Leeds Creek

Mom has always said I could catch fish in a bathtub. Well, catching trout in St. George, Utah might seem almost as far-fetched, but this morning I visited an amazing little stream, Leeds Creek, that runs off the Pine Mountains just to the north of St. George. I left the hotel just as dawn was beginning to show east over the distant cliffs of Zion National Park, and 25 minutes later I got out of the car and immediately heard that beautiful sound of tumbling water. Looking down the steep bank, I couldn't see any water, but the volume of what I heard was that of a substantial mountain stream, enough to raise the hope of any fisherman.

Scrambling down the steep hillside, I saw quite a bit of trashy fisherman sign and empty worm cups, which dampened my anticipation slightly. I came to a small, somewhat brushy stream, shown below in one of the more open areas.

I quickly caught my first fish, the monster shown below. He fell off in the dirt, where I rescued him and sent him back to grow up. I hoped there were a few more bigger than that.

The first bit didn't yield much action, but then I came to a larger hole that was a bit more open. I could see a fish at the head of the hole feeding, and promptly caught three nice 8" to 9" Bonneville Cutthroats out of that hole. The next hour or so was full of action. The stream was brushy, but not so brushy as to be frustrating. There were enough open areas to keep the action stready. Often you could see the fish holding in the bottoms of the holes, like the one below. I got him with the famous Dr. Tom bow cast, putting the fly right on top of him and watching him slowly follow it down towards me and then suck it in - awesome!

The fish were gorgeous, all about 7" to 9", the one below being the typical smallest fish.

I started dry dropper, and caught the first couple on a psycho prince, but as soon as the light came up a little, it was all hair wing yellow humpy. After a while, the dropper broke off, and I didn't re-tie it on. Probably had three dozen or so to hand between about 7:30 am and 9:00 am.

On the climb out of the canyon, I saw no trails or footprints but those of deer, and had to avoid tons of prickly-pear, which was everywhere. Wonderful scenery, great fishing, I give this one a five-fly rating, not to be missed.