I Caught You a Delicious Bass

Remembering 2010

2011-01-28T19:25:00.000-08:00

So I haven't posted on here for at least half a year. School found me and took over my life. I'm not even going to attempt to post a detailed account of every fishing trip since my last post, but I felt it would be best to just post some highlights of the year.

Against all odds, 2010 will likely go down in history, (at least in my little life), as one of the most monumental fishing years I will ever experience. Winter just didn't want to release it's icy grip on the area. We had snow in May and low temps in the 30s until the end of June. Bass were still pre-spawn during the latter part of that month. That's just crazy. The first week of August I began nursing school and between class, clinical, work and homework, I was putting in 18-20 hours of work a day. We had a hard frost the first of September, though early October brought temps in the 90's. Despite the tumultuous times, everything came together for an outstanding year.

Many records were broken and many goals were accomplished. Some of those goals were ones I had decided on at the start of the year, but many of those went unmet. Probably the largest milestone was finally catching (and surpassing) 2010 fish in the year 2010. I came up with this idea back in the year 2000. I got to somewhere in the mid 1800's that year, but illness and an early winter thwarted my plans. Shortly after that, I moved to the city and didn't end up fishing much. When we moved to Cache Valley, my passion for water and the things that swim in it was renewed. In 2009 I tried again. I stumbled into the upper 1800's, but it just wasn't to be. I thought there was no way I would even have a chance in 2010 with school looming. I wasn't even going to try, but as the numbers of fish caught grew, a little part of me believed it was possible. I was able to get Thursdays off from work for studying, but those ended up becoming my fishing day. After class I would hurry up to Idaho, my car packed with gear and have at it. Oddly enough, though I wasn't using that time to study, the stress relief that my excursions brought me led to higher grades in the end. When the early frost came, I feared it would be snowing by the end of September, but instead we enjoyed a lengthy Indian summer well into October. I never thought I would be nailing good bass on my 8wt with popping bugs at dusk while people were visiting spook alleys and corn mazes.

Then it ended. Cold soaking rains descended, followed by cold, crisp, bluebird days as I sat in the 1800's once again. The lakes began to turnover. The vegetation was dying back. But I was so close. The third week of October, my wife was out of town on business, and I had a free day from school. I returned to a favorite water for numbers of mostly small bass. If I wasn't going to catch quality, I was going to at least try and make my goal with little guys. The water was in the low 50's, and the warm and sunny morning was soon replaced by a churning gray sky and wind. I wasn't expecting a hot bite, but I was pleasantly surprised. I began fishing small jerkbaits and caught a lot of smaller fish as I expected. But then more and more larger fish began to show up. The fish were still up in the shallows, hiding amongst the last dying clumps of vegetation on a large flat. I had just gotten a couple of Lucky Craft lipless cranks that I was eager to try, but I thought it was too cold for them. I tied one on any way, and first cast a good bass hammered it.

And then the next cast, and the next cast, and the next cast.

This kept up for some time when I realized I needed to go check in with work. It was supposed to be a slow day, so I was hoping they wouldn't need me and I could just run back to the lake and finish things off. I was so close now, I couldn't miss now. Unfortunately, work needed me after all and I hightailed it back to Utah. I had caught 107 fish in just a few hours. I only needed 54 more fish. With the way they were hitting, there was no doubt I could have made it that day if I hadn't had to leave for work. I made up my mind to head back the next morning, rain or shine. Luck was once again on my side as the sun was actually peaking out as I drifted out onto the pond. Things weren't as fast as the day before. I was catching fish on the jerkbaits, and a few on the lipless cranks, but not like earlier. Still, if I kept at it, I was probably going to make it. Most of the fish were on the smaller side, though I did manage this fatty,

my biggest from this reservoir, and on my ultralight no less. Clouds began to move in with wind and chilly temperatures. My time was running out, but that weather shift got them going. They were pulling off the flat and really concentrating on the outside edge of the drop, but once I found them, they began hitting the Lucky Crafts again.

Somewhere in there I reached my goal. It wasn't a monster if I recall correctly, but what a fish. I couldn't feel my legs anymore and it was beginning to drizzle. Still, I knew this was the last time I would be bass fishing for half a year. I got out and walked the shore, alternating between small jerkbaits and an LV100. I picked off some smaller bass, but nothing grand. The rain was beginning to intensify, but I lobbed out a few more casts. To my surprise, I caught 2 or 3 decent rainbows my last few casts. I made it back and packed up my car just as the torrent arrived.

I ended up making it out for some stillwater trout fishing a couple of weeks later

bringing my final number to 2049 fish for the year.

In addition to this achievement, I finally beat my old best largemouth record of 18". I set that record back when I was maybe 13 or 14 on Lake George in upstate New York. I tied it on several of the northern Utah and southeast Idaho waters during the past couple of years, but I was never able to beat it. In 2010 I caught a bunch of 18" largemouth,

3 at 19",

and one at 20".

I don't know how long it will take to beat 20" with the short growing season here, and with the draw downs these little irrigation reservoirs experience, but I'm going to keep trying.

I also finally beat my old best smallmouth record, which had stood since that same trip to upstate New York back in the early 90's. I only beat it by a 1/2", but I did it on a light spinning rod and 6lb test as October burned around me.

That same day I also got into some very aggressive walleye. They were up against the shoreline rocks and obliterated my little jerkbait.

I had never caught walleye on a hardbait before, and I had never seen one tail walk before that day either. That little perch colored Lucky Craft was definitely a star performer last fall catching that big smallie, walleye, lots of largemouth, perch and rainbows. Not surprisingly, I have accumulated a bunch more over the winter in preparation for the coming spring.

In the spring, when the rivers were blown out, and the Idaho bass ponds weren't quite ready, I kept myself busy slogging along the shores of Cutler Marsh with a sack of carp meat and plenty of circle hooks. I ended up catching my best channel cat.

It wasn't a monster, and it wasn't the ten pounder I'd hoped for, but I still had a lot of fun wrestling her in. I also learned not to lip larger cats like a bass. They clamp down hard enough to draw blood.

Another highlight was a short trip to Wyoming just before school started. I was able to spend a few hours on the Grey's River, and caught several large Snake River Cutthroat,

they were my best yet. It helped heal the wound of the big one I had lost on The Snake because of a bad knot a year prior.

Another first was finally catching two fish on the same lure. I have to say two fat 14" smallmouth can really put up quite the fight when they gang up on you.

I was pretty mad at myself for forgetting to bring my camera that day, but to my surprise, the first fish of the day the next day ended up being two fish.

2010 is going to be a hard year to beat. Now that I've done it, I'm not going to try so hard to catch 2011 fish this year. So I need to think of some new goals. I never did catch a tiger musky on the fly, so that is something I'm going to shoot for this year. I got fed up with how crowded that lake has become and didn't want to fish there, but with it being just down the street from my home, I'm going to just make myself go there until I succeed. I also didn't make it to Willard Bay to try for wipers, and I didn't catch any giant walleye from The Bear in the early spring. So those are on my to do list once again. Overall, I think this year I'm not going to worry so much about goals and just enjoy the time outside when I can get it. Quite honestly, at the moment, with the ice fog heavy in the air, I would kill just to be outside on a sunny 40 degree day catching ugly whitefish.

Taming the Tempest

2010-07-19T13:55:00.000-07:00

06/16/2010

After the success of my previous trip, I was eager to throw another $5 into the abyss. The drive to Clifton was sunny, calm and pleasant. As I dropped my fees into the tube, a bit of a breeze billowed up. I was disappointed by this new development, but it wasn't the end of the world. As I drove the mile or two up the dirt road to my favorite new spot, I was horrified to find the trees dancing violently and whitecaps on the lake. There was no way I would be able to fish from my tube in this. I was really wishing I'd saved my $5 and stayed home to mow the lawn. Since I'd already spent the money, I decided to try sticking it out for a bit and wade fishing the trees again. I caught a couple of smaller bass on the old trusty Slug-Go, and then I hooked what I initially thought was a foot long bass as it tail walked toward me. Rather quickly I realized that it was a large crappie. Unfortunately it escaped while I foolishly tried lipping the beast, so no picture. I fished for bass a bit longer, scoring a few more smaller bass and losing one good sized one. I had actually brought my ten foot crappie pole with me, so I decided to give it a whirl. I dabbled my jig amongst the woody vegetation and missed several fish before catching this whirling dervish:

Shortly after I managed to land a crappie, though a smaller one.

Around this time, the waves were nearly coming over the tops of my waders, even in the forest. I decided I'd had enough, so I tossed my rod in the car and took off for the river.

When I arrived I found the wind was a lot calmer there. I stopped at my usual first spot and tossed out a pink X-Rap. I jerked it violently past some shoreline vegetation and this little bugger shot out and nabbed it.

I noticed a mat of vegetation and debris at the tail of the run, so I tried drifting a Slug-Go beneath the canopy. I had several hits before landing this little chunk.

I caught a few more further up snapping a tube quickly across the bottom, and then the wind hit even worse than it had been in Clifton. I fought it for a few minutes before giving up for the day. It was lucky that I did as shortly after leaving the canyon, a wall of rain and hail pummeled my car, forcing me to pull over for about 15 minutes.

Final Tally: 5 Largemouth Bass, 2 Black Crappie, 1 Bluegill, 6 Smallmouth Bass

Year Tally: 350 Fish

And So it Begins

2010-07-19T13:31:00.000-07:00

06/09/2010

The weather was threatening once again, so once again I avoided the slippery clay path that leads to C Pond. I had really only fished out by Clifton once before, but had left me curious for another try. I drove north and was happy to discover that the drive wasn't really any longer than the one to my "Old Faithful", and was equally thrilled that the rain stopped and the sun peeked out. I donated my $5 to the Evil Ones and set out for a spot. I found a pull off with some nice openings in the flooded trees to allow my passage.

I fished along the deep edge of the submerged timber and did quite well for largemouth fishing with Slug-Gos in watermelon and sort of a green pumpkin with silver holo and peacock green flake. Most fish were around a foot in length, but some larger fish to around 15" were mixed in.

These were some of prettiest bass I'd ever caught. I just love their distinctive markings. With only about forty minutes left to fish, the wind and clouds finally returned, chasing me back into shore. I put away my tube but decided to try wading in amongst the trees. I scored several more fish this way. I glanced at my watch and muttered something about one more cast. My bait plopped down into a pocket in the brush, and as my lure sank I noticed a slight twitch of the line. I reared back and realized I was dealing with another class of fish entirely. I wrestled the fish through the jungle (I'm very impressed with the new Yo-Zuri Hybrid Ultra Soft line, great stuff) and eventually landed a nice fat 18" largemouth.

I snapped some pics, released her, and was on my way to work.

Final Tally: 25 Largemouth Bass

Year Tally: 336 Fish

Letdown at L Pond

2010-07-19T13:13:00.000-07:00

06/02/2010

So it's been a great long while since I made a post here. Things finally warmed up and I'd really rather spend my time actually fishing than writing about it. However the fates have smitten me down with a vigorous case of the poofruits, and now here I sit, trying to remember a month and a half of fishing trips. I will forgo my usual meandering prose (or at least try to) and just get down to the real meat of the outings.

After finding shallow bass at "The Usual Place" that were eager to eat Slug-Gos, I thought I would check out C Pond for some of it's larger bass. However it had rained all night and was threatening a repeat performance that afternoon. The road to C Pond is slick, so I opted for smaller fish and a safer venue and go to L Pond. As I was getting set up a mom dropped off some lunatic children to try swimming in the 60 degree water. They didn't last long. 60 degrees should have invited some good bass action, but sadly it was a rather meager day. I caught 16 largemouth and 1 rainbow. I did take a few from shoreline brush on Slug-gos, but they also hit spider jigs, small Diawa cranks and a small Bass Pro Shops XPS lipless crank. Some passing storm cells kicked up and brought cold, cloudly, windy weather. Overall it was a pretty dismal day, and seeing as the fish were all under a foot, I didn't feel it worth pulling out the camera to capture any of those 17 moments.

