Pine Creeks on Boulder Mountain, Utah

On vacation with the family visiting Southern Utah canyons, I found some time to visit two Pine Creeks, one on the southeast side of Boulder Mountain flowing into the Escalante River, and one on the northwest side of the same mountain flowing into the Fremont River. I had my secret fishing weapon Jessica with me, to kiss the fish and thank them before they were released, which increases the fish catch by about 50% when you are so polite to them!

Pine Creek (SE) was a small stream about six feet wide, clear and cold. I fished it right at the Lower Box trailhead where it flows out of a beautiful canyon cut through the mountain. Some of the holes were flowing along slickrock faces, really cool. I caught about 15 to 20 small browns in an hour of fishing, and Jessica came and joined me for the second half of that time and caught a couple. Fishing dries only, and could have had a lot more smaller ones that looked at the fly and decided it was too big. Worth visiting again and hiking and fishing up the canyon if you are in the area. I was going to fish higher up, but the van overheated and we had to turn around before we got to the top of the mountain.




Pine Creek (NW) was a smaller stream that you could jump across anywhere, more like a little ditch, about three feet wide, up to mid shin at about the deepest. Tumbling off the mountain beside the road, it would be overlooked by most people. Even I had my doubts. But Jessica and I climbed into the creek and immediately started catching small cutts, fishing for about 45 minutes and catching about 30 fish between us. What a hoot! Fishing a humpy with the upright white wings for visibility. I would definitely fish this one again if I were in the area, just because I love catching fish in miniscule streams. There was definitely fishing pressure as there were lots of trails from the road, but the creek left the road just upstream from where we fished, so I would like to walk up a ways and try some more. I think you could find a little bigger fish.





Some day my dream is to take a couple weeks fishing and exploring all these creeks in Sothern Utah. Fish two or three every day. Tom, you up for that? Hmm, maybe in 5 or 6 years when you have time again? Rob, you can drop off Mary in St George and join us?