A Few Minutes with Dover

Anytime I'm in Utah, it's a pleasure to fish with my nephew-in-law, Mike Dover, if we can make our schedules work out. In between moving my Mom into a new facility closer to my sister (and providentially closer to a couple of our favorite streams in the area) and getting together with siblings, I had a few hours free. A quick call to Dover, and he was more than willing, having just sent his oldest son and fishing partner off on a church mission for two years. Stay at home and cry, or go fishing and drown your sorrows along with a fly. Not a hard choice! We figured with the drive time there and back, we'd have about 60 minutes to fish, not enough, but better than not fishing!

He picked me up and we headed to a small creek that had been completely killed off a few years ago by a major fire that burned most of the watershed. I had read reports that Fish and Wildlife took the opportunity of the fish kill to try and restore the native Bonneville cutts into the stream. It had been about four years since the fire, so chances seemed good we'd find some fish. And that we did!

They were a little more picky than the cutts I had found in Clear Creek, often rising to look at the Turks but not taking it. I tied on a dropper and found enough action to keep me happy, some on the dry, some on the dropper. 

Mike switched to our normal go-to fly, the trusty renegade, and started hauling them in. The fish of the day had flashed on my dry but wouldn't come back. It was more than willing to take Mike's renegade. This 13-14 incher was probably from the first plant after the fire, an incredible fish from this little stream.

Well, we both had things to do, so after an hour of fishing we reached quitting time, then continued for about fifteen minutes through several "just one more holes". Luckily, we came to a long stretch of fast water and so were able to bring ourselves to leave this lovely stream. And I wasn't even late for the sibling dinner! I could have fished one more hole...