Learning to Long-arm

An elusive Saturday with no morning commitments led to an easy decision.  Time to go fishing!!!

Hannah and I made the 1.5 hour exodus to the pond to find ideal conditions.  Blue skies, light wind and Rob leaving the pond with a friend and his son.

After a quick debrief on what was working between vehicles on the dirt access road, Hannah and I were at the pond stringing up two 5 weights.  I saw a trout cruising the shallows and made a quick cast to connect with a nice 18" bow.  One cast.  One fish.  Not a bad start!

We made one pass with Hannah dragging a rust colored bugger on an intermediate clear camo line.  She immediately saw some action.

Hannah with her first fish of the day!

 She fought it valiantly all on her own and we successfully landed it.  A nice decent sized bow.  She wanted a picture, so we tried it on her own.

Not a bad hold.  The fish had seen some raceways judging by the appearance of the fins.

We continued trolling and action was a bit slow, so we tossed out a floating line with a heavily weighted olive and white Dalai Lama.  It was immediately crushed!  Hannah landed this smaller bow quite quickly and like a pro!

Fish #2.  A little better hold this time.

We continued on.  Hannah was having a great time and getting pretty good action.  She got another healthy little bow for #3.  This time, she was introduced to the fine art of long-arming!

Hiding the arms nicely!  Only the hand size is the giveaway!   Did I mention Hannah has HUUUUGE hands?  #DonaldTrump

We decided to make one last pass before making a run to Red's Fly Shop for me to pick up a few last minute items before my trip of a lifetime to Christmas Island (Kiritimati).  The last pass was successful as we got one nice bow (pictured below) and another one that was not pictured.

Long-arming a larger fish!  Great job, Hannah!

Hannah finished the day 5 for 5.  Not a lost fish!  That's better than the #MerrillBoys can usually say!  It's good when you're ending a fishing trip and your daughter asks "When can we go again?"  Proud dad moment!!

Anniversary!

I've been married to Mary today for 34 years.  My sweet wife sent me fishing with Brad, my son-in-law, this morning so we went to Leeds Creek since we are visiting St. George again and helping care for Mary's mom.

Wonderful combination of blue sky, red rock and green plants

The day was sunny and clear which made for vibrant colors up the beautiful canyon.  With careful examination, there were actually many flowers in bloom in this desert ecosystem.  The stream tumbles down from the slopes of Pine Valley Mountain and this was my second visit.  We elected to try a different stretch than last time and hope to get a better idea of which parts of the stream are best for access, scenery, and fish populations.

A closer look up the red rock found this cactus in bloom

I was casting first but ended up breaking off in the tree tops. This is a very brushy creek.  While I was tying on another Renegade, Brad stepped up and cast his Humpy up into the run and quickly hooked our first fish of the day.

Brad with the first fish of the day

A short distance upstream and Brad spotted what he thought was a tarantula crawling up a rock in the middle of the creek.  I got out my camera for a close up photo and as I approached was surprised to see a very wet bat that had somehow ended up in the stream and was crawling up and out of the stream onto the rock to dry off.  I don't know how effective a bat pattern would have been for the cutthroats, and I don't know if it would technically be considered a terrestrial since it does fly, but I didn't have a bat fly so didn't bother to try.  I just kept working the Renegade.

First swimming bat I've ever encountered

Trying to dry off

I finally found a fish not far upstream from the bat/swimmer.  There were a wide variety of flowers in bloom along the stream bank. What a beautiful day!

I finally found one!

Streamside beauty

We were fishing and finally came to a point when the road got close again to the creek and decided it would be a good stopping point. After one more fish, we hiked up the hillside back to the road and then down the road to where we had parked for the drive back home. From the road walking back we had views across the valley into Zion National Park. But now it is time to spend the afternoon with my sweetheart visiting a local gathering of artisans.

My final fish of the outing

Beautiful cutthroat

A multitude of blooms on the walk back to the car

View across into Zion National Park

Slightly different angle looking further north into Zion National Park