tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22423658684711459262011-12-02T21:41:30.584-08:00Brandon's fly fishing Journal Utah Fly FishingBrandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comBlogger471100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-41497353504028045772011-12-02T21:34:00.000-08:002011-12-02T21:41:30.722-08:00

October/November Terrestrial fishing. It's been a while since I have posted anything so I better start getting caught up. A few shots from a pretty spot where the cutthroat love big ugly floating insects.

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-4488164979397116522011-05-10T21:12:00.000-07:002011-05-10T21:17:09.605-07:00

That's right, in certain areas it's fly fishable. Get out soon. My boy and I stopped on our way back from another location. We caught 4 cutthroat and Drew caught a rainbow in an hour. Nothing huge but it was fun. The horned lizard was the true trophy.

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-31543104538253755772010-11-11T21:17:00.000-08:002010-11-24T08:04:37.445-08:00

Hit the River for a few hours with Mike and Jeff. This is a river I used to fish with my Grandpa when I was a teenager. Each time I go back to the stream memories return of past trips to the stream with my Grandfather. In those days I used to fish it with a live grasshopper, now I use the fly rod. Today was not a terribly fast day but we managed to get some pigs. To protect the identity of the

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-91798350421514039892010-10-11T16:53:00.000-07:002010-10-11T17:03:42.612-07:00

Finally, 3rd time is the charm. Saturday I woke up at 3:00 am and Met Jason Haslam and new friend Joe at Bear Lake. This was my 3rd try in 3 years and it finally came together. Not large but I was very happy to get this one off the Utah Fish list.Joe (known by some as Mr Loopy) killed it his first time. He ended up with 2 Macs.Photos thanks to Jason Haslam

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-4393432547392301692010-10-07T20:44:00.000-07:002010-10-07T21:01:47.659-07:00

This week finally brought weather more typical of autumn but that has not stopped the Cutthroat at a certain lake from taking large terrestrials. I did a solo trip on Saturday morning and could not keep them off. Wednesday I met Mike and we started looking for fish. The wind was terrible and the fish were a little more cautious but we still caught some nice cruisers.

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-47847275766740030262010-10-04T19:31:00.000-07:002010-10-04T19:47:32.324-07:00

So I get a call from my friend Andy and he wants to go to an old haunt with stories of nice Tiger Trout and Colorado Cutts. Little did I know that Andy forgot how to get to this location. We missed our turn off and soon had a nice 2 hour side trek up an ATV trail in the Chevy Impala.Countless bumper scrapes and tail pipe dings later we made it to our location. The lake is Crystal clear and teems

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-73284515787493030592010-07-14T20:07:00.000-07:002010-07-15T16:03:24.117-07:00

I love catching large Bluegill on Flies. For their size the large Bluegill of Pelican Lake fight about as good as any other fish I have caught on a fly. I can't describe the kick I get when I throw the fly into the reeds and feel the strike. Once hooked these fat fish go to their sides and dive like flounders. The real reward is when you get one to hand. They are full of color and patterns are

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-62221125914705380742010-05-31T14:32:00.001-07:002010-05-31T14:50:44.315-07:00

Day trip out east to a couple of my favorite lakes. Shore fly fishing, I did not even need waders. I caught a lot of fish, saw a lot of deer, elk and even some pronghorn. pictured are some of the prettier fish.

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-69877018251502805652010-05-10T17:36:00.000-07:002010-05-10T17:49:22.283-07:00

It was a difficult trip to say the least. Little sleep, High cold water and cold weather made the fly fishing less than optimal. Our first destination was for Pike and Largemouth but the water was muddy and at least 15' higher than last year...no success. It was off to Lake Powell. Powell was beautiful as always but the small mouth were very deep and only a few large mouth were on the prowl.

