Due to requests from a few I will update this blog. I'll try to add some photos from recent trips. This is from a small stream trip after work with my friend Drew Glauser. We caught many small Bonneville cutthroat on dry flies.

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.

Strawberry

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.

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

Day 2 of Powell

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.

Striper (not Stripper) Search

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 shad. These small boils were nothing like the large bay filled boils that I have seen in Youtube videos of Stripers feeding on shad. We kicked and rowed our little boats all over in search of boils and big fish. We were able to find a small boil that produced some smallmouth.


Another time I was taking a break high on a rock enjoying the scenery in shell lady bay and I was able to witness many small boils and watch the small mouth attack the bait balls from below. We were not able to catch any stripers, although we did catch many other species.



I am not sure if it was the full moon or the recent cold front that caused our limited success; nevertheless, it was a great time in a magical place. There is nothing quite like kicking a small pontoon next to hundred foot cliffs or having a small bay all to yourself. Next year I am going to try again and hopefully the timing will be better and we can find the stripers.

Confident green sunfish and bluegill

Perfect Lake for a Lunch Break

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...

Great North Slope Trip

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 dorsal fins. We measured a few at 14”. This lake is also famous for large Brooke Trout, we were not able to catch any giants but we did manage some respectable trout. The only downside to the lake is the lack of cutthroat. In the 80’s I used to catch some nice cutts in the lake but they were nowhere to be found on this trip.

On the way out we decided to stop and check out the stream. Brent saw some glimpses of red and down we went for a Coke or two. What a great day to get into the high country.