Final Tally: 16 Largemouth Bass, 1 Rainbow Trout

Year Tally: 311 Fish

Diamonds in the Rough

2010-06-10T17:38:00.000-07:00

5/30/2010

I hadn't planned on fishing Memorial Day weekend, but my sister was visiting and made a comment about how nice it would be if I caught some perch to make fish tacos. I couldn't really argue with that, so Sunday afternoon I packed up my stuff and took off for my favorite perch pond. I was hoping it wouldn't be too crowded as it didn't have any camping facilities, but as I arrived to a packed parking lot and glutted pull offs, I was kind of wishing I'd stayed home. I parked at my usual spot, and while I was packing my tube Fish and Game came and chatted with me for a bit. He remembered me from last year, I guess I fish this reservoir a lot. I lugged my tube down the hill to a shallow bay where I could easily climb into my tube. As I paddled to the mouth of the bay, I discovered I was flanked by detritus. Shirtless, obscenity spewing, drunkard, troglodytes on one side, and lawn chair sitting, play-doh huckers on the other. I quickly caught a bass on an X-Rap and missed another, but I decided I'd better head across the lake to freedom. Shortly after getting there I caught another small bass on a swimbait. I noticed there were some weeds in about 10 feet of water off a small point here. This seemed like a good spot to look for perch. I lowered a small pink jig down and felt hits almost immediately. They didn't seem like perch pecks though. 10,000 trout were stocked in the reservoir over the past month, and that's what I'd found. I finally landed one of the little buggers. I got tired of it and decided to move down toward the bluffs where I always catch fish. I was nearly there when I realized my lanyard was missing. I had gotten out to adjust my rod holder when I was fishing for perch earlier. It must have fallen out then. I paddled all the way over, and there it was, floating off the bottom in a couple of feet of water. While I was on shore I figured I'd head down into a shallow cove on foot to look for bass moving up to spawn. I saw a silt plume where a bass had been, and soon spotted another fish of about 15". I got back in my tube and worked a Slug-Go over the area, but they must have been off from my earlier intrusion. I decided to make my way back to the bluffs. I reached a bank just down from the bluffs where I did well for bass last spring, and began working a green pumpkin Slug-Go up against the bank. I placed the jerkbait by some brush, letting it sink on a slack line, when I saw my line jump. I set the hook and soon brought in a decent bass.

The fish were biting lightly, and I missed a few more. I was nearly to the bluff when a group of bank tanglers descended upon my destination. I tossed out an olive crystal bugger on my fly rod and began trolling back across the bay. About half way across I hooked into a nice rainbow that cleared the water by several feet seven or eight times. The fish was a good 16-17" and shaped like an overstuffed football. He was a squirmy little nugget, and this is the only photo I got of him.

I remembered there was a beaver lodge up in the cove I was near and I thought I might find some bass there. I scored a couple smaller trout on the fly rod as I trolled my way in. When I arrived I switched to a bubble gum pink Slug-Go and tossed it around the lodge. Nothing happened, but about twenty feet down from the lodge I missed a fish. A short time later I hooked a really nice bass, but it threw the bait when it jumped. Now that I knew there were some fish moving up against the bank, I decided to head back over to the perch spot. That bank has a lot of rocks and brush, a rarity on this body of water, along a steep drop off. Within a moment I scored a nice bass. I began drifting down the bank, pulling fish out pretty regularly. They were all pretty decent sized and hard fighters.

Eventually my pink Slug-Go was obliterated and I decided to try a small perch colored Fluke. Most of the fish had taken it on the initial fall, but as I twitched it back, a nice bass shot from the depths and broadsided it half way to the tube. I love clear water. I caught several more fish, but eventually the rocks ran out, and so did the fish. The sun was getting low and I decided I needed to head back soon. I kicked back across and trolled my fly parallel to the shore. I scored several trout, and when I reached the bay where I started I began getting hits on every cast. Eventually they destroyed my fly so I switched to an X-Rap and scored several smaller bass before I left.

I may not have found any perch, but what began as a frustrating trip turned out really well. Good thing there was some tilapia in the freezer.

Final Tally: 21 Largemouth Bass, 7 Rainbow Trout

Year Tally: 294 Fish

Battle in the Not So Promised Land

2010-06-07T23:14:00.000-07:00

05/28/2010

I had been hoping to hit a private section of The Bear, and I had finally gotten the go ahead for Friday. I had all sorts of images of giant prespawn smallmouth dancing through my head the night before I was to set foot on this glorious stretch of water. I awoke to a beautiful sunny day, and I quickly loaded up my car. After I arrived I loaded about 30lbs of gear into my vest and set out across the farmland and river bottoms. I made my way down to the water, tanagers flitting through the trees as I walked, and popped out at a small offshoot from the river. As I waded into the water, a rather perturbed crane came stumbling out of the bushes, cursing me all the way. I still had a 1/4 ounce chartreuse and orange curly tail jig on my jigging rod from my adventures downstream a couple of days earlier. I figured I'd toss it out and give it a try before re-tying. I placed it at the head of a gentle riffle, ticking it along the rocks, when something thumped it. I set the hook into a solid fish that bent my rod nicely. The bass went airborne a couple of times before calming down so I could lip her.

I was pretty excited to have caught a nice bass so quickly. I worked up to the main river and fished a likely run, but nothing happened. About this time a wall of dark clouds appeared to the south, and the wind began to kick up. I moved upstream to an area where I'd done well before, spotting an elusive wood duck along the way. I threw an X-Rap for a while, but I only caught weeds. By now it was completely cloudy and the wind was howling. I moved up above a nice shelf and fished the area with the jig. Still nothing, so I switched to a small tube. I wasn't having any better success until I drifted the tube straight down and crawled it back up to the shelf. A fish grabbed it but quickly pulled free. I went back to the chartreuse curly tail and tried the same trick. I quickly caught about a ten inch smallmouth. I worked my way across the shelf, and eventually hooked into another decent fish. It leaped clear of the water several times before I landed it.

I fished the area a while longer with no more fish. It was beginning to sprinkle now, and I had a decision to make. I could bag it, the water was still apparently on the cold side, or I could hike about a half mile upstream to a really nice looking run. I ended up going with the latter, the rain intensifying as I traversed the river banks and barbed wire. I arrived at my destination and worked my way across the river. I began working my jig down a shelf when I noticed two giant carp holding just below me. I presented my jig to them, and one appeared to go for it. I set the hook, and that was the beginning of the battle of the year. I stood there at the head of the run, watching my line retreat downstream. When the mongrel had pulled out roughly 100 feet of line I felt that it was time I go chase her. With my rod held high I labored back across The Mighty Bear until I hit some slack water on the opposite bank. I began trying to take in line and hike downstream. I would bring in five feet, and the fish would pull off ten. After about five minutes we found ourselves in some waste deep, but sluggish water. I could see that I had actually foul hooked the fish in the side, giving an already strong fish more leverage. I began putting a little more pressure on the carp, but whenever I grabbed my net, the fish would pull off ten or twenty feet of line and we'd start again. My hand was beginning to cramp and I was afraid my rod was going to be shattered on a scungey old carpon. After a good ten minutes I found myself about 100 yards downstream from where I'd started with a very heavy fish in my net. I could barely lift the thing with the stubby little handle on my landing net. I lay the beast down on the grass and taped it at 26 1/2".

I didn't get the girth, but it was substantial. I decided that any fish that could make my hand hurt and take me that far downstream deserved my respect. So I resisted the urge to have catfish bait for the rest of the year, and turned her loose. It was a steady soaking rain now, but I fished on. I snagged another carp, but it pulled loose after a mere moment of struggle. I covered the run extensively , but no smallmouth ever showed themselves. I hiked back downstream, visiting the areas where I'd caught bass previously, but to no avail. I tromped back to my car feeling pretty disappointed. A few smallmouth and a carp were not what I'd had in mind, but I guess Mother Nature just wasn't ready for summer yet.

Final Tally: 3 Smallmouth Bass, 1 Carp

Year Tally: 266 Fish

Carp Chunks and Dimwits

2010-06-03T22:04:00.000-07:00

5/26/2010

I ran down to Cutler for a bit to see if the catfish had become active again. I tried the oxbow, and had a bunch of taps on my line, but no hookups. I got fed up with it and moved down to the marina. The water was down, and although it was muddy, I was able to get out to the spot where I had caught the big cats a month ago. I caught a couple of small bullhead on crawlers, but just wasn't finding any channel cats. I moved further down and had some taps, but no hookups. There were some really loud and obnoxious rednecks by the marina that said lots of entertainingly stupid things, but it got old after a while. I had a couple of hard thumps on the carp meat, but somehow they didn't hookup. Some storms blew in with high winds, scaring off the white trash. It also turned the fish on and I caught a few more bullhead before I had to go to work. Not really worth going to work with stinky hands for, but what can you do?

Final Tally: 6 Bullhead Catfish

Year Tally: 262 Fish

Wandering in the West Again

2010-06-03T21:47:00.000-07:00

05/25/10

I went back to Idaho to see if the bass were still active. There was only one other person at the reservoir when I arrived, and they were alone and on shore. Unfortunately, as I was getting my gear together, a van load of snooty old men arrived and descended upon my favorite area. They were the kind of guys that think trout are the only good fish, and that fly fishing is the only way to catch fish. When I got down to the water they were spread across the area I had planned on fishing. I launched between them and quickly caught a small bow on a deep jerk bait. I decided I would have to paddle around them and head west. I trolled some leech patterns on the fly rod on my journey, picking up another small rainbow as I passed the intruders. I could overhear one telling the other that he'd caught a bunch of perch up to 14 inches. That's a really big perch. Turns out the dingbat didn't know the difference between a bass and a perch. I continued along the bank when I felt a little tap on the end of my line, I hesitated, then tightened up the line, and then it took off. For the next five minutes I battled an unseen fish. I figured I must foul hooked a good trout with the way it was peeling off line. When it finally came into view there was a fat trout of about 18", hooked perfectly in the mouth. Finally I was able to net the bruiser. I love Kamloops, they're even tougher than the bass.

I soon came across a rocky drop off and decided to try for bass. I quickly hooked a nice largemouth on the replacement River2Sea jerkbait.

Now that I knew they were in the area, I thought I would practice casting the baitcaster with a River2Sea deep diving crank. The new lighter line I spooled on was working much better. I made several long casts without a backlash, but I got a little too confident and lobbed my lure into the wind. Of course I got a backlash, though thankfully a small one. A moment later I had it worked out. I took about half a turn of the reel when a bass blew up on it on the surface. I finally had a decent fish on the casting rod. Definitely a different feel to the fight.

Now that I'd caught a fish on that rod, I figured it was about time I caught something on my new light spinning rod. I tied on a size six X-Rap in purple gold. It's such a cool looking color. I threw it tight to the bank and after a couple of twitches I had another fish on. They definitely fight hard on this little rod, but that just makes it all the more fun. That was quite the little fatty.

I caught a couple more bass when another float tuber came down and cut me off on the west side. I had no choice but to kick across to the other side, there were some more rocks over there that looked inviting anyway. I deployed the fly rod, and about halfway across the channel I hooked into a good rainbow. This one wasn't quite as big as the last, but it spun me around five times clockwise, and then two more times counterclockwise. I finally got the fish in my net, but it still managed to soak my camera while trying to snap a pic.

I scored a few more bass on the X-Rap along the shoreline when I noticed that the other fisherman had moved a few hundred yards to the west. I worked my way back to the rocks where I'd started catching bass and quickly caught another good fish on a tube snapped erratically off the bottom. Things were quiet for a bit, so I ditched the X-Rap for a River2Sea V-Joint Minnow. I quickly caught another bass and a trout. It was nearly time to leave, so I began trolling my way back to the car. I picked up a few more small rainbows, and then I hooked into something big. Or so I thought. Eventually the fish came into view, and it was another smaller fish. Then I noticed a flash underneath the fish and I realized I had a fish on each fly. Somehow I was able to land both of them.

