spot. Eventually, we found ourselves at the dam, walking across to the far side.

Unfortunately, everywhere we looked was plagued with thick weeds extending far enough that fishing was going to be difficult. Even so, we proceeded and ended up lucking into a few smaller fish.

My wife even got into a few rainbows. Good for her, since she hasn't caught anything for awhile.

The Blue Fox got me a few as well, which broke up the monotony. Sadly, my minnows didn't produce anything but a couple of bites that were immediately dropped. Strange day for those, that's for sure.

Despite the slow fishing and swarms of biting flies, it was still a nice day for the most part and we were happy to get out into the beautiful country.

Happy Fishing, Humans.