Utah Cutthroat Slam II - Day 4

Today was the day for Rob, Tom, and Dover to close out their slams. We would be fishing another south slope stream, Yellowstone Creek, on the National Forest land. The creek was reported to have not only Colorado River cutts, but also rainbows, brooks, and browns, giving us the chance for a different kind of slam, catching all four species of trout in the same stream.

After breakfast at Cowan's (really good pancakes!), we headed north towards the mountains, winding through hills and flatland dotted with oil rigs pumping crude from the ground, a sight that is common everywhere around Duchesne. Arriving at Yellowstone Creek, we found a crystal clear mountain stream in a beautiful forest setting. While Rob and Dover were still getting ready back at the truck, Tom cast into the first run we arrived at, and pulled out a beautiful Colorado River cutt to complete his slam.

Tom starts the day completing his slam on almost his first cast

Beautiful Colorado River cutt

If this was any indication, this was going to be an easy end to the slam, and a great day of fishing. But things are never that easy. I thought we had agreed to walk down a ways, then fish up, so went downstream a bit to a good looking hole while Rob and Dover finished getting ready. By the time I finished fishing the water down below (finding a couple rainbows and a brook), I realized the other three had headed upstream, so I just kept fishing down. I found pretty water, and some fish, but not in spectacular numbers. Missed quite a few beside. By the time I turned around to head back to the starting point, I had three of the four species I needed for the trout slam.

Rick Colorado River cutt is not quite as impressive as Tom's

My nicest rainbow from the several I caught in Yellowstone Creek

A decent brookie from a stream

The high hopes from Tom's first run did not continue for the upstream boys, who worked hard to find a Colorado River cutt for Rob.

Rob completes his slam with a Colorado Cutthroat from Yellowstone Creek

By the time they hit the upstream dam, Dover was still cutt-less. We took a break in the pool above the dam, where we found nothing but rainbows, then headed downstream to try and find a cutt for Dover.

Dover finds rainbows, but no cutts

Starting near the campground where two channels came together, Tom fished with Mike up one channel while Rob and I fished up the other. Tom was polite, letting Mike fish the water first, and Mike was not polite, catching rainbow after rainbow after rainbow. Rob and I found similar action up the right hand channel. A lot more fish here than where we had been upstream. I even pulled out a small brown to complete my four-species slam! (Tom also achieved the four-species slam today)

A little brown completes the four-species slam for Rick

By the time we got to where the channels split, we had caught a bunch of fish, but still no cutt for Dover. And just a little ways upstream, we came to a National Forest boundary with barbed wire across the stream marking private land (that is just wrong!). So we turned around and headed for my backup plan, the South Fork of Rock Creek, a tributary upstream of where we had fished yesterday. It comes in just below Upper Stillwater Dam, an impressive structure that captures water to transport to the thirsty Wasatch Front farmers and cities.

Upper Stillwater Dam (courtesy of Wikipedia)

The gravel road winding through the forest from the dam rose quickly, such that the small stream was far below in a steep canyon. The map showed the road crossing a couple miles upstream, so we knew it had to get closer to the stream further up, and it finally did. Tom, Mike, and I hopped out of the car while the old man Rob rested. This was a small, forest stream, tumbling from pool to pool through rocks and downed timber. It looked like Renegade water to me, and it was. I quickly had a small Colorado River cutt to hand.

Colorado River cutt from S Fork Rock Creek

I called back to Tom and Dover who were still getting ready at the truck that we were certain to find success for Mike here. And we did. Within about 5 minutes, Dover had his Colorado River cutt to complete his slam, and Tom also found a nice one.

Mike got a nice Colorado River cutt from this small creek to finish out his slam

Dover and I would have loved to finish the day in this beautiful little stream with ample numbers of pretty, small, trout, but Tom had visions of more big fish from the Strawberry in town, so after only 10 minutes of fishing, we packed back in the car and headed to town, where as dark was falling, we did find some more and bigger trout in the Strawberry. With the slam complete, we enjoyed a nice dinner at Cowan's and made plans to fish our way home tomorrow.