Lower Huntington Creek

Day three of this southern Utah road trip found us travelling from Escalante to Provo. That could take three days if I stopped every place I'd like to check out between the two, but with one day and Carlynn along, I limited the fishing to a couple quick stops in between some slickrock scrambling, a side trip to a short, but impressive slot, and a diversion to a distant, but not so impressive dinosaur quarry.

Our path took us by Calf Creek, which I couldn't pass without at least a few casts, so I pulled out at a different section from last time and found the fish not quite so willing, with only a couple to hand and a few to the fly and dozens swimming around my legs as I walked on through the holes. This was closer to a bridge and a big pull out, so perhaps they are a bit more skittish here. I did catch one from the main highway bridge, though.

Later in the day, I stopped at Lower Huntington Creek. The first stop was in the bait allowed section, where the river is larger and runs pretty fast. I probably had 6 to hand in a half hour, most out of one hole, size about 8 to 12 inches, all browns except one. A couple are pictured below.

I saw one about 16 inches jump clean out of the water upstream, but couldn't find him. Then I ran into a stretch of river where the water ran fast over smooth bedrock, found no more fish, and decided to continue on to Provo. Well, maybe to continue on upriver a couple miles, then on to Provo, because when I got up above the left hand fork the main river was much shrunken in size and was clearly calling out my name. Shouting it, in fact. The car was practically steering itself into every pullout we passed, so I had to stop.

I was rewarded with several quick fish, including one caught with my newly discovered, no-hook method of catching fish. Really, no joke! I was drifting double nymphs through a hole and hooked (I thought) a nice 11-inch brown. The fish appeared to have twisted up in the line, but when I went to untangle and unhook it, I found the lower fly wrapped around the upper fly, and the resulting loop of leader wrapped around the pectoral fins of the trout. I lassoed the fish! Let's see my good ole pardner Tom catch 'em like that!

All fish in Huntington were on the psycho prince fished below a glorified sinker (brown beadhead stone). This river gets a 3 1/2 fly rating, well worth further exploration. It appears to get quite a bit of pressure, but could yield good numbers of fish, and fish with some size. In the upper stretch I saw fish in the 12 to 14" range holding several pools, but couldn't entice them with my offering. The stream is easily accessible from the highway which follows it for many miles from the outlet of the dam at Electric Lake to the national forest boundary near Huntington. The left fork of the stream, which is special regulation and I believe hike-in, would also be worth a look. If you are passing through the area, it would be a good idea to plan your route by way of Huntington Creek, and leave a few extra hours in your travel plans!