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...