The old guys were gone now and I managed a few more small bass and trout on the V-Joint from the bay they'd been fishing before I had to leave.

Final Tally: 13 Rainbow Trout, 10 Largemouth Bass

Year Tally: 256 Fish

River Monsters (not really)

2010-05-20T22:29:00.000-07:00

5/19/2010

Now that I had finally caught a bass this year, I felt it was time to catch the other black bass. I was in serious need of a smallmouth fix. I loaded my vest up with about 30lbs of gear and took off for Preston. Things were quite a bit cooler and cloudier than they were supposed to be as I arrived at my favorite smallie run. I decided to try the fast water below the pool where I had hooked a couple of fish last time around, but nobody was home apparently. I situated myself a the tail end of the slow water and let a pink X-Rap fly. A couple of casts later I wrestled in my first smallmouth of the year. I must say, it was quite the leviathan!

I fan cast across the lower end of the pool and soon caught a bit larger specimen. I tried fishing a dropshot rig through the area as well, but only came up with moss. I moved up the run a little way and decided to switch to a small rattle bait. That quickly did the trick as I brought in this fat little fellow.

I cast downstream to the spot where I caught the first two fish and scored another bass. I was getting frustrated by all the moss I was hauling in, so I switched over to my jigging rod for a bit. Since the drop shot wasn't working, I thought I would try a little 1/8 ounce Bitsy Bug Jig with a small reaper as a trailer. I'd heard that these were killer on smallmouth, but I hadn't had a chance to use them. About five minutes later, as I hopped my jig through a deep trough, I felt a thump on the end of my line. I drove the hook home and it was obvious right off that I'd hooked a better fish. No jumps today, but I enjoyed a hard, bulldogging fight before I brought in this bloated chunk of a bass.

Not a giant, but a good, heavy, quality fish. I was just glad to have finally caught a bass on my jigging rod. I worked my way upstream and caught another bass of about 10" on the jig. I tried a small pearl white swimbait on my lighter rod for a bit, but oddly nothing touched it. I fished the jig some more, but at 1/8 ounce, it was having a hard time getting to the bottom with the current. I switched over to a small tube on a 1/4 ounce head, but still nothing. I didn't get any hits for a bit, so I decided to move upstream.

I drove about 1/4 mile or so before stopping at a spot that had looked intriguing last time, but hadn't produced. I worked the far bank's slackwater with both baits to no effect. I moved upstream to where some nice riffles came down and made a seam. I ditched the swimbait in favor of an old trusty Panther Martin spinner, gold blade with a black body. It came through the slower water but only made it a few feet into the riffle before something hammered it. I chased the fish downstream and eventually scooped this lovely rainbow into my net.

I still don't feel quite right about catching trout on spinning gear, but at the same time I felt a bit nostalgic. When I first moved to Utah as a teenager, fishing spinners for trout in streams was the name of the game most of the time. I worked my way up a little way, but no more fish showed up to play. I had about an hour left now, so I drove up to the shelf where the rainbows were hammering the pink X-Rap on the previous trip.

I saw a couple of fish jump as I approached the run, and my first cast brought me another bow of about 12" on the spinner. I took up the jigging rod again, and the first cast got me a fat little smallie.

The coloration and markings on the fish were just amazing that day. I was getting a lot of trout chasing my tube but not committing, so I tried fishing flies for a bit. Oddly, I never saw another trout after that. I put the Bitsy Bug Jig on again and cast it tight against a mammoth boulder on the far shore. A fish took it as it was sinking, but I swung and missed. I ran into the same problem with the current and the light jig, so I switched back to the tube. My lure swung in the current at the end of the drift, and a fish thunked it hard. I was into another decent fish. We danced for a bit, and soon I held this fatty.

As I was working the hook out, I noticed something odd in the bass's throat. Upon removing the jig, I discovered a mouthful of fish eggs. Yellow ones. That makes me think they might be sucker eggs. I hope so, I'd feel kind of bad if he was raiding walleye nests, though I would imagine their eggs would have already hatched by now. I caught a few more small bass before moving upstream. There was a deep pool between some boulders here, and I quickly scored three more smallmouth on the tube before I had to leave.

Overall it was a fun day. I've caught more and bigger fish on this river, but they were all beautifully marked, and all very well fed. I'm curious to see how this fishery develops. If the bass are packing on the pounds like they are, we may see some true monster fish before long.

Final Tally: 13 Smallmouth Bass, 2 Rainbow Trout

Year Tally: 233 Fish

Go West Young Man, Go West

2010-05-19T22:40:00.000-07:00

5/17/10

I haven't caught a bass since Veteran's Day of last year. It's not that I don't want to, they're my favorite thing to fish for. It's just been really freaking cold this spring. We finally had several warm days in a row, and I decided to see if the bass had finally awoken from their winter slumber. I was also anxious to try out my float tube rod holder. I knew their was only one place to start my bass fishing season, so I packed up my car, grabbed my Idaho license, and headed north. It was a warm and sunny day with calm winds. Calm until I got there anyway. By the time I got all my gear stowed away in my tube and lugged it down to the water, it was already 11:00, and small waves were beginning to form. At first it looked like my rod holder was going to lean the rods away from the tube out over the water. I wasn't too thrilled with this, but when I sat down in the tube, they flopped the other way and were right in my face. This definitely wasn't going to work. Once again the strap from my landing net came to the rescue, and I was able to lash down the bottom of the rod holder and keep it tight against the tube. It worked like a charm. Now that that was taken care of, I set about getting into some bass. The water was 56 degrees, which was pretty encouraging.

I decided to start with my new casting rod as I really need to practice casting with it, and because I haven't had the chance to fish it much. I tied on a River2Sea deep diving crank and had at it. The wind was making casting and tube control difficult, but despite this, I soon had a hit. I quickly brought in a small rainbow. A couple of casts later, it finally happened, the first bass of the year.

He wasn't a large fish, but a bass, nonetheless. The wind was bringing me more and more backlashes, so I switched over to a spinning rod rigged up with a deep suspending jerkbait, also made by River2Sea (Those Australians are on to something). It cast like a bullet, and the first cast brought me another small bass. The next cast brought another, and another, and so on. I had over ten bass in my first 15 minutes of fishing. The problem was that they were all little males, and I wanted to find the big females. I tried fishing out just a few feet deeper with a dropshot rig, but with the wind it was nearly impossible to feel a strike. I managed one little guy on a watermelon reaper, and that was it.

I felt it was time to try a steep bluff on the other shore that has always been kind to me. I paddled across the straight, trolling a couple of flies as I went. Something smacked one in about 20 feet of water, but I missed it. I soon found myself at the other shore on a shallow flat. The water was only 54 over here, but I went for it anyway. I fished a lipless crankbait over the flat as I paddled toward the bluff, but nothing payed it any notice. I arrived at a nice steep bank that dropped into 10-13 feet of water. I worked the jerkbait over it, but still nothing. This spot had brought me a lot of nice fish last spring, but I guess each year is different. I kept fishing my way up toward the bluff with nothing to show for my efforts. Finally I was within casting distance of my target. I hurled the jerkbait against the wind, landing it about a foot from shore. Twitch, twitch, bam! Finally a good fish had found it's way to the end of my line.

I worked my way up the bluff and soon connected with another good fish. My lure just stopped, like I'd snagged a log, and then the end of my line came to life. Soon I was holding a nice chunky female.

I caught a few more good bass off the bluff, and then I realized I was running out of time. I quickly paddled back to the other shore, the wind finally doing something good as it caught me like a sail and helped drag me there. I arrived to find 57 degree water and a strong mud line that had been whipped up by the wind. I tossed the jerkbait up against the bank and hooked into a good fish. About 10 feet from the tube it pulled free. I kept working the line, and hooked into another fish. This one was even stronger, and when it came up to the surface and rolled, I could see it was a good three and a half to four pound fish, the largest I'd ever seen at this reservoir. No sooner had I muttered, "Wow that's a nice fish," then it dove down and snapped my 8lb test like nothing, taking my new favorite lure with it. I sulked for a moment, and then rummaged through my jerkbait box to find a decent replacement. I settled on a deep diving x-rap in a goby pattern. I know there aren't any gobies around here, but it actually looks a lot like a bass pattern to me. I quickly scored another fish and released it. I was getting a lot of moss on the bill, and seeing as the fish had moved in shallow, I ditched the deep diver for a shallow jerkbait. I found a Lucky Craft Pointer knockoff in a baby bass color and started throwing that. For a two dollar lure, I have to say I'm rather impressed. That lure does some crazy stuff. From underwater walking the dog, to flipping around 180 degrees on the pause, to gently wobbling in place when the retrieve has stopped, it does it all. I caught another bass pretty quickly on it, and then it was time to go. As I pulled out, I noticed the water was up to 59 in the back of the bay. It's hard to believe it was snowing with lows in the mid 20s a week and a half ago.

Overall, I did better than expected. I'm still thinking about that big fish that broke me off. I keep thinking, "If I'd only checked my line more recently, if only my drag had been a bit looser, if only I'd changed my line before heading out this season." Oh well, I will definitely be heading back next week.

Final Tally: 20 Largemouth Bass, 1 Rainbow Trout

Year Tally: 218 Fish

Vengeance Wasn't Mine

2010-05-13T22:53:00.000-07:00

5/13/10

I was going to mow the lawn today, but all that rain had left things pretty soggy. I was still feelingly rather unsatisfied with yesterday's adventure, so I went after the elusive catfish again. I hadn't been down to The Little Bear since I first moved up here, so I thought I would start there. I arrived to find some dirt baggy guy and two rambunctious dogs galumphing about. The guy left while I was taking a whiz, but only one dog went with him. The other dog tore around being obnoxious the whole time I was there. I also noticed a creepy old guy sitting in his car blasting talk radio. He eventually pulled around to another part of the parking lot and sat for another ten minutes. Then he honked his horn at nobody several times before pulling back around to his initial spot. He got out and sat at a picnic table for another ten minutes before getting back in his car and driving back around to a new spot. He honked again at some phantom, and eventually drove off. As for the fishing, nothing really happened. I didn't notice a single hit on the carp meat, and nothing hit my jig or x-rap.
After about 30 minutes I left and went back to the marina.

I was hoping to go hit my old spot where I got into the nice channel cats previously, but it was now under about 8 inches of water. I hiked about a quarter mile north before finding some dry land that abutted the water. Unfortunately it was in a large shallow bay with no current whatsoever. I tossed out my bait and fished a spinnerbait around the rushes for a bit, but nothing happened. I saw a point maybe another quarter mile up that might give me channel access. I hoofed it over there, and found deeper, cleaner looking water. Unfortunately I had the same results as the last spot. I felt it was time to give up on finding the channel, so I walked back to the bridge. Despite the warmer weather, things were slower than the previous day. I managed to land two bullhead and lose a few rigs to the rip-rap. They were decent sized for bullhead, but that's not saying a whole lot.

I had about 45 minutes left before work, so I packed it up and decided to give the oxbow a try. Within five minutes something grabbed the carp meat. It had some good weight behind it, but after a few seconds it pulled free. A moment later I snagged a small carp through the dorsal fin with my jig. That poor rod. It's my nicest spinning rod, and it's become my carp catching rod. I still had a pretty nice pile of carp flesh from earlier trips, and I didn't feel like stinking any worse than I already did, so his life was spared. That ended up being it for the spot. I didn't have a single bite after that, though I did manage to lose my new Super Spot to a big wad of braided line. It was pretty frustrating to see it, a rod's length away, but hopelessly snarled in the bird's nest.

