On the way...

It's always fun to break up a drive and find some fish on the way to somewhere. Today was one of those days. After dropping Mel and Taylor off following on day of fishing, I was headed to Southern Utah to fish with Sarah and try to get her started on her cutthroat slam. I was staying at a hotel near Bryce Canyon that night and meeting her in the morning, so I could arrive as late as I wanted. By my calculations, I could get to a little stream partway to hotel with about an hour of daylight left. My pre-trip reconnaissance found that four years ago the stream had been poisoned and rehabilitated to restore Bonneville cutthroat. It sounded promising, and it sure lived up to its promise.

I left the interstate and drove down into a pretty little canyon. Within a few miles there was a beautiful little stream beside the road, and I hadn't seen another vehicle. Found a pull out, and with the first toss of the Turks tarantula a beautiful Bonneville cutthroat was brought to hand.

One of many Bonneville cutthroat I found on the way...

The next hour was heavenly, with willing fish in every spot where you would expect one to be, aggressively attacking the fly. Had a couple dozen to hand in the hour I had to fish. Nothing giant, all about 9 to 11 inches, but every one beautiful and healthy. It amazes me the beauty you can find when you take the time to stop on the way...

First Time Fishing with my Newest Son-In-Law

Can you believe my youngest daughter has been married over a year and I hadn't taken my new son-in-law fishing yet? Another parental deficiency that was remedied on this trip to Utah. 

I met Melinda and Taylor in Provo, and after a stop at McD's for the #6 meal to ensure a successful day fishing, we headed up the canyons to a couple headwater streams in the Wasatch Mountains. I'd been there previously with the girls on one of our many Utah trips and had particularly fond memories of this tiny stream that meandered through an open, grassy valley, and was full of small and willing tiger and cutthroat trout. A great place for your first crack at flyfishing. 

One of my happy places

Mel showed Taylor the ropes while I figured out which fly was most liked by the fish today. Turks tarantula was the ticket that brought many small cutthroat and tiger trout to hand. With a little coaching (or despite the coaching?) Taylor got his first fish on the fly, a little tiger trout. 

Then we took turns for the next couple hours, laughing at all the fish we missed, getting some to hand, and just enjoying the beautiful scenery. I can't think of a more lovely way to spend a day!

We found more cutts than tigers this time

With Taylor and Mel moving to San Francisco next month, we might start having some posts with trout from the Sierra Nevada! We'll have to see...

First Fish with Kestrel

Upon arriving in Utah, the first order of business was to take my granddaughter fishing. She's not quite three years old, so we wanted someplace easy. Her dad works for someone who has a cabin up the Provo river area with a private pond on the property stocked with trout. Sounded like a good place to try. 

Beautiful drive up the canyons to the cabin, a short walk along the Provo River, and we arrived at a small pond with grassy banks...and huge fish! Trout 20" to well over 24" suspended, cruising, occasionally sipping something on the surface. Tossed out a hopper, in short order I watched one of the monster trout slowly rise, suck the fly in, then swim off as I set so hard I think 20 lb tippet would have broken. Yeah, a little overaggressive. Tied on a renegade, lots of looks, then another giant sucked it in. With a more measured set, he was hooked and I handed the rod to Kestrel. Having never fished before, I don't think she really understood what she was doing, but we helped her hold the rod and reel. Her mom got the net under the fish, and when I lifted the fish out of the net, Kestrel started screaming "No! No! No!" and hid behind her dad. So Jess kissed the fish and we returned it to the pond. 

Fat rainbow from a private pond

I was able to entice one more to the fly, and Jess missed one and broke one off, but Kestrel wanted nothing more to do with fishing. Next time we'll find someplace with small fish that won't terrify her.

Tied on lots of different flies, but could only entice a couple

On the walk back, I cast a hopper into the river, had a few 12-inch size lookers, then had a monster cutt slowly rise and take down the hopper. I got a solid set, but had a lot of line out and it swam right towards me faster than I could get the line in and it came unstuck. Dang! Wish I could have that one back, but there will always be another big one to find.

On the Way to Utah...

Headed to Utah to visit kids and take them fishing, move my Mom to a new place, get together with siblings. So with a newly minted annual Utah fishing license in hand (well, on my phone), I faced my first choice as I neared Snowville. Continue on the freeway and fight the Ogden/SLC rush hour traffic, or take a detour to a small creek west of Snowville and see if I could find a Yellowstone cutthroat to start my third Utah Cutthroat slam, then finish the drive when traffic had abated. Duh! Is that even a choice?

An hour and half of scenic backways and gravel roads later, I was at the side of a very small and extremely brushy creek, one of the few in Utah where Yellowstone cutthroat trout are in their native range. The epitome of small creek fishing. Mostly dipping the fly, a couple bow and arrows, lots of tangles in brush. Missed three and had two drop off the fly before I could get the net under them. Finally got one to into the net for a quick pic to start my slam.

Yellowstone cutts are so pretty

Definitely a remote area with tiny streams a normal person would probably never visit unless you needed to find a Yellowstone cutthroat for the Utah Cutthroat slam. Well, I've been back here five times now, not always for the slam. I'll own the fact that I'm probably not normal when it  comes to fishing...