Weston Reservoir 5/1/2009

Well I went to Weston planning on rainbows and maybe some perch and had a great day. I put in at the dam and as I began to troll a leech on sinking line along the face of the dam. I was startled by the sound of a loon right behind me. I hadn't heard them since fishing in Maine when I was 14. There were two and they were really curious. They got rather close and I snapped some pics. While I was messing with the camera, I had a hard hit on my fly. I began to notice fish rising all around me. I cast my fly to them and quickly caught a feisty little rainbow. These weren't the typical planters I was used to, these were Kamloops rainbows. I was ready for them to sort of twirl and flop around as I pulled them in, but they put a healthy bend in my rod and jumped repeatedly. I missed a couple more and then decided to see if they liked the little 1/64 ounce jig I had on my ultralight spinning rod. They really liked it and I caught a total of 9 bows in about half an hour. I was enjoying myself, but really wanted to get into some bigger fish, so I began trolling toward my honey hole from last fall. I paddled into some shallower water and saw weed beds, and lots of perch eggs. I got out my spinning rod and put a 2" bubble gum grub as I remember doing well for perch on that color in Connecticut. Pretty soon I had a hit, but by the way my rod bent in half, I knew it wasn't a perch. To my surprise, I had caught my first largemouth bass of the year. A nice healthy one too. I thought the water was too cold, so I hoped it wasn't a fluke. I worked my way along the weedbed, crawling my jig ever so slowly along the bottom, and picked up a couple more bass as well as a perch. I switched over to something a little more substantial, an eighth ounce stump jumper in chartreuse and orange. I also found a steeper shoreline that quickly dropped into 20 feet of water. That was the ticket. In the next half hour it was non stop action and I ended up with 11 bass between 12 and 15". They were a ton of fun on my little micro light rod. Unfortunately I had get to work right when things got good. Oh well.

Total fish for the trip: 21
Total fish for the year: 69

Blacksmith Fork 4/13/2009

What a fun little trip. As I began up the canyon, I felt that the river was a little on the fast and high side for my liking. I had never tried the Left Hand Fork of The Blacksmith, but I had heard that it runs lower during runoff sometimes. The water was just perfect and I quickly scored a nice cutthroat on a golden stone nymph. In the same run, I caught a brown as well. The next few runs were dead, and then I caught one more cutt. Unfortunately I had forgotten my fly floatant, and the creek was a bit on the small side for straight up nymphing with an indicator. About the time I made this realization, someone cut in front of me. I tried to drive up further, but the road was closed. I took off for the main fork and drove up further than I usually fish. I'm glad I did. Stoneflies and mayflies were coming off, and the fish were hungry. The water up in this stretch was a bit high, but very wadeable. I took a couple on nymphs, but then the fish started really keying in on the Turk's that was my indicator. Usually this is a welcome thing, but without floatant, my fly would soon become soggy and sink. I was getting tired of switching flies when I tried a new dropper I had whipped up the night before. A size 18 hare's ear tied with orange thread proceeded to vaccum the runs I hit. I ended up catching 22 fish on the main fork in about an hour and a half. Maybe 8 were cutts and the rest were browns.
Not too shabby. I did lose one nice fish in the 18-20" range when it ran into the current. Oh well, still a good little trip.

Total fish for the trip: 25
Total fish for the year: 48

Cutler Reservoir 4/9/2009

Well I needed a break from anatomy and physiology so I ran down to the highway bridge near Cache Junction with some night crawlers and an old perch fillet that had been buried in the freezer. I caught two bullhead catfish pretty quickly while the weather was stormy. Once the sun came out, nothing. I tried the Clay Slough access area for a short while with nothing, and then finally The Bear River, but that was it. At least there were a ton of cranes and Canada geese to watch.

Total fish for the trip: 2
Total fish for the year: 23

Weston/Deep Creek 4/7/2009

Well, not much to report today. I was headed to Deep Creek to see if the ice was off, and along the way I discovered that there was an bit of open water near the inlet at Weston Reservoir. Well, I paddled around in the 41 degree water for about an hour with one possible hit before I packed up and left. The water was very murky and fairly shallow. There were some rather vocal cranes and an enormous ice beaver there. I headed to Deep Creek and found more and clearer water. It was up to 44, and the fish did seem active, but I couldn't seem to hook them. I ended up missing six fish using leech patterns in 6-10 feet of water. Definitely not a day worth being late for work for.