So off I went to work, two bullhead and a snagged carp my only glory after several hours of fishing. I should have gone to Idaho. I should have gone fly fishing for trout. Instead I stunk like carp and garlic ridden shrimp, and I didn't catch Jack crap.

Work was slow, and everything was done by 7:45. I was still feeling bugged by my lack of success, and I kept thinking about that big cat that grabbed my bait. I really had no choice but to leave early and stop off at the oxbow on the way home. I arrived to discover a melee of geese, cranes and peacocks. It was seriously dissonant, but in a pleasant sort of way. Carp were jumping and swirling all over the glassy surface. I got a bite pretty quickly on the shrimp, but I was having the same struggles as before. Even on the carp, I just wasn't hooking up, though both baits were seeing more and more frequent visits as the sun began to set. Finally I was able to bury the steel into this little "eater" cat.

Things kept on like that as the sun descended. Finally, when it was almost dark, I caught another channel cat that was a little bigger than the last, maybe about 14". I didn't take a picture as it was too dark to bother. My hands were growing rather cold, and I didn't bring a flashlight or lantern, so I packed it up for the night.

Overall it was a pretty disappointing day. I spent a good four hours fishing, and all I had to show for it was 5 smallish fish. Those two channel catfish at the end helped ease the pain a little though.

Final Tally: 2 Bullhead, 2 Channel Catfish, 1 Carp

Year Tally: 197 Fish

Nothing to Write Home About

2010-05-13T22:14:00.000-07:00

5/12/10

It's been cold. Cold and wet. It snowed last week. Again. It's May. Stupid Utah. Today was cool and cloudy, but it seemed like the lumbering storm system had finally moved on. All morning it had been calm and dry. So of course as soon as I set out to do a little fishing the storms came rolling in again. Oh well, at least it wasn't snow this time. With all the rain, everything is becoming a nice emerald green. The birds are really showing up, and it's finally seeming like a Cache Valley spring. My Utah fishing license had expired, so I needed to obtain a new one before I could hunt for any kitties. Bep's didn't have any, so I had to drive into Logan. I was hoping that the storms would pass while on my journeys, but it wasn't to be. As I approached the marina, a wall of gray greeted me. I hung out in my car for a bit, perusing some fishing magazines I had tucked away in my backpack. The storm tapered down to some light drizzle, so I went for it. I hunkered up against the highway bridge, which took the brunt of the wind and rain. I lobbed out some carp meat and then rigged my other rod up with some shrimp that was left over from the weekend's party. I had foolishly sampled some the day before and found it not fit for human consumption anymore. I only had about an hour to fish before work, and unfortunately no channel cats showed up in that time. My rod tips were tapping away, but most of the fish never hooked up. The shrimp was especially frustrating. The fish went nuts for it, but it was soft and easy to gnaw off the hook. I only hooked one on it. I ended up with 8 bullhead that I felt weren't worth taking the lens cap off of my camera.

Final Tally: 8 Bullhead

Year Tally: 192 Fish

Blasphemy

2010-05-06T21:23:00.000-07:00

5/3/2010

Today was supposed to be a beautiful sunny day with highs in the mid to upper 60s. I wasn't exactly ecstatic when I awoke to find clouds, wind and cold greeting me. I had really been wanting to head out to a southern Idaho reservoir to test out my new rod holder, but I just didn't feel up to floating around in 45 degree water with air temps about the same. I contemplated forgetting about fishing entirely, but sadly this was supposed to be the best day of the week weather wise. I mulled it over for a time and finally settled on hunting for early smallmouth at The Narrows. The weather report showed calm conditions up that way, but the foulness apparently followed me. At least the new Damien Jurado album was a joy to listen to as I passed through the countryside. The road was a little rough and was littered with rocks, but I took it easy and arrived at my favorite smallie haunt before long. I rigged up my new medium spinning rod with a spider jig, and my medium light with a small hot pink x-rap. I fished the run with nothing but moss to show for it, so I thought I would try a few casts into the fast water below the pool. I worked the x-rap quickly through the current and something quickly hammered it. It looked a bit more elongated than a smallie and looked brownish. It quickly dove below a rock and sought shelter, but I soon coaxed it out. It shot downstream into the rapids and before I could catch up to it, it was gone. I'm pretty sure it was either a brown trout or a walleye, but I guess I'll never know. I was pretty bummed. I worked my way downstream and worked some quiet spots on the opposite bank with no action. I thought it wouldn't hurt to toss the jig to the spot where I'd hooked up before on the jerk bait, and my thoughts were right. After a couple of twitches, something nabbed the grub. The brown immediately went airborne several times but quieted down before long. He was a rather greedy little nugget.

At least I wasn't going to get skunked today, and at least I finally caught something on my new rod other than a carp. I fished back in the slack water where I started, and even tried throwing a spinner for a bit, but it was fruitless. I drove upstream a short way and noticed some extremely deep runs that I had never noticed before due to high water. I immediately spotted a bloated Mr. Bungle holding against the bank. He didn't want to play unfortunately, and neither did anything else. I switched to a Gulp! Minnow on a jig head and still nothing. I only had about an hour left, so I thought I'd find some trouty water and break out the fly rod. About a mile upstream I found some nice looking pocketwater and gave it a try. There were a lot of tricky currents, and careful fly placement and line control were imperative. Unfortunately the wind was howling and essentially prevented this. I was down to the wire on time now, so I grabbed a spinning rod and began chucking the x-rap into some slower water below the pocket water area. About midstream a fat little fish shot up from the depths and pounded my lure. Unfortunately I didn't hook up, but a couple of jerks later a larger fish grabbed it, and quickly became unhooked. That was some smallmouthish behavior, so I was pretty excited. I swung my lure through the current once more and got a solid hookup. I was surprised to find something smooth and spotted on the end of my line.

I continued swinging my lure across current, much like you would a streamer, and for the next few minutes it was fast action. You'd think that with two sharp treble hooks I'd hook up with every fish that took a pass at it, but I only landed two more rainbows out of maybe ten or twelve strikes. Still, it was better than nothing, and it made me very curious about trying streamers here in the future. I had maybe ten minutes before I needed to leave for work, and wouldn't you know it, the sun popped out and that beautiful day finally showed up. I did a quick run and gun stroll upstream to some large boulders that were the start of the pocket water stretch. I got a follow, and a few casts later another bow shot out from beneath a boulder and slammed the x-rap. He pulled loose after a few flips, and that was that. It was a weird day. I can't tell you the last time I intentionally tried to catch trout on a spinning rod. I feel a little guilty, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I must say that I missed the feeling of something clobbering a jerk bait, even if it was the wrong species. As I write this a few days later, it's below freezing and there's snow on the ground. It might be a little while before a bass finds it's way onto the end of my line.

Final Tally: 1 Brown Trout, 3 Rainbow Trout

Year Tally: 184 Fish

The Silver Lining on All These Crappy Clouds

2010-05-02T13:41:00.000-07:00

Even though it's May now, it's snowed everyday for the past four days. Thankfully it gave me time to work on some projects I've been wanting to get done. The main one was turning this:

into this:

For about $20 I can now bring three more fishing rods with me in my float tube. That's about the same cost as the single commercially made rod holder I bought last year. Watch out fish, I'm now armed with up to five rods, covering most any situation and/or species I come across. One word of caution, definitely work in an extremely well ventilated area if you are working with pipe sealant. I was floating off into space within 3 seconds of popping the lid off.

In addition to playing with PVC plastic, I had a chance to do some work with liquid plastisol. Since I started making soft plastic lures last year, I have struggled with getting a two color bait to hold together. Well I finally pulled it off.

These little buggers are made of saltwater grade plastic, so hopefully they will hold up well to the punishment the tiger musky and bass will unleash upon them.

The forecast is looking a little better for the next two weeks and I'm excited to try out my new creations.

Romping through the Marshes

2010-04-28T23:12:00.000-07:00

4/26/2010

With the forecast calling for several days of cold nasty weather, I decided I had best find my way outdoors. It's been a long, long time since I last caught a bass, so my first order of business would be to check on a little smallmouth spot I know. Thankfully I brought catfish gear and bait just in case. The river was a raging torrent of swirling brown foam. Well, that was a waste of a half hour I could have spent chasing kitties, but at least I tried. I drove back into the valley making it down to the highway bridge with a few hours to go before work. I must say that I'm very grateful for my new rubber boots. All the rain and snow from last week had left the place a mess. I tromped over to the spot where I'd left off on last week and hucked out a nightcrawler. It didn't take long before old Mr. Muddy Buddy came by for a visit. I caught a couple of the little guys before they stole my worm. I had gotten the skunk out of the way, so I felt it was time to get serious now. I slid a wad of carp meat onto the line and lobbed it back into the water. After a short time something was tapping at my line, and I brought in a larger bullhead.

I tossed him back and soon felt another fish tugging on my line. It felt quite a bit bigger. I worked away at it for a minute before realizing it was a bullhead, about the same size as the last one, that was tangled up in someone's line. I felt pretty bad for the little guy, but eventually the line pulled out of it's mouth. Hopefully he was able to get out of the line and escape to freedom. About this time the people across from me were getting on my nerves. Between their obnoxious ringtone and constant casting up near me, I had had enough. I moved down further and set up shop. I hurled the carp chunk as far as I could and then began working various lures with my other rods. Not much was going on until I noticed my cat rod was jumping about wildly. This was new, no tentative tapping here. I immediately knew this wasn't a little bullhead. Eventually I hauled in this lovely specimen.

This would have been a perfect size to eat, but it was his lucky day as I had to go to work soon after. I got to thinking that I had caught this fish out by the main channel current seam and that I should probably focus on that area. I moved down to the next opening in the reeds as it gave me better access to the channel. I re-rigged with a much heavier sinker, sprayed some reel butter on my reel, and let it fly. That stuff really does the trick, I probably cast out half a spool's worth of line. I worked some shallow brush with my ultralight rig, hoping for crappie but finding none, when I saw my other rod going nuts. This fish felt even better than the last one. After a few minutes I beached another nice channel cat.

He was a bit confused when I released him, he kept trying to come back ashore. How precious, I guess he missed me. Eventually he found his way back to the murk as I put on a fresh piece of bait. Things were kind of slow for a bit, but at least I was getting some much needed casting practice after the long winter. Eventually the rod came to life again and another battle ensued. I was soon holding a rather pregnant kitty.

I quickly set her free to go make kittens. Quite some time passed and nothing happened. I decided to move back to the spot where I had caught the first channel catfish. It didn't take long before my rod tip was twitching. It looked more like a bullhead bite, but when I brought the line tight it was quite apparent that this wasn't the case. There was some serious weight to this fish. I loosened the drag a smidgen and she began peeling line off the reel. I gained the line back and the great beast stripped it back off. After about five minutes I beached the behemoth. I leaned down and lipped it like I had the other fish. That was a mistake. She immediately bit down hard on my thumb twice, blood quickly welling to the surface. Those cats have some serious jaw strength. I snapped some pics before popping the hook out and then let her go.

Some guys that had been fishing a few hundred yards north of me saw me holding the fish as they walked by and asked what I was using. They thanked me and then moved down to the first spot where I had caught the bullhead. They were kind enough to ask if that was okay, even though it was at least a hundred feet away from me. I wish everybody was that courteous. For the next while I got several hard hits on my bait, but no solid hookups. Since nothing was hitting my lures I thought it might be a good idea to put a circle hook and crawler on my walleye rod and see what might happen. I fished it much closer to shore than the other line, just to see what was there. Within a few minutes something took off with the worm and I enjoyed a nice little fight before bringing in this nice big pile of bait.