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-5313716318254030822010-04-05T22:31:00.000-07:002010-04-05T22:45:48.461-07:00

I took a couple of buddies (Drew & Andy) out to the Basin for some Brown Trout fishing as it had been very good the week before. We tried Starvation for a while because the ice was just coming off but we did not have any luck. We packed up and hit a river for a few hours. After arriving at our destination we were greeted by a friendly goat. The friendly goat followed us as we went up the river to

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-73879507085213208212010-03-28T22:01:00.000-07:002010-03-28T22:19:16.294-07:00

BWO and Midge BuffetI was finally able to get out for some fishing last week. In fact I was able to hit 3 separate streams in 3 days, all of which supplied multiple species taking BWO’s on top. 2 streams eventually drain into the Great Salt Lake and the third into the sea of Cortez. I love it when the white fish feed on surface patterns. More to come this week

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-84665259135455193802009-10-27T19:02:00.000-07:002009-10-27T19:10:32.001-07:00

Because the fishing at Powell was pretty slow we decided to head east and catch a few Pike. Fishing was not nearly as fast as it was for us in the spring but we did manage a few good fish. Brent took the largest fish of the trip.

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-90053682877372059422009-10-07T19:59:00.000-07:002009-10-07T20:07:38.744-07:00

Brent Stout and I spent a southern Utah weekend at Lake Powell in search of Stripers. A Striper is the only Utah game fish that Stout has not caught on a fly and this weekend he was going to accomplish that goal. We thought that the shad would be in the bays with the stripers following. Right at first light we saw quite a few small boils, probably small or largemouth chasing little schools of

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-71116584019032156272009-09-23T23:29:00.000-07:002009-09-23T23:44:48.590-07:00

Every September there are a few local Stillwaters that start to get good, and when I say local I mean 15 minutes from Salt Lake. On one such water I rarely see another Fisherperson. The water is Emerald Green, Crystal clear and full of shore line patrolling aggressive Bonneville Cutthroat. I go to work, hit the lake at lunch for an hour (or two) catch fish, no more stress...

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-62486793251277204962009-08-30T21:21:00.000-07:002009-08-31T15:04:49.454-07:00

Brent called me and wanted to catch some Utah Grayling, so off we went to a North Slope Lake. On the way out we saw Pronghorn and this nice big Bull Moose. We hiked our boats into the destination lake and right off the bat we were hooking up with Grayling. These were not wimpy 8” grayling that you see near the Mirror Lake Highway but these were well fed with bulging bellies and big beautiful

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-85857049736036261462009-08-21T21:54:00.000-07:002009-08-21T22:37:16.670-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I received news that my Grandfather was in poor health and did not have much time left on this earth. My Grandfather was the person that taught me how to fish when I was a young boy, at first with worms and live grasshoppers he showed me how to sink them into the deep holes of the Bear River in Rich County. As I got older I moved on to Daredevils, Panther Martin spinners and

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-3436080607833569012009-07-16T16:00:00.000-07:002009-07-16T16:12:02.204-07:00

I finally went fishing again. It had been a while but the wait was worth it. I fished my favorite stream for a few hours this morning and had a great time. I was the only person on the water and the CRC's were fat and handsome. No browns today. Hoppers were the ticket (the kind with big rubber yellow legs)

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-2519216410967337812009-05-17T11:51:00.000-07:002009-05-21T07:46:28.456-07:00

With a new supply of salt water streamers I hit the road with Brent Stout to try a reservoir in southern Utah that was rumored to have abundant Northern Pike and some pretty nice Largemouth. We packed our boats into the Chevy Impala and gassed it to our destination.This was my first time fly-fishing for Pike and I was not quite sure what to expect. We were not on the water more than 10 minutes

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-62890659654490358162009-05-06T15:11:00.000-07:002009-05-08T20:40:27.616-07:00

I was reading a post on Utah on the Fly about how bad a certain Stillwater had become. I found it pretty entertaining considering that I have been fishing this little lake for about 5 years and this was the best that it has ever been (for me). Big Juicy Rainbows

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-42877700575457507312009-05-04T21:20:00.000-07:002009-05-04T21:37:29.897-07:00

I decided to head solo up to the most popular stillwater in the state. The ice where I fished was about 30' off the shore and there was a slight breeze. The weather was typical Utah spring conditions including snow, rain and sun. I only fished for about an hour but it was a productive hour for cookie cutter 16" Cuttthroat. I was hoping for some of the big boys but I never found them. Today the

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-74040440437760735422009-04-24T22:41:00.000-07:002009-04-29T19:51:22.364-07:00

April is a great month to Fly Fish in Utah. I love fishing Ice off. It was a great day for catching as the ice was retreating at a local stillwater. The ice is going fast and the catching should be pretty good for another week or so. We caught Rainbows, Tiger trout and Crayfish. It was not as fast fishing as last year but we still managed a few doubles and too many fish to count.