Logan River 3/20/2009

Of course now that spring break is over and I have to go to school again, it's 68 and sunny. Well, school can wait. The Logan called me and I just couldn't resist. When I got up there, I was really happy to see that the water was crystal clear and just the perfect level for a nice afternoon of fly fishing. I fished Turk's and Stimulators with golden stone nymphs, hare's ears and dark mayfly droppers. The trout were quite eager to play and I managed six cutthroat and a brown and probably lost twice that many. I was able to spot fish one nice cutt that was feeding at the tail end of a nice run. As my fly passed, his head darted to the side, sucking in my nymph. I was also wonderfully surprised to have a few go after the attractor dries that I was using as an indicator. I had to head down the canyon after only a couple of hours to see if work needed me. I was greeted by a long line of cars and a t-boned sedan. They said they were currently cutting the driver out with the jaws of life and it would likely be 45 minutes to an hour before the road was open. Well, there was no way I was going to make it to work on time, so I headed upstream to look for reception. After about ten minutes I gave up and returned to the scene of the accident only to find that it was cleared up already and traffic was moving. I hurried down to Logan only to find that work didn't need me after all. So I picked up Leigh in Richmond and we ate icecream in Lewiston.

Total fish for the trip: 7
Total fish for the year: 21

Oneida Narrows 3/12/2009

Well it was spring break, and the first day of the break was a freaking blizzard. By Thursday, it was a bright and sunny day, and it looked quite warm. Well, looks can be deceiving, but I headed out anyhow. I was really curious about The Narrows as I had never fished there, so I decided to shell out my $82 and make today the day that I finally get my Idaho season fishing license. Rumor had it that walleye were beginning to show up up the canyon, so I started my day fishing jigs. Well, I caught a lot, a lot of moss that is. I got pretty bored with picking scungey green chunks off my hook, so I exchanged my spinning rod for a fly rod. It wasn't fast fishing, but I managed 4 browns and 2 rainbows, all around a foot, before the biting wind drove me home. I fished a double nymph rig with a #12 purple prince nymph and a #18 dark mayfly nymph. Saw a bunch of deer, wild turkeys, and the first sandhill cranes of the season.

Total fish for the trip: 6
Total fish for the year: 14

Logan River 3/4/2009

It was fairly warm, but a storm was fast approaching with ridiculously strong winds growing stronger every moment. But, I needed out of the house, so I ran up Logan Canyon for a bit. I trudged through knee deep snow down to a very promising looking run. Within a minute or two, a nice looking cutthroat refused the Turk's Tarantula that I was using as an indicator. The next cast he took the #16 dark mayfly nymph I had dropping off the Turk's. In the next small run a feisty brown took the nymph and proceeded to jump a number of times before coming to hand. I reached a deep green pool, but was too lazy to rig to something deeper. There was also a large tree covering most of the run, so casting and getting a decent drift were nearly impossible. I got a snag and flushed some big ugly whitefish while retrieving it. I figured that run was done, so I moved on. A shallower quicker piece of water lay ahead, and I spotted a fish finning near the far bank. I decided I wanted to try out a new purple ice mayfly nymph I had made up the week before and was happy to see the fish turn and chase it downstream a foot or two before nabbing it. A moment later I was holding another pretty little cutt. About this time the wind had gotten nearly unbearable. After flailing against it and losing a few flies for another half hour, I decided it was time to go home.

Total fish for the trip: 3
Total fish for the year: 8

Logan River 2/20/2009

We finally got some days above freezing, and I just had to get out on the water. I wanted to make it down to the Blacksmith Fork, but I just didn't have time. I had always been curious about the lower section of The Logan River down by the golf course, so I decided to head there. I started out fishing heavy streamers through the deep holes near the confluence of The Blacksmith Fork, hoping to scare up some big browns. Well, I didn't, but I did discover some smaller fish rising to midges and blue wing olives, so I switched over to a halo midge emerger. That did the trick. I pulled a few browns out of the run before the ducks ruined it all. Apparently they thought my casting was instead me throwing them bread. After trying to scare them off for a while, I decided to scoot around them. The water grew faster here, so I switched over to a #16 dark mayfly nymph. In the end I managed five browns before work beckoned. Not great, but it certainly helped kill some of the winter blues, especially after last weeks blizzard.

Total fish for trip: 5
Total fish for year: 5

My fishing log

I've been thinking about making my fishing log into a blog for a while. Now that Leigh and I have made a blog, I thought why not just do it. It's going to go back to the beginning of the year, so it's going to be pretty busy at first.