Catching fish on IM8 graphite is fun, you can feel every little swish of the fish's tail. Too bad the only thing I've caught on my nice new walleye rod is a couple of carp. Oh well, soon enough that should change. I set to work on butchering the mongrel, and about half way through some movement caught my eye. Fish on! I brought in another nice channel cat of about 18". I was almost out of time. I finished up my work and buried him at sea. On the way back to the car I passed the kind fishermen and they asked me for some advice as they still hadn't caught anything. I was flattered, this was the first time I felt I'd done any good on catfish and here I was spreading my new found knowledge already. They thanked me and then I rushed off to the car, that wasn't in my schedule. I think Ryan and I are going to come back here as soon as it warms up again. He really wants to catch a nice catfish, and I still need a ten pounder. At least today I was halfway there.

Final Tally: 8 Bullhead, 5 Channel Cats, 1 Carp

Year Tally: 180 Fish

Another Jaunt at the Scum Pond

2010-04-21T22:45:00.000-07:00

4/20/2010

After working in the yard for a bit I thought I would go back to Cutler and try that current seam I'd found last time I was down there. I didn't have any worms, but I scrounged up an old package of prepared catfish bait. This nasty, sticky mess got absolutely no attention from the fish but did a good job of getting packed into my cuticles. Pretty soon some annoying shirtless rednecks arrived on the other side of the bridge and proceeded to cast up into my space. I decided to see what the marsh looked like further north. I lobbed my bait out along the current seam and decided to cast jigs with my other rod while I waited. About ten minutes later I thought I had a snag, but then it started moving. No, there will not be some epic story of a ten pound walleye, or a huge largemouth finally succumbing to my amazing skills. I'd snagged a carp just under the dorsal fin. At least I finally caught something on my new rod. I brought the swimming turd ashore and did what I had to do to old Mr. Bungle. At least I had good bait now. I put a piece of carp on my circle hook and lobbed it back out. Pretty much as soon as I put my rod down I had a fish on. This filthy little mongrel soon came out of the water to say hi.

Certainly a greedy little bugger. Long story short, the fish loved the fresh carp meat. Just as soon as the bait would settle on the bottom I would have a fish tap, tap, tapping away. Unfortunately most of them must have been really, really small as I couldn't hook them with the size 2 circle hook. I caught another bullhead about like the first, and I did lose something a little bigger after a short fight. Just as soon as it began it was time for work. At least I had a baggy full of bait to put in the freezer after this trip and an interesting new place to fish. That night after work I swung by the inherently evil megastore and bought some knee high rubber galoshes. Just as soon as these thunderstorms pass I'm heading back there with a sack of carp to do some more exploring. I'm determined that this is the year I catch my ten pounder.

Final Tally: 1 Carp, 2 Bullhead Catfish

Year Tally: 166 Fish

Raging Torrents of Ovaltine

2010-04-21T22:00:00.000-07:00

4/19/2010

I had thought about going back up to Idaho for some more still water fishing, but alas time wasn't on my side. I decided I'd go see how the Blacksmith Fork was looking. Runoff has begun. Nowhere near as bad as the title suggests, but it's definitely murkier than it was the last time I fished it. I was actually pretty happy about it, a little color can make the fish less spooky. It was a roasty toasty day and I didn't even think about wearing a jacket. I suited up beside the remnants of a teenage love fest (blanket, pillows and undershirt left to rot in the bushes. People are filthy.) As I approached the water my expectations were raised even higher when I encountered clouds of caddisflies. Unfortunately the caddis emerger situation in my fly box wasn't too good. I scrounged up a rather large October caddis emerger from last fall and gave it a try anyway. I had a fish swipe at my Turk's in the first run, but that was it. I worked up through some likely water and didn't even see fish eating the naturals. Definitely disconcerting. I approached one of my favorite runs and spotted a couple of fish holding by some brush at the tail of the pool. They didn't so much as glance at my offering. I soldiered on and finally a nice cutthroat nailed my Turk's.

I pulled a typical brown out on the emerger a bit further up before turning my attention to a nice seam across from me. I fished it quite a while with nothing before getting just the right drift and I missed a fish. I tried the same cast again and scored a whitefish. After getting back into position I noticed a smallish brown rising in the run and took him on the first cast. I fished that stretch of water a little longer and moved on. Nothing happened until I got to another larger run. I ended up having to switch to an indicator setup with two nymphs before getting a good hit, though the trout quickly flipped free. I worked a bit longer, getting just the right drift to get my flies all the way to the bottom, at which point this homely customer came calling.

He munched my new creation, "The Timmy." I fished it a while longer and was about to give up, when another whitefish ate Timmy. I switched back to a dry/dropper rig and kept working upstream, scoring a small brown here or there, but nothing too exciting. I received a number of refusals on my dry in a set of riffles, but no takers. I've never seen the fish in this stream be so particular. Lame. In one deep run I could see a trout actively feeding on emergers up in some brush. This was going to be tough. He wouldn't turn around for my fly if I dropped it below him, but he was surrounded by branches. I kept at it and was eventually able to tuck my fly in to his right. He immediately shot over and nabbed my emerger.

I also managed a couple more whitefish out of this hole before moving on. I fished on through some great looking stretches, but nothing really happened. I switched my dropper to a Carrot's Ear even though I'd only seen a few mayflies hatching today. Soon I came to a good bend pool with some nice undercuts. I let my flies drift up against one of these undercuts and a brown yanked my fly under the bank. After a short put spirited little skirmish I held this little devil in my hand.

I was nearly out of time, but I managed a couple more browns of similar size in that run and the next. Overall a pretty fun couple of hours, but I had expected more under the circumstances. Perhaps if I had come prepared with smaller caddis emergers things would have been different.

Final Tally: 15 Browns, Whitefish and Cutthroat

Year Tally: 163 Fish

In the Land of the Deafening Frogs and Buttrock

2010-04-18T23:03:00.000-07:00

4/18/2010

I found myself alone on a Sunday afternoon, so I decided that today was the day to head to Idaho for some stillwater fishing. I drove over the secret passage and got my self some Chubway and gas. I drove north up I-15, enjoying the new Horse Feathers album as I went. The album ended right as I pulled into my destination. I noticed a fisherman in a pontoon hunkered down in the shallows near a small inlet. As I ate my sandwich and got geared up, he stayed in that area. Though I didn't see him catch a fish, I figured he must be getting into them over there. I eased into the water and was delighted to find water in the low 50s. All this warm weather has really gotten things going. I fished a couple of leeches on a sinking line with nothing. I decided I'd try to some deep midge fishing, but still nothing. I noticed the pontoon guy was heading up the bank I was fishing, so I thought I'd pass him by and try his spot if he was leaving. As we passed we got to talking, and it turns out my suspicions were correct, he'd been knocking them dead over there on an olive leech. He showed me a four pounder he'd caught, I thanked him and hurried over to the honey hole. I missed a fish before even getting there, and then I had one on, but he threw the hook. The next fish I hesitated on and got a solid hookup. I heart Kamloops. They fight so hard for their size. I brought him in and was dismayed to find that he'd completley engulfed the size 8 Crystal Bugger and was bleeding badly. I decided I'd be eating trout for dinner tonight, but I didn't have a stringer as I wasn't planning on it. I eventually fashioned a stringer from my landing net's cord.

R.I.P Little Buddy

I caught a couple more and missed several more, and then things dropped off for a while. I bobbed around enjoying the cacophony of amorous frogs and foul minded fowl, though not the sound of redneck's buttrock blaring from their trucks. I guess that's what happens when you fish near Malad. This place is weird, people drive down, look at the water, and then turn around and leave. I don't really get it, but there's always traffic coming and going. I watched a bald eagle hop around on the far shore, and felt kind of embarrassed for the osprey that missed a fish and then couldn't get back out of the water again. Eventually he made it, but it took several tries. The sound of a loon flitted across the water, and I realized that most of the annoying people had gone home. About this time some clouds came in and fish began to eat midges off the surface. I started getting tons of hits, and I actually managed to catch some too.

One of them seriously jumped seven times in a row. I love these fish! I tried fishing an indicator with a midge pupa and a beadhead olive Crystal Bugger below it since the fish were eating midges. I missed three before finally landing one. He took the bugger. I switched back to fishing my sinking line. The sun came out and things slowed down again. I decided I needed to get home and clean my fish. Overall it was a fun day. If I would have landed everything that hit it would have been my best stillwater trout trip ever. I probably missed 40 fish and landed 12. Two took a size 12 black peacock Crystal Bugger, and the others took the size 8 olive Crystal Bugger. I didn't get any monsters, they were all pretty much the same size, 14-16" and healthy. I went home and enjoyed some grilled trout and green beans. Delicious. The stories I've heard of how tasty the trout are from this reservoir are true, it was one of the best trout I've eaten. It's flesh was bright orange like a salmon, and it tasted a lot like one too. Yum.

Final Tally: 12 Rainbow Trout

Year Tally: 148 Fish

Down at the Scum Pond

2010-04-18T22:38:00.000-07:00

4/16/2010

After reading a post on the internet about some rather large kitties being caught down at the local scum pond, I started thinking about trying something different. I had been planning on going after some ice-off trout in Idaho, but I had yard work to do, and I just wasn't going to have time. While raking up some debris, I discovered some worms, and my decision was made for me. I collected some bait and packed up my gear. I first tried the boat launch nearest to the house, but I wasn't too impressed. Something stole my bait after 30 minutes, but that wasn't enough to keep my interest. I drove down to a highway bridge that usually holds some fish, and made my way down to the water. Suddenly, everywhere I looked there were snakes sliding down the hill as I approached. One brave little trooper took a stand and refused to slither away.

I passed through the gauntlet of garter snakes, and chucked my worm out. Before I even got a chance to cast out my jig on the other rod, I had a bite. I quickly reeled in this little feller.

I caught a couple more of them, and then I realized that my larger nightcrawlers were all gone. I decided to try some preserved shad that I had. They seem like they should work, but I still haven't caught anything on them, and today was no different. About the time I lobbed the stinky fish out into the drink, a crazy couple in an old 1960's speed boat came under the bridge and proceeded to zoom around in circles for about 15 minutes. Well, nothing happened on the fish front for 15 minutes. They eventually left, and I ditched the dead minnow. I scrounged through my worm container and found a decent sized worm. Almost immediately I had a strike, and this one actually put up a little tussle. Certainly not a ten pounder like the ones I'd been hearing about, but marginally better.

I couldn't find any large worms, so I gobbed on a bunch of little ones. I quickly felt another tap tap on my rod, and to my surprise it was a channel cat, but far from ten pounds.

Things dropped off after that. The vintage boaters came back, so I switched to the other side of the bridge. It looked interesting, but in the ten minutes I fished it, I broke off a jig and my catfish rig. I'll have to come back to that spot when I have more time, and I'll have to find some carp meat and big crawlers.

Final Tally: 6 Bullhead, 1 Channel Catfish

Year Tally: 136 Fish

Old Flame

2010-04-18T21:59:00.000-07:00

4/14/2010

With all the attention that I've been giving The Blacksmith, I decided it was about time I visited my old love, The Logan. I had to stop for a guard duck at the mouth of the canyon, but eventually he let me pass. I drove past The Right Hand Fork a ways, finally settling on some rather attractive pocket water. I hiked down from my car for a decent while, trying to find an easy access point. I bushwhacked my way down to the river and soon hooked a nice little brown on my new attractor from a shallow riffle.

I pulled another brown of pretty much the same size out of that same riffle on my new dropper, "The Timmy." Another clone came to the net on the attractor just upstream of the others. At this point I suddenly realized that wearing my jacket was a stifling, sweaty, awful affair, and that I needed to ditch it ASAP. So I walked all the way back to my car, and then all the way back down to where I'd left off. I fished past a few minor spots with nothing, and then scored this pretty cutthroat on the dry from a nice flat run.

I worked my way upstream, eventually coming to some really deep long runs I'd been salivating over on the walk down. I got a few refusals from cutts on the dry, but no solid hookups. I could see some ridiculously huge whitefish on the bottom and decided to work on them for a bit. I missed one, but for the most part, they didn't want anything to do with me. That was kind of a disappointment, but I soldiered on. I came upon a nice little pocket up against a hollowed out part of a boulder and scored this sexy thing on a green and black Copper P Tail.