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-6778431770704706222009-04-16T21:53:00.000-07:002009-04-16T22:04:14.462-07:00

I don't know how but little brother talked me into hitting the lower Provo. As always with this stream I had to resort to the old basketball skills of boxing people out and flaring elbows. Once we were able to establish position on a good run the fishing was constant for chunky rainbows and browns.

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-79813429551673771232008-12-11T20:31:00.000-08:002008-12-11T20:35:20.292-08:00

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-73149329466197884962008-11-20T22:54:00.000-08:002008-11-26T17:10:01.875-08:00

Just a bunch of pics from various trips this month

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-58010399865431796562008-11-07T20:21:00.000-08:002008-11-23T15:57:19.658-08:00

It was supposed to be BIG FISH FRIDAY, but we got out the door late and had to change our destination. We decided to hit the old standby Strawberry. It was unusually slow so we did not stay too long. I did manage to get a few on Stout’s version of Larry T's wiggle bug.On the way home we hit the MP, it was teaming with chunky little fall spawn rainbows. Throw in a brown here and there and it

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-73761145320219461242008-11-01T23:45:00.000-07:002008-11-01T23:47:47.653-07:00

I woke up very early to hit Bear Lake with Brent. Brent is the scientist and he puts in a lot of time and study into finding out how to catch these things with the fly rod. It is safe to say that he has it figured out. Halloween morning was slow and this was the only Mac caught.

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-67856116626727309302008-10-21T23:22:00.000-07:002008-10-21T23:35:09.562-07:00

I have been getting out on short mini trips: Strawberry one morning and the Weber Horseshoe to name a few. G-ville has been good to me as well. Here are just a few pics.

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-26815738046277962992008-09-20T11:34:00.000-07:002008-09-30T22:59:15.725-07:00

Two short trips in the last few days. The fishing has not been red hot for me but we ran into some nice fish. Utah River Browns and Idaho Kamloomps.

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-88676560224521363292008-09-02T20:47:00.000-07:002008-09-02T21:00:27.723-07:00

Had some work out East so I hit my second favorite stream for an hour on the way home. Still a lot of water coming out, I had to break out the old school Gremlin sinkers to get the nymph down to the right depth. Had some very nice fish, I should have brought a net.

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-36410354655621428562008-08-27T22:00:00.000-07:002008-08-27T22:05:53.969-07:00

I have been thinking about it all summer, so I just decided to go and hit my favorite stream, work could wait. This was the place where my Grandpa taught me to fly fish. It was a beautiful day; the fish were taking hoppers and caddis, no other anglers in sight. It was just me and my Colorado River Cutts.

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-55510012014309595642008-08-15T22:40:00.000-07:002008-08-15T22:55:07.763-07:00

Since the boys start school next week I thought that we should get out to the Unitas for an over-nighter. The weather was wonderful and the night was brisk. The fishing was fast for multiple small species. I even managed to get a couple of Grayling. For the boys the highlight of the trip was playing on the Island in Washington Lake. (They also loved burning sticks in the fire and the catching the

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-57013474128195114302008-07-25T23:02:00.000-07:002008-07-25T23:13:46.592-07:00

Took the scouts to King Fisher Island Mid July. We had emerald glass for the wake boards and beautiful sandstone cliffs to jump from. The rope swing was a blast (pictures to come). Of course the best part of the trip was the extra fast fly fishing for Small Mouth Bass. It was insane. I was too busy fishing and releasing to take many pictures. Most of the fish were stuffed with crayfish. The last

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-62626578849536415072008-06-29T22:30:00.000-07:002008-07-07T21:06:34.438-07:00

My boys have been asking to go fly-fishing so we hit the local man made lake. Bluegill, Bass and Green sunfish were out in full force. The gills were guarding their beds and for a while we just sat and watched them chase each other around. Bass were cruising the shoreline and destroying the damsels.

