Black Fish-day: Southern Utah edition

The day after Thanksgiving is Black Friday for some, but Black Fish-day for Merrill boys.  Since we were in Southern Utah we decided we could leave after dinner yesterday and drive home to fish with Rick and Tom, or we could just make the 20-minute drive to Leeds Creek.  Proximity won out so off we went late this morning to Leeds and the namesake creek flowing from the northern slopes of Pine Valley Mountain.

It was a beautiful sunny day with temps in the 60's.  Probably a bit more comfortable for us than for Rick and Tom today, who frequently are out in the snow, sleet, hail, or rain doing their best to avoid hypothermia.  Company was good today and the fish were cooperative though the creek was brushy.

Helping Jeff into the brush, er, creek

With me were Natalie's husband Brad and his dad, Jeff who fished with me in Wenatchee when they visited in June.  Leeds Creek is a brushy creek and the section we fished today was no exception.  I had a Renegade on, no surprise, Jeff a Royal Wulff, and Brad with an elk-hair caddis.  We all wanted visible flies.  Sometimes that was to be able to see them on the water and other times it was to find it in the trees.

Jeff watching the fly

We climbed into the creek and after fighting a bit of brush Brad & I had caught a couple of the beautiful Bonneville cutthroat trout.  Jeff went next and managed to have a number of fish to the fly and landed his first Bonneville today.  He also became better acquainted with some Leeds Creek brush.

Jeff's first Bonneville cutthroat 

I had an enjoyable day and was able to get a few extra casts when one of the Scherck crew was in the "penalty box" trying to get their fly out of the tree.  A good host would probably have been helping them but I've been fishing too long with my brothers and a fly in the brush means I'm back in the water for the "power play".

Rob with a "power play" Bonneville cutthroat 

We spent about three hours on the water (and in the brush) and as the sun went behind the mountains we climbed out of the creek and wandered a bit through the brush until we got to the road to walk back to our parking spot.  A short drive home, through the car wash so Mary will let me continue to take her minivan fishing, and it was turkey noodle soup at Grandma's before heading the the theater for a traditional movie night with the kids.

Happy Black Fish-day to all!