After that it all kind of blurred together. BWOS were coming off, and I even saw a few caddis. I lost my attractor to a tree and switched over to a big orange Turk's. I scored this stout little fellow on it somewhere in there.

At the tail of a fast little pocket, I scored this healthy brown on the Turk's. I went airborne several times (as most of the browns did that day) and took me downstream about fifty feet. I clambered over several boulders, amazingly not falling to my death, or at least to my embarrassment, before finally netting him.

I saw a lot of nice sized fish rising around this time, and I really should have tried to match the hatch a bit more closely, but I was lazy and running out of time. I still scored a few more fish, but had a ton of refusals. With about ten minutes left, I came upon a long deep run that was full of dozens of nice cutthroat greedily rising to the hatch. I had a lot of looks, and a few misses, but I only ended up landing this guy,

and a smaller brown. About this time, four carloads of college students came galumphing by, putting the fish down. It had to head to work anyway, so I hurried off.

Final Tally: 14 Browns and Cutthroat

Year Tally: 129 Fish

Ice Off at the Local Pond

2010-04-11T22:11:00.001-07:00

4/9/2010

After all the wind and then warm sunny weather that we'd had, I thought I'd head down to the local pond to see if the ice was off yet. It was completely gone, but apparently I wasn't the only one to discover this. Trying to escape the crowds, I took a little dirt road down to some weedy shallows at the far end of the reservoir. I quickly noticed NO TRESPASSING signs posted at several spots along the road. I was a little nervous, this is the only place to take my float tube on this lake without the fear of annihilation by brainless boaters and wooers. I hiked down the road past the signs and took a look around. There was an awful lot of crap strewn about as well as a smattering of fire rings. I wouldn't want a bunch of a-holes trashing my land either. I didn't see any signs of life, but I decided to chuck a big clown colored jerkbait and a chartreuse double willow spinner bait for a bit, despite the dead frigid water. Well, at least it was good casting practice with my new baitcast rig. I only had a couple of small backlashes, and those came when casting into the wind. I just might get the hang of it after all. Well, I knew it was likely a waste of time fishing the lake this early, so I decided to go home and work in the yard. I saw the landowner when I got back to the car, and he didn't say anything. Hopefully I can keep parking and hiking in past his property, or I just might have to give up on musky fishing.

We Have No Cutthroat Today

2010-04-11T21:03:00.000-07:00

4/8/2010

It felt really good to get out and fish after all that cold weather, so with an even warmer forecast today, I decided I really had to go back to The Blacksmith. I really didn't have a choice in the matter. I drove quite a long way up the canyon, sipping Mt. Dew and munching pretzels as I went. I pulled over at a favorite spot, Damien stating, "The papers say I'm a killer. Papers lie," as I turned off the car. I took off my indicator rig and tied on my big ugly attractor pattern from yesterday, a Carrot's Ear dangling below. Today was a special day, I was able to bring the good camera along. Oh happy day! I'm tired of out of focus washed out blah. After about a three minute pee I found myself in the river, working my way upstream. The first little pocket I cast to brought a respectable trout up to slurp my dry. I hesitated a moment, as I should have, but I missed him completely and he wasn't coming up again. I hit a couple more small pockets before moving up to the tail of a really long run. I could see a decent cutthroat holding against the bank. My fly came drifting toward him, but before he could take it, a small brown darted out from the undercut bank and nailed my nymph. Oh well, he was a pretty little guy, nevertheless.

I kept fishing my way upstream, but nothing was holding in the shallow riffles. Toward the head of the run I found some deeper water. Still nothing was happening, much to my surprise. I looked at my dropper and decided it was a bit short. I tied on a longer line and a little bit heavier fly, a green Copper John. That did the trick as the next cast brought me another small brown. Up ahead was a truly delicious looking run, with fast water down the middle, and deep, slack water on the sides. I decided now was a good time to ditch my jacket in the car as I was beginning to overheat. This was the first time outside in a t-shirt this year, and it felt pretty good. I hurried back to the gorgeous stretch of water, ready to get down to business. First cast I missed a fish. Soon I found another small brown in my hand. I cast up a little further, then something distracted me long enough for a rather large fish to blow up on my dry. I instinctively set the hook as soon as I saw the splash, pulling the fly from the fishes mouth. I kept working the run and soon had a whitefish on the line.

I kept fishing the run, missing two or three fish for every hookup, when I hooked up to this butt ugly bruiser.

I caught a couple more big whiteys, and then things started to slow down. I switched back to a double nymph rig, a small flashback bwo with a midge pupa below. I managed a few more whitefish as well as another small brown or two. I had probably hooked or missed 25, 30 fish out of this run, so I decided that was pretty okay and I really ought to move upstream. I skirted around some fast water and found a deep, strong run with slower water along the bank abutting some large boulders. Oddly I didn't get a single hit, and I didn't the last time I fished this run either. Some spots are like that. Somewhere in there I lost my bottom fly, so I put the trusty Copper John back on. I saw a really nice looking spot along the far bank, but unfortunately it was under an overhanging branch. I made several presentations before finally getting my flies to drift under the branch. That was the ticket. I set the hook on a nice trout that shot around the pool like a crazy wonky cat that has just discovered crinkly plastic drop cloths before it took off downstream. I pursued my quarry and eventually cradled this stout little brown in my net.

I kept hiking upstream through mostly fishless fast water, though I lost a truly gargantuan whitefish to the current along the way. I found a huge bend pool with water that was likely over my head. Below the pool was some seriously powerful current, so I had to come down the bank at the tail of the pool. Unfortunately I spooked two particularly handsome trout that were hiding up against some rocks. I crossed the stream and got into a better position. I cast to the spot where the trout had been and actually got a hit. It was a fish that was maybe a third of the size, and he popped off anyway. I worked the entire run with no more action. I moved upstream to another, shallower bend pool, and still nothing. AT this point it was time to get to work unfortunately. Stupid meeting making me get there 30 minutes early. Oh well, at least that one run was amazing, and the sun felt wonderful on my now toasty brown arms.

Final Tally: 14 Whitefish and Brown Trout

Year Tally: 115 Fish

Flashback

2010-04-10T18:16:00.000-07:00

4/7/2010

After over two weeks of cold, snowy, overcast nastiness, the sun finally peeked it's face out to say "Hi." I'd been getting rather restless, so of course I took the opportunity to head down to my favorite trout stream. As I drove up the canyon, it seriously felt like I'd gone back in time a month. Snow blanketed both sides of the mountain, and once again it was hard to find a spot to pull my car off. I passed some water that I had remembered taking note of last time, so I flipped around and went back for it. The sun felt warm and welcoming as I trudged through the snow, but as I reached the water, it slipped behind the mountain. "Perhaps it's not so warm after all," I thought as my breath unfurled before me in a cloud. Oh well, onward I went. I didn't see any bugs hatching, but I figured the blue wing olives should be getting active, so I tied on a size 18 olive mayfly nymph beneath a small black Turk's. Within a couple of minutes I hooked about a 12" whitefish from a fairly shallow riffle. He flopped free as I tried to grab him, but that was just as well. There was a deep bend pool up ahead that had me a little excited initially, but I soon discovered some rather difficult currents and didn't get a single strike from it. I waded around the bend, and saw a much more enticing bend pool about 100 feet upstream. I worked my fly through the faster riffles at the tail end, but nothing happened. I moved up to the main pool, and I knew it just had to produce. There was a nice chute of fast water coming down the near side, and a wide area of nearly dead water adjacent to it. It looked to be a good two and a half, three feet deep closest to the rapids. Almost immediately I missed a fish on the dropper. On the next cast a little rainbow rocketed up to intercept my dry. I scooped it up in my new rubber mesh landing net (which I'm really digging by the way) and snapped a quick pic before releasing it.

It's a rare treat to catch rainbows on The Blacksmith. They're just not that common. My dry was looking kind of soggy, and I thought I might do well to fish a heavier dropper in this water, so I re-tied. I put on a big ugly size 10 something or other that I'd slapped together with foam, rubber legs, deer hair, and chartreuse craft fur, with a size 16 Flashback Carrot's Ear for my dropper. First cast got me a decent whitefish of maybe 15". The next few casts brought similar results, though sometimes the fish would quickly become unbuttoned. I was admiring the visibility of my new attractor pattern when a lovely cutty devoured it.

I fished the run for a bit longer and then decided to move on. The next little run ran between two clumps of willow trees and looked very fishy indeed. First cast scored me a cute little 10" brown on the dropper. After releasing him, I flicked my fly upstream, just to get it out from below me, and as I lifted up my line for a real cast, found that it had a small trout on the end of it. After releasing it, I moved up to a fast, deep run with slower water on either side of the main channel. I was surprised by the lack of fish in it, and was about to move upstream when a "rock" released itself from the stream bed and had a closer look at my fly. I guess it failed inspection, and the cutthroat slowly sank to the bottom, never to be seen again. I moved up to the head of the run, where the water spread out and slowed, and noticed a decent sized trout gulping something from the surface film. I presented my flies to him, and he immediately approved of my dropper. He shot into the current and headed downstream, but I soon found myself holding a healthy looking brown.

I placed my next cast closer to the fast water, and to my delight, was holding another rainbow shortly after.

I moved ahead through some nice looking runs, but wasn't even seeing any fish. At the very head of a long riffle, right amongst the boulders and the turbulence, I spotted two good sized trout picking nymphs from amongst the rocks. I slowly backed away and dropped my fly down to them, but they would have none of it. Up ahead was some very fast water, so I got out and went around it. I noticed a very deep, slower pocket right in the middle of some serious whitewater. I moved into position, and thought I saw something rather large flash down there. I drifted a few casts through before my indicator fly shot under and I was hooked into something large. It shot down into the rapids, underneath some boulders, and down a small water fall. I scrambled up the bank, my rod held high, over the boulders, through the snow and around some small trees before leading this ugly bugger into some slack water where I could net him.

Why is it that the trout always get off in these situations? Oh well, it was still a fun little tussle. I moved ahead, passing a lot more fast, featureless water, before coming across a very large bend pool. I decided to switch over to an indicator nymphing rig with a size 18 flashback bwo nymph, and a size 18 green Copper John. As I moved up into position, I startled a trout that had been tight to the bank, hiding beneath some brush. It proceeded to shoot up in the run and zip back and forth like a spaz. I tried the far side of the run with not a single strike. As I moved up the run, more trout flew out from the brush, ruining this once tempting water. I was nearly out of time, but I saw a nice run up ahead. I fished it for a while with nothing, but I was pretty sure I saw a whitefish down on the bottom. The nice thing about whitefish is that they usually don't freak out like trout and can often be coaxed into taking your fly if you get it right in front of them. And that's exactly what happened. The hooked fish tore off downstream where I eventually netted him, the flashback bwo in the corner of it's mouth.

I looked at my watch and realized I had to get back to Logan fast. I hurried back to my car and tore off down the canyon, clocking in right at 4 pm on the dot.

