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 fish and to keep their address confidential the back ground has been distorted.

Mike Shelton & Jeff Donovan

Bear Lake Mac

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

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.

I eat Pato with Garfa not chopsticks

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 with nice Tiger trout and the occasional cutthroat. Most of the fish took Large terrestrials and a few were caught on nymphs and streamers. What a great fall day of fishing. Nothing like taking large fish on huge terrestrials.

Bluegill Colors

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 slightly different from fish to fish. Here are a few pictures from a solo trip in late June.

Eastern Utah Day Trip

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.

Anasazi Fly Fishing

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. Pictured are some of those that cooperated.

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 the big deep hole. Goat stayed by our sides and went where we went. It stayed on the bank and watched us as we caught a few fish. This was a well behaved goat and it did not splash in the water or scare the fish in any way. Everyone should have the pleasure of fishing with a fishing goat. White fish are fun

Streams in Spring

BWO and Midge Buffet

I 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