Tag Archives: exploration

Utah Trout, Wild Trout Streams

Getting out there

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Over the past weekend over 700 hundred miles were driven in the pursuit of happiness and splendid isolation.  The weather was beautiful.  Life is all about the journey…

Enjoying the ride
Back where you want to be
Unfortunately, the guide book written ten years ago lied and this GEM of an establishment is no longer open for business

I love seeing everything the state of Utah has to offer so we packed up the car and headed into the incredibly desolate and isolated Northwest corner.

Small freestone stream. No spring runoff this year
FUCKIN' awesome
Trophy huntin'
almost there
Bow and Arrow casting all day

The fishing on this stream was pretty fast for bow and arrow casting, but I had the lady and the dogs with me and they weren’t as excited for the lack of back cast as I was.  So we went site seeing.

City of Rocks
Disappointing, rock climber, hippie establishment in the middle of no where next to a built up hot spring where we had dinner

Probably the place that helped put an end to the Naf cafe.

On the way back to camp from sight seeing, the front tire happened to just so delicately fall off of the Jeep.

6 pm MST. Lost a tire, 70 miles from the nearest real town...no cell service to boot
Sun down in the middle of nowhere

After jerry-rigging the tire back on we drove at 3 mph until we received cell service.  No one at Triple AAA even knew where Naf, Idaho was.  By 11 pm the tow truck arrived.  He wouldn’t drive us the additional ten miles out of the way to our camp, but took us the 70 miles to the nearest town.  From there we met up with Jourdan’s mom who took us back to SLC where we arrived at around 3 in the morning.

The following morning we made the trip back to Naf to retrieve our camping and fishing gear from our campsite.  The good thing about being in the middle of nowhere in the west is everything was there the following day.

To be at this place in its prime

 

 

Utah Trout

Late March in Utah

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After winter blasted one last dump a few weeks ago, I’ve kinda given up on snowboarding for 2012.  Better luck next year Old Man Winter.  I truly am rooting for you, since I do work in a ski shop and all.

The weather has been a little wild this March though with record high temperatures and winds that make it difficult to toss the fly out there.  On one of those windy days, I was feeling like getting out and doing some fishing, but not like driving out to the Provo so I decided to try one of Salt Lake City’s local canyons.  I had fished Big Cottonwood last year, but wanted to go somewhere dog friendly to give the girlfriend some rest and relaxation while I was out.  Therefore, I decided to check out good old Millcreek Canyon.

A stealth approach is necessary in such a small, shallow stream
Not a trophy, but I'll take it after the dogs blew out 90% of the holes

Although I found some success on a size 16 parachute adams and a size 18 zebra midge and it was fun to catch fish close to home the following day I decided to venture out into the wild.

Somewhere near the Provo River
I thought I might have seen the Angel Nephi in the sky

I’m not used to nymphing such small streams, but after fishing a couple of hours with minimal success using a stimulator with a dropper, I decided to test my luck with some nymphs.  The pheasant tail is my go to, so I tied that one on with a zebra midge in tail.

A fine German Brown Trout taken on a pheasant tail

Although the fishing was pretty decent that day, the highlight of this trip was Bandito getting  into a scuffle with a river otter.  Without going into details, Bandito lost and the otter ran to the river biting my pooch and slapping him with his tail.

Harmless little guy

Round 3

There still is some snow pack out there
Fish were stacked in here
Tall Boy landing another wild German
As the day drew on the snow melting turned the water murky, but the fish were still fooled by larger nymphs and woolly buggers

 

Times like these make the good times GREAT

 

Southern Utah

Best Water in the USA

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It’s been a warm and dry winter out here in Utah this year to say the least.  Last year, I was hunting powder day in and out in March.  This year, I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to get a change of scenery.  For the past couple of weeks I’d been dabbling on the Weber and Provo and getting the itch to get out to the more remote streams that make fishing in Utah so great.  Daylight savings time hit, the days instantly got longer, and it was time to pack the car and get away with the lady and the dogs.

Bandito was pretty excited to be on the road

Ever since Eagle Point opened up last year, I’ve been wanting to go.  Being only three hours from Salt Lake City, it makes it the perfect distance for a weekend getaway.

Wide open highways and 80mph speed limits make for a quick drive

To get up to the mountains, you have to drive through Beaver and with a billboard like that you have to find a local restaurant to give the water a try.  Right off the main road we found a diner that had been in existence since the mid 1900’s and I understood why as soon as I drank the best damn water I’d ever had.

The food was pretty delicious as well
After breakfast it was time to get up into the mountains
Boardin' the point
Snowcat instead of chairlifts? Fuck Yea
Unhappy puppies

I’ll keep my banter on the riding to a minimum since this is a fishing blog; but the resort was empty, the weather was perfect for untouched spring-time groomers, the service was awesome, pets are allowed,  the condo was really nice, and the Outpost Grill needs a special shout out.  The brand new lodge had a great mountain atmosphere with excellent food and drinks.

Day two, was fishing day.  I’m never one to give up my locations, but if you know the area or looked at a map you probably could figure out the stream we fished.  A lot of the river was still iced over, but the lower sections of the canyon opened up nicely for some great pocket water.

One of many zones throughout the canyon

I think we hit up the zone in the canyon a little bit too early in the day because the fishing was a little slow.  I almost had to forgo this entry because of a skunking, but after we went into town to refuel the vehicle we found a section on the stream about one or two thousand feet lower where the fish were quite active and more that willing to take the fly.

Walk of shame
Zone 2

As soon as we saw the stream we saw fish rising to a BWO hatch that was going off. The only problem with fishing tiny flies in the wind is when you’re blind you can’t see the fly. I tried my luck with some size twenties to start, but every hook set was a little late.  After this I tied on a size 16 Renegade with a size 18 Zebra Midge below.  The fish weren’t going for the top fly, but they sure were excited about the dropper.  No trophies were pulled out of the water on this journey, but it sure was nice to get out there.

Tala examining the catch

The itch to get back to Southern Utah to fish has been reignited as I am finishing up this post.  To everyone out there, keep on hunting for that tug.