Final Tally: 7 Whitefish, 2 Rainbows, 3 browns, and 1 Cutthroat

Year Tally: 101 Fish

Eh

2010-03-24T22:45:00.000-07:00

3/24/2010

I decided to head to Idaho and give The Narrows I shot today. On my way up I noticed that the ice was about half off of Foster Reservoir. Too bad the idiot canal company killed all the fish in it. Hopefully that means some of the other lakes in the area are opening up though. I began my way up the canyon and soon found myself trapped behind a road grader. I eventually got past the rumbling behemoth and made it to a long slow moving stretch that I thought might harbor some walleye. I didn't find any, but I did get to try my new spinning rod. Very nice, it casts like a dream and is ultra sensitive. One interesting thing was that I noticed a large pontoon with two people and a bunch of equipment on board was running down this run. I also noticed a truck driving very slowly with a radio transmitter hanging out the driver's side window pointing at the river. I wonder what kind of fish they were tracking? After 40 minutes of picking moss off my jig I decided to drive upstream and switch over to fly gear. I got down to the water and noticed clouds of midges and bwos coming off. I thought the fish would be going nuts, but oddly I didn't get a single hit or see a fish in several good stretches of water. I kept moving ahead and eventually encountered a very large sucker beached on the rocks and gasping for life. I remember seeing the same thing up here last March. Strange. I also found a smaller 20" sucker lying lifeless a little ways upstream. Just after that I saw my first trout, but they were acting weird too. They were sitting on the bottom motionless in a few inches of water. I dropped a San Juan Worm literally on one's head, and it didn't even move away. Maybe the DWR had electroshocked? Maybe a bait dunker had happened through recently leaving a swathe of destruction in it's path? I don't know, but thankfully I found active trout before too long. They were slurping in a big slackwater eddy. I tied on a Turk's with a midge emerger below it and worked them. It was hard to tell what was going on because of all the foam and debris on the surface. I switched flies several times and eventually I thought I saw my fly move. I set the hook and was finally fighting a fish. I brought it in only to find it foul hooked in the side with the Turk's. I kept trying different midge and bwo imitations, or at least the closest things I could find in my box, but to no avail. I got fed up and tied a tungsten head #20 green Copper John onto my dropper line. I forged ahead to another eddy. There were a couple of slurpers working the run, and to my surprise, one inhaled my Turk's. It was a healthy holdover rainbow from last year from the look of it. Unfortunately it slipped out of my hand, so no picture. I was almost out of time already, which had me pretty down. I just had to hit the deep riffle just upstream though, and I'm glad I did. I scored three more bows on the Copper John in the next five minutes.

I hurried back to the car and was off to work. Overall kind of a disappointing trip. I'm sure I would have caught quite a few had work not beckoned, but that's the way it goes. I sure hope Idaho starts treating me better.

Final Tally: 5 Rainbow Trout

Year Tally: 88 Fish

A St. Patrick's Day Excursion

2010-03-21T21:10:00.000-07:00

3/17/2010

After finally emerging from the BATC Testing Center, tired and bleary eyed, I found myself free in Logan at about 10:45 a.m. with nothing to do until 3:30. Good thing I left my waders and 3/4 wt in the car. After a quick stop for some Code Red and a fruit pie, I drove down to Hyrum once again. I decided to fish the section where I had done so well my first day out two weeks prior. I got on the water at about 11:30, and was surprised when I didn't get a single hit from the first run. I spooked one fish from some heavy brush, but that was all the activity I saw. I kept working my way upstream with no strikes, and very few fish spotted. I reached a classic run that had produced several fish last time, but for the first five minutes, nothing happened. Finally my indicator went down, and I had a nice fish on. I chased it downstream and finally scooped this ugly fellow up in my net.

I released the whitey and fished the run some more. I scored one small brown, and that was it. I was beginning to feel a bit disappointed, but then I reminded myself that it was a bit earlier in the day than before, not to mention daylight savings had made it even earlier as far as the sun was concerned. So I pushed on with no success, until I reached another long deep run. I could see some huge whitefish working the bottom, and I figured they were better than nothing. I drifted my flies over them several times, missing one, before getting a solid hookup. The fish took off downstream, fighting uncharacteristically hard for a whitefish. It got down into the fast water and popped off while trying to net it. I moved back to the tail of the run and decided that with the depth and length of the run that I would switch to a straight up nymphing setup. I left the Golden Carrot's Ear on and added a small midge pupa below it. First cast brought me another whitefish that shot downstream, zigzagging wildly from bank to bank. I eventually netted this lanky rascal.

I ended up taking five more whites out of the run on the Carrot's Ear, and two browns

on the midge. All the whitefish fought much harder than usual, and I was beginning to feel a lot better about the day. The water switched back to pocket water, and I switched back to a dry/dropper. It was getting rather warm now, and I noticed some good bug activity. I tied on a bwo nymph as my bottom fly and scored some decent browns from the next few areas. I worked my way up to a nice long riffle with a deeper run at the head. I scored a small cutt, and then everywhere I cast I found small fingerling cutts checking out my fly but not committing to a take. I worked my way up to the deeper water and had a number of refusals on my Turk's. I decided to change to a smaller foam bodied dry I'd made up last summer, as well as add a new dropper I'll call "The Electric Hare's Ear With a Twist of Lime," down below. I ended up scoring a few more fish, but I had a lot of fish hitting the dropper very quickly, and then letting go before I could hook them, and two of the fish I did hook on it, were foul hooked. It might be a bit much for a sunny day I've decided. Shortly I found myself at another long deep run and I scored this pretty little cutt on my dry.

I had several refusals on the dry before moving on. I worked my way upstream catching a small whitefish and a few more trout before having to head off to work. When I arrived at the car it was downright toasty inside, and I had to use the A/C for the first time this year. Nice.

Final Tally: 21 Browns, Cutts and Whitefish

Year Tally: 83 Fish

A Change of Pace

2010-03-19T19:47:00.000-07:00

3/16/2010

After a morning of studying, I decided I'd give The Logan a try before work. I only had about an hour and a half, so I was looking for some water close to the canyon mouth. As I approached 3rd dam, I noticed some nice looking pocket water below the dam. I pulled over at the reservoir, and immediately noticed trout dimpling the surface. "Why not?" I thought. This way I didn't even have to worry about taking my pants off right next to the highway, I could fish from shore. So I cast out the dry/dropper rig that I had tied up from the day before, and a couple trout looked in it's direction, but that was all. I figured they were eating midges, so I put on a Griffith's Gnat. Same result. So I attached a dropper line and a size 20 midge pupa. First cast a fish slammed it, and unfortunately I slammed back. My line popped, taking both flies with it. I rummaged through my midge box and settled on a Halo Midge Emerger. I missed the next fish, but finally I slowed down and hooked this little guy.

I missed a couple more, and then I hooked into a big fish. I brought it a little closer, and I realized I had the Queen of the Whitefish on my line. At least 20" and super fat. I brought her up next to me, and then slack. My line had simply given out. I'm wondering if a couple years of kicking around in my vest and hardly being used had weakened my lite tippet. Oh well, at least it was just a whitefish. I was getting pretty low on midge emergers, and then I lost another. I managed one more small fish before the wind and lack of flies drove me away. Plus I had to pee really bad. So I drove to the next turnoff and took care of business. I had a half hour still before work, so I figured I'd try this section. Well, I can't say I was impressed. It was highly channelized with very little fish holding water. With longer runs predominant, I decided to put on an indicator and two nymphs. I worked my way upstream, only seeing a couple of fish that were up under bank side brush, when I finally came to a fishy looking run. I cast out my flies, and a trout rose up confidently, sipping in my little yellow foam indicator, pulling it down beneath the surface. So I switched back to a dry/dropper rig, and of course nothing else looked at them. I had to head back to work, but I'm thinking I just might want to grab some new 5x and some more size 20 hooks.

Final Tally: 2 Brown Trout

Year Tally: 62 Fish

Frolicking Spiders Galore

2010-03-18T21:47:00.000-07:00

3/15/2010

Well it was a warm and sunny Monday, forecast to be the warmest day since last fall, so of course I had to go fishing. I made a quick stop at the post office to pick up my new fishing vest that doesn't smell like cat pee, then headed off for the BSF. I decided to go up higher than I'd fished before in search of spawning cutthroat. I suited and rigged up, but before I could wet a line, I needed to void my bladder of spent Mt Dew. While I was relieving myself, I noticed scores of little spiders scampering about in the undergrowth. I don't think I've ever been so happy to see spiders before in my life. Spring had truly come, it was hard to believe. The first run brought me a pretty little cutty on the Carrot's Ear.

I worked my way upstream and passed a few more likely spots that brought nothing. I noticed some little winter stones on some patches of snow, and a saw a couple of BWOs coming off, so I switched to a size 16 dark brown mayfly nymph with an olive sparkle thorax. That did the trick. I caught a nice little brown and soon after another cutt. It kept up like this for a bit, the browns and cutts were neck and neck the first hour of fishing. Then I got to a long run with some gorgeous blue green slack water against some boulders on the far bank. My indicator went under and I immediately knew it was a little better fish. It shot downstream a good 30 or 40 feet, switching back and forth across the stream several times before I scooped it up in my net. I was delighted to behold a lovely cutthroat.

I worked up toward the head of the run, surprised that more fish didn't take my offering, before coming to an even larger pool with some fast water creating a nice seam along the far side. I spotted some smaller fish feeding in the center of the pool and was able to catch a couple. I was disappointed that I didn't catch any decent fish from the run, but before moving on, I plopped my fly in the little eight inch swathe of slack water tight against the bank. Perfect, another nice cutt shot downstream, and we danced for a bit.

As I moved up ahead, the trees grew tighter and the water faster. The browns also became more numerous, taking over by a huge margin. I was able to spot fish a couple of them and even had a take or two on my Turk's before having to head to work for a late and tiring night.

Final Tally: 11 Browns, 6 Cutthroat

Year Tally: 60 Fish

Trudging Through the Lava Flow

2010-03-13T13:28:00.000-08:00

3/12/2010

I've been hearing for some time about the fantastic fishing up in the lava rocks of Idaho, but I just haven't had the time to get up there and see for myself. Finally, the perfect opportunity arose, my wife was going out of town through Saturday. Well, that old skag Mother Nature had other plans, and she decided it was going to be snowy and miserable instead. What was I to do? Why skip out on work early and go Friday. I left Logan and headed north, making a couple of stops for a five dollar foot long, some Mt Dew and an Idaho license. $98.25 later, I was headed down toward the canyon. I tied and bundled up, and hiked down to the river. There were excellent looking runs everywhere, I was pretty excited. I decided to start with the Turks/Carrot's Ear combo that has proven so deadly lately. First cast was a nice little 12" rainbow. I caught 3 more and missed another in the next 10 minutes. One even took the Turk's. I was really thrilled, I thought it was going to be an amazing day, and then the cursed four letter bane of fly fishermen everywhere showed up. My casts were landing with wild and reckless abandon, my drifts were anything but perfect. I shambled over to an especially nice looking run and spotted a decent trout feeding. I placed several casts, and finally had a good drift, I saw the trout move toward my offering, and then the wind yanked my line a foot or so forward. I flailed away some more, and decided to change my dropper to a grey scud. The wind died just long enough for me to finally hook this little bugger.

He went airborne several times and then darted into a small waterfall bending my rod like a trout twice his size. I snapped a pic and released him. I turned around and saw a young man wave at me. I waved backed, and then realized it was a fish and game officer. I trudged back across the stream to show him my license. He told me he'd talked to another fisherman a moment before that had been scoring some respectable fish to 17" on a small Copper John. I really hate fishing such small flies, but then I realized that I could use more flies up north than I can in Utah. So I slapped a size 20 midge larva below the Carrot's Ear and began trying to fish again. I think the officer cursed me as things went pretty dead. The wind was howling now, turning my springish day into a frigid and frustrating experience. After a good half hour of nothing, I spotted another nice trout feeding. My Turk's darted under, and I set the hook. It flipped the tail at me and was gone. I remembered I really need to be gentle with these dinky little hooks. I fished on in frustration, having to retie several times because of wind knots and wind caused tangles. I was moving toward the next hole, when suddenly I found myself up to my crotch in silty sludge. People had told me to wade carefully here because of sudden drop offs, unfortunately they failed to inform me that you also need to test every single spot before putting your foot down because it might not be solid. I struggled my way out, only to discover all my flies had been sucked down stream and were now enveloped in a pound or two of worm riddled vegetation (if I ever come back here, I'm bringing some orange San Juan Worms). I picked away at the mess, eventually deciding to retie once again. I also decided to go to a straight nymphing rig with an indicator. Certainly not my favorite way to fish, but I figured it would fair better against the wind than the Turk's. I also rummaged through my box and found a size 20 Copper John. I cast out my new rig and right away I had a fish on. I caught a couple more from the run, and then it dropped off again. I worked my way up to the bridge and scored a couple of spirited little bows below and above it. I kept hopping from rock to rock, avoiding anything that might give out beneath me, hitting some very pretty water, with nothing to show for it. I was pretty much ready to go home, but then the wind died, and I decided that ending on 13 fish would be bad luck anyway. I moved ahead and found a perfect shelf. My indicator reached the end of the run and I lifted up for another cast, but to my surprise there was a heavy throbbing weight at the end of the line and a big tail flapped out of the water at me. And then he was gone. A few casts later it happened again. And again. I threshed the water for a few more minutes then decided I was ready to go, bad luck or not. It was going to be dark soon, and I didn't want to drive the deer infested route home in the dark. It was a good decision. Just outside of the parking lot I encountered at least 30 deer that of course ran in front of my car. I ran into several herds along the way, but thanks to the sunlight I was able to see them well in advance. I'm undecided if I will ever return. I think the river has some great potential, and those bows put up some great fights, but it's further away than I usually go. I could go chase wipers, smallies and walleye at Willard in the same amount of time. I am curious to see what might happen if I returned under better conditions with more midges and worm imitations though. Time will tell I suppose.