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-43080881399814382932008-06-27T23:13:00.001-07:002008-06-27T23:30:51.134-07:00

The week started off rough with an unexpected visit from corporate big wigs. Somewhere some executive decided our Idaho and Utah offices were just too expensive to maintain so they shut down the offices. I guess that I should not complain and be thankful that I still have a job. To relieve some tension I headed down south with JD and rumor of careless trout chasing huge bugs on top. Destination

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-3228979706997754742008-05-30T21:21:00.000-07:002008-05-30T21:39:42.914-07:00

Morning shift this time on a high run off Uinta stream. The fishing was great for a mixed bag of Rainbows, Browns & Whitefish. Had A huge hog take my gear and snap me in the High water.Nice and sunny with good company. Garter Snakes and baby Robins. I love the spring

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-43368851136866330442008-05-29T13:21:00.000-07:002008-05-30T15:40:09.738-07:00

Took a break and headed up 215 for a nice lunch with no food. I always have the rod in the vehicle for those quick covert opperations. The trail was lush and green. Run off was very high but I was able to find some small pockets where trout were taking cover.The jewels loved the Stimis

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-16807932803595890712008-05-16T15:27:00.000-07:002008-05-16T15:35:14.634-07:00

I had to follow up on a hunch. The hunch proved right and the fishing was fast for small bows in the run off. Great lunch break from work

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-73799494617195183022008-05-12T14:44:00.000-07:002008-05-20T13:40:32.877-07:00

Not Michael Scofield but the other. Talked Jason into taking off for a half day and giving it a try for some rainbows, cutts and tigers. the fishing was constant and the rainbows were fat and healthy. We could see them chasing the minnows near the rocky shoreline. Mostly rainbows with a cutt and Tiger in between.

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-30357704959453300892008-04-28T23:18:00.000-07:002008-04-28T23:31:05.317-07:00

April 26th 2008Since our trout lakes were either not accessible or filled with dead trout we decided to hit the local warm water fishery. It proved to be a good decision as there was no wind and the bass and bluegills were already in the reeds ambushing our flies. No bobber needed, just a flick of the fly into the reeds with a strip, strip bam. We fished all morning into the afternoon on the west

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-57094554898351411082008-04-28T15:04:00.000-07:002008-04-28T15:27:18.410-07:00

4/25/2008It was supposed to be the bloody fingers trip; however, our favorite lake was not accessible due to the snow on the roads. We did make it into a neighboring lake and found the ice just coming off. We thought the fishing would be red hot but unfortunately the winter took its toll. We found too many dead rainbows to count littering the shore and the ice, the ravens were feasting on the

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-78831913385997714642008-04-05T22:40:00.000-07:002008-04-17T23:23:31.261-07:00

I was finally able to get out for the first time since November. The day started off slow but picked up in the afternoon. We caught multiple fat rainbows below indicators.

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-36122196869324489962007-11-11T21:34:00.000-08:002007-11-11T21:46:32.075-08:00

Hit a favorite tail water with a good friend, there were too many people to count. We only fished for a whole 5 minutes

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-46401328695944981012007-11-09T14:32:00.000-08:002007-11-09T14:37:15.952-08:00

We were perched high on a ledge watching for cruising cutts. A few cooperated. The water was crystal clear and hardley a breeze.

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-72161868500805462622007-07-17T20:14:00.000-07:002007-07-17T20:31:05.133-07:00

Took the boys out fishing on a small stream. Action was great on an EHC and a big orange stimmy, even with the boys splashing through the creek. Brookies, Cutts and Garter snakes

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-79806011049407239542007-07-13T22:57:00.000-07:002007-07-13T23:08:28.327-07:00

Saturday July 7th hit a small north slope stream with Brent and listened to a lot of Shiny Toy Guns. It was a great day of dry fly fishing with no other anglers in sight. We caught White fish, Cutts and Brook trout.

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-20991708657551771152007-06-11T22:02:00.000-07:002007-06-11T22:08:47.988-07:00

Hit a favorite lake on May 31st and found some very nice Tiger Trout. This one measured 25 inches.

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2242365868471145926.post-8892337096287071932007-05-25T12:39:00.000-07:002008-04-18T22:50:19.520-07:00

Tiger Trout fishing on the 12th of MayIt was cold and snowing and we almost turned around. After a short discusion we decided to get to the lake and I'm gald we did. We caught many nice large Tiger Trout

Brandonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07411843619451342564noreply@blogger.com