A Rare January Adventure 1/5/2012

I hit the Blacksmith Fork yesterday for a couple of hours. I stopped before getting to my usual spot because there was ice on the road in all the shady spots, and I didn't have much time to waste going slow on it. When I got to the river, I noticed there was moose hair on the branch of a tree next to me, and droppings on the ground. Thankfully I never did run into the beast.

Pretty much as soon as I hit the water, the sun slipped beneath the canyon walls, and my balmy day turned chilly. I fished for two hours and caught 8 little browns and missed 3 more. These were pretty typical of the day.

 

I caught all but one on a little Prince variation that I recently made up. I started with a uv brown head and olive brown body, and later switched to a pheasant tail coloration with peacock ice dub for the head, and pheasant tail ice dub for the abdomen. They seemed to like that one a little better. I switched to a dry dropper as I found most of the fish in shallow riffles and pockets, and I didn't like the way the indicator rig was presenting to them. I picked a size 10 foam hopper for it's buoyancy and visibility, and to my surprise, a fish inhaled it and all that was showing was the head of the fly. That was unexpected for January. Things really picked up at the end with 3 fish in the last ten minutes, and the biggest, a behemoth pushing 12"

(the camera got bumped to scenery, hence the blurry pic).














Sadly it was time to leave for work.

Nothing spectacular, but considering it was early January in Cache Valley, it was just amazing to be out on the water catching some fish. They also fought really well for their size and the cold water. Several even went airborne multiple times.

Total for trip: 8 Browns

Total for year: 8 Fish