Saturday, April 9, 2016

Spring breakin (new fish record)

Amy took all the kids to St.George for their spring break.  Since I'm still relatively new to my job, I"m trying to limit my days off, so I stayed home.  Not a lot on my agenda but first order of business is fishing.
I decided to break in the fishing year with a trip to Diamond Fork Thursday night.  I get to my spot around 5:30 without another person in sight.  I decide to go with the green Psycho Prince Nymph and a red beadhead WD40 dropper.  I hit the first seam I see and get a bite but my rusty reflexes are a little too late and I miss the the strike.  That is the only action I will see for the rest of the evening, it was discouraging.
I decided on a change of venue for Friday, so I head to the Provo.  I drive to the spot just below the camp ground before the Deer Creek dam.  I'm greeted with 5 cars in the parking lot but I decide to head down anyway.  I make my way to a favorite deep run with a BWO emerger and an olive scud dropper.  I know this run has fish in it but they do not like what I'm offering.  I notice a fairly bigger fish rising and just sipping bugs off the surface.  I change my setup to a BWO dry fly and move my way over to the rising fish.  On the second cast I land this fighter for my first fish of the year:

First fish of the year.
I continued to clean out the run with 3 more fish, smaller than the first one.  I decide to call it a night.

I decided to head back to Diamond Fork on Saturday, knowing the Provo will be a popular place with the nicer weather in the forecast.  I start with the same set up as a couple of nights ago (Psycho Prince Nymph and WD40).  No action in the first 30mins.  I snag my line and break off my current setup.  I decide to take the opportunity and change it up.  I put on a Crystal Flashback Scud and a beadhead Prince Nymph.  I decide to double back and try my previous holes I just fished.  First cast in and my yellow strike indicator dives down fast....fish on.  A small 12 inch brown, first fish landed on Diamond Fork this year.  I hit the same run and almost the exact same fish landed.  I move up to the next run and land 3 more, roughly the same size.  Then as I'm about to move on my strike indicator disappears quickly and to my surprise, I land this meaty brown:

Healthy Diamond Fork brown
I love the contrast in colors between the two fish from different rivers.  I fished most of the day and land around 15 (Diamond Fork record) on the same setup, they went back and forth on each fly, it was a great day.