Final Tally: 13 rainbows

Year Tally: 44 fish

Blacksmith Revisited

2010-03-11T20:59:00.001-08:00

3/11/2010

I'd been thinking about last week's trip to the Blacksmith Fork quite a bit the past few days. It was a fantastic way to start the season, and I really wanted to get back up there. Well the sun was shining, and though it was a bit on the cold side, I decided to head up there again. I got a late start as I'd been stuck at the hospital cleaning up a bit of a mess that had drug into the wee hours the night before. I realized I only had a couple of hours before I had to return to work again, so I settled on the lower section near the mouth of the canyon. I don't really have a lot of experience with this section as it seems to get the most pressure and I tend to pass it by. It also has a fairly high gradient and isn't always the most fun place to wade. Nevertheless, I trudged down through some soft and mushy snow to the river. Pretty quickly I caught a pretty little brown from in front of a boulder.

That was rather quick, and I was feeling optimistic, but overall the fishing was steady, but not fantastic. I caught six more browns like this one and missed a few more from similar pocket water. Along the way, I pulled a pretty cutt from a large pool where BWOs were hatching. It was tough to get a good drift, but I finally got into a good position parallel to the head of the run and caught him.

He made some nice darting runs about the pool before being led into the net. I pulled another smaller, but equally pretty cutthroat from a shallow riffle a bit later. The last fish of the day was once again the lowly whitefish.

A little smaller than last week's, but he gave a spirited, though rather brief little tussle. Most of the fish took the golden carrot's ear once again, though a few took a dark brown electric p wing nymph. Nothing on top today, though a pretty decent trout shot up to my Turk's and immediately shot back down to the depths. Overall not a bad two hours, but I think next time I'll sacrifice a few minutes to driving time and head upstream. I'm also not especially in love with the old camera I'm now using on my outings, but perhaps I'll get used to it.

Final Tally: 7 browns, 2 cutthroat, 1 whitefish

Year Tally: 31 fish

Finally

2010-03-02T22:13:00.001-08:00

3/2/2010

Nearly 4 months in the making, today was the big day: my first fishing trip of the season. It's been an especially bitter, gloomy and generally crappy winter. The only time it wasn't absolutely frigid and foggy was when it was snowing. The temperature really struggled to get above freezing the entire months of December and January. Finally, in the second half of February, Old Man Winter's sadistic little claws began to loosen their grip. It was supposed to be up around 50 degrees today, but alas, another inversion was hunkering down, trying to discourage me from going out. Well I waited as long as I could wait to head out, and around 11 a.m. I finally went for it. After a quick stop by Bep's for a friendly chat and a mug of Dew, I was off. I headed south, Doug Burr gently serenading me as I munched pretzels and sucked down the nectar that is oh so dear to me. Surprisingly there was far less snow in the canyon than there was in my own yard. Still, there was enough of it to make finding an ample pull off difficult. I ascended ever higher. I caught up to a big expensive pickup that appeared to be doing the exact same thing that I was doing. For once my dinky little car came in handy as I eased into a small bit of shoulder that was free of snow. As I got out of the car, a chilly breeze caught me and I began bundling up. I rigged up my little Redington with a small Turk's and a golden carrot's ear dropper. I remembered this nymph really cleaned up last spring, and I was hoping for a repeat performance. I shuffled down a steep hill to an inviting little run. I flicked out my flies, nowhere near as rusty as I expected, and watched the little Tarantula bobbing downstream. Much to my amazement, it popped under on the very first drift. I set the hook against some surprising weight and my line began to shoot downstream. I eventually guided the brute to my net, a lovely fish pushing 18".

Unfortunately it wasn't a colorful trout, but the lowly whitefish. All kidding aside, it was a lot of fun, and I was glad to hook a larger fish after such a long time. I worked the run for maybe five more minutes, missing another whitey and catching one of maybe 16". I moved upstream and plucked a hand sized brown out of a small pocket. The next pocket brought an even smaller cutthroat followed by a little better brown. 6 hits in 15 minutes. Not bad for my first trip out in the early season I thought. Up ahead was a series of amazing looking runs. I squaddled up to the first one, keeping low so as not to spook it's residents. I flipped my flies out, full of anticipation....and nothing happened. In fact nothing happened for the next 45 minutes. I moved up through several nice runs, sweaty and discouraged, wishing I hadn't worn so much wool, and never saw any fish. I reached some really fast, deep water and decided to get out and move upstream a little way. I got to a really deep slow run and could see some fish feeding. I got one decent sized fish to inspect my offering a couple of times, but he just wouldn't commit. I moved a little further up to some faster water toward the head. Finally, I hooked into a couple of small browns and missed another. I switched to a cased caddis larva for the dropper and scored another. The transition to the next run was difficult due to brush and deep water, and in my struggling, I spooked 3 nice trout out of some very shallow water by the bank. I started fishing this faster shallower water, and to my surprise, a nice brown sucked in my Turk's.

And then my dropper. And then my Turk's again. This was more like summer fishing, not early March. The next run brought a refusal on the dry and a miss on the dropper. I wondered if there were still fish down in there that wanted something different, so I switched back to the golden carrot's ear. First cast, fish on. I worked my way upstream popping fish quite frequently. My Turk's drifted past some brush on an undercut, and a 12" brown darted out and snarfed it down.

The next cast brought the same results. I hooked another big whitefish somewhere in there too.

I looked at my watch and much to my chagrin, it showed 2:20. I had to wrap this up an head to work, but first I had to hit a classic run that lay before me. While no more fish rose to the dry, several slurped down the nymph including a spastic brown who thought he was a rainbow, jumping six times, another big whitefish,

and a pretty decent cutthroat.

As I hurried back to my car, I felt satisfied. Even though I only had two and a half hours to fish, it was the best early season first trip of the year I'd ever had.

Final Tally: 14 browns, 5 whitefish, 2 cutthroat

I heart Icelandic Sheep's Wool

2010-02-23T22:05:00.000-08:00

I've been busy gearing up for the coming season and have found the coolest material I've used in a long time. Icelandic Sheep's Wool seriously makes the best baitfish imitations. I had to buy it in 8 colors it was so good.

Now if it would just warm up and this cursed ice and snow could melt away so that I can give them a try in the water.

A Year in Review.....and Some Goals for the New Year.

2010-01-31T21:16:00.000-08:00

So I’ve decided that there’s no way I’m going to get caught up on last years fishing reports, so I think I’ll just write down some highlights, and some goals for this year.

I didn’t reach my goal of 2009 fish in the year 2009. I fell short at of my goal by 146 fish. It just got too cold, and too busy. I still had a great year though. I caught way more largemouth than I’ve ever caught.

I still haven’t beaten my size record, but I tied it seven times. I learned a ton of new techniques and refined some others. I gained a huge amount of confidence in some lures that I had never done well on before, like crankbaits:

and stickbaits.

I also fell in love with some new ones I hadn’t tried, such as brush hogs:

and shakey heads.

I also found smallmouth.

I was a little afraid when we moved up here that there weren’t any smallmouth nearby. Well I found them, and in a river no less.

I also started making my own lures, and the fish aren’t the only ones that are hooked.

I caught way more musky than last year, and lost many more.

I caught lakers on the fly, as well as my first splake, and a really nice brook trout.

I also caught my biggest rainbow yet.

It’s a shame it was on a spinning rod, I was actually looking for bass.

Though I neglected the rivers this past year, I still had an amazing August afternoon full of nice cutthroat and a pasty surprise on the Logan.

I also hit my first salmon fly hatch.

I happened across some rather tasty perch and walleye in my travels as well.

After such an excellent year, it wouldn't seem that there are many more goals I could have, but I've thought of a few. For one, I really want to catch a tiger musky on a fly rod. Besides getting a nice 8wt, I've been working on some furry concoctions to turn those toothy critters' heads.

I'm also hoping to make it down to Willard this spring to take a shot at some wipers, and I really want to try tying into some big spawning walleyes this spring.

Well, as the snow flies outside, I'm dreaming of a sunny spring day out on the water. I hope it gets me through.

Weston Reservoir 5/14/2009

2009-07-01T21:37:00.000-07:00

Well I enjoyed myself so much the last couple of times at Weston, that I just had to head back. I wanted to try out a new bass fly I made up, and I was excited to catch a bass the very first cast on it. Unfortunately things slowed down for a bit. I picked up a few more on a 3" watermelon seed grub. Things just weren't as fast as I had hoped for. I rummaged through my gear and uncovered a bag of 4" skirted double tail grubs. I was apprehensive seeing as they're quite large, but I tied one on anyhow. I cast it out and let it sink to the bottom. Fish on. I slowly crawled it along the bottom and started nailing fish. I hooked into the best bass I've taken yet at Weston, 17". I was running out of time before work, so I headed back to the other shore. I caught my first dink of the day. I was about to leave when I found a bass at the end of my line. I didn't realize that he was even on there, and he unfortunately tried to swallow the thing. I guess they like anise. I cut the line and wished him well. I got 19 bass, 14 on the one grub before it was devoured. I have a new favorite.

Total fish for the trip: 19
Total fish for the year: 100

Weston Reservoir 5/7/2009

2009-07-01T21:25:00.000-07:00

I paddled over to my favorite new spot and quickly caught a nice bass on a Purple Weston fly. I caught one more and then it got quiet. I decided to try a drop shot with some Gulp! minnows on my spinning rod. The wind was really starting to blow and it was hard to sense strikes. I caught a few more, but got fed up with being blown around so much. I beached my tube and fished from shore for a bit. Things were pretty miserable with blowing rain. Things let up eventually, but I was losing time. I paddled back across the lake and decided to try a ring worm on a jig head. I took a few more, and then took a few more on a caterpillar grub. I ended up with 11 bass between 12 and 15". I was rushing to get to work and forgot that my mug (nearly full of delicious Mt. Dew) was on the top of my car. Amazingly it made it a mile at 55 mph before it flew off on a curve. I flipped a u turn and found it, only slightly damaged. It's sitting next to me now as I type this.

Total fish for the trip: 11
Total fish for the year: 81

Cutler Reservoir 5/2/2009

2009-07-01T21:23:00.000-07:00

My parents came to visit, and John really wanted to fish. Unfortunately it poured rain all day. We had a little window in the weather and ran down to Cutler. We each caught a bullhead, and then another storm blew in.

Total fish for the trip: 1
Total fish for the year: 70

Weston Reservoir 5/1/2009

2009-06-28T22:49:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-28T22:34:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-28T22:29:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-28T22:22:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-28T19:16:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-28T18:54:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-28T18:41:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-28T18:28:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-28T18:23:00.000-07:00

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.