Good ol' Weeb 08/24/08

8/24/08... With my dad's death this last Wednesday, I definitely needed to get out and do something enjoyable. Thanks to my friend Nick, I was able to get away for a few and do some fishing on the good ol' Weeb.

Things started out hot, as Nick put on 3 fish in 4 casts... I had a nice brown that took me for a spin and tossed the fly 5 to 10 jumps later. After the nymphing/streamer approach stopped producing, we moved onto the hopper and attractor patterns... Nothing like fishing big dries in the summertime.

Nick racked up the first score of the day with the "no looker" catch of a nice cutt under a bank... Those swift currents suck down a hopper, and this is what comes out. I think the sweet shades he had on had something to do with the lucky catch though....

I tied myself on a size 10 PMX and decided to hope for the best. While the fishing wasn't incredibly fast, my fly did produce some vicious takes from some hungry browns. While they were fun, the best part (and subsequently worst part) of the day was the 20"+ cutt that sipped that fly off the top. He took me for a ride, and right before netting him he popped loose. It was easily my biggest fish of the year, but I couldn't land him...(but I know where he lives).

The rest of the fish that decided to fall for my tricky fly were some aggressive browns. All in all it was a fun day. We didn't get tons of fish to the net, but we had plenty of them on. Its always a good time to get out and chuck some big bugs and enjoy some time in the outdoors with friends.

Wind Rivers Trip 2008

So,

The Wind Rivers trip made for a decent work out... Due to some unexpected altitude sickness on the part of a friend (who will remain unnamed) we were lucky enough to do 10 miles IN the first day, and 10 miles OUT the day after...

There are some great views from Photographer's Point which could easily be done as a day hike, or a short overnighter. We ended up making it to Seneca Lake to camp that first night. The goal was to reach Island lake, to have some short day hikes that would put as at other lakes to fish for Goldens... It was not to happen though. Here are a couple pics from Seneca.

The fishing was ok at Seneca, plenty of willing rainbows a bit larger than those found in most the other Winds lakes. After a night spent on a super slanted slope, and a little breakfast, we headed back down.

The trail was in great condition, as it is travelled fairly heavily. On the way down we got the chance to fish at a few lakes, with some sparse action at a few of them.Once we made it back down to the trailhead, we had to decide what to do with our two and half remaining days. We decided to camp out at a lake called Half Moon Lake fairly close to our trailhead.

The fishing wasn't great at Half Moon, although we did see a monstrous fish jump just out of fly range... I can only assume it was one of the lake trout that cruise around in that lake. After leaving Half Moon, we headed into Pinedale to fill up with gas and make our way to the Green River. I should add that our original destination was changed because of an approximately 12,000 acre fire that was burning in the Winds while we were there. The Cedar City hotshots fire squad stopped into the gas station while we were grabbing some food. The fire was started by some idiot who left his campfire unattended.

After filling up, we headed toward Salt Lake, ready to make our stop at the Green. We ended up doing a little fishing at the Fear access area of the Green. The fishing was good, lots of cutts and browns on dries (Royal Stimmies worked well). A guy down river from us was dunking some worms and catching some big trout. His final brown had to be 20" plus. After a short time there, we made our way below Fontenelle dam for some trophy water fishing.

We started fishing at the border of the Seedskadee Wildlife Refuge. These rocks were really the only fishable structure in the area. The rest of the river was wide open, and you had to cover some water to find the fish.

In the riffles by the only structure around, I managed to pull out this fat rainbow... This guy was sitting over 18" and shaped like a football. I'm sure there are plenty more in there this size and bigger, but this was the biggest of the trip for me. Needless to say, I stayed in the area for a little longer that evening trying to hook up with another good fish.

After finishing up with these riffles, we decided to head to our camp. The bugs were so thick that we didn't even bother to set up tents... we were making due with the inside of the blazer. Brandon had the crazy idea to take some pictures with the bugs. While the pictures don't do any justice to the sheer number of bugs in the air, Brandon's cool dance moves say it all.

Right before we decided to pitch our blazer tent and go to sleep, we got in a little more fishing in the last light of the day. There were fish rising everywhere, but I have no idea what they were taking. I threw every dry fly I had at them... It didn't help us at all that 95% of the fish rising were on the far side of the river. Someone strategically made the river level come to a height just above the chest line on my waders.

Here I am getting in a few final casts...

Brandon thought he would try and hook up as well, but like I said, no such luck.

Once we finished our sleepover in the Blazer,we cruised over to another section of the Green to see if we couldn't get into a few more fish. When we woke up, the wind was howling and it was raining fairly steady. One look at the horizon let us know that good weather was on the way.

I ended up picking up a few on the riffle we had fished earlier, but the real luck of the day was all Brandon's. The final fish of the trip was the biggest fish he'd ever caught.

All in all, a decent trip. I can't break my bad luck streak of spending one night in the Winds before we have to hike down... I'm definitely going to be hitting up this section of the Green again sometime in September.

Upper Weber

A friend of mine had his last opportunity to do some good Utah fly fishing before heading off to dental school in Wisconsin. Apparently, I'm the go-to guy for last minute fly fishing trips since I can get away fairly easily. Our destination: Upper Weber near Oakley. We could have used more clouds and less wind, but it was a fun outing. Wading the river was pretty tough with how slick the rocks were, and Ryan took a spill more than once. (Thanks to my superior athletic ability and sure-footedness, and my huge muscles, I was able to avoid falling in).

There were plenty of cuttthroat ready to take some big dries, and Ryan's random hookups with two whitefish. The weird thing was the absolutely 0 browns landed... All in all a fun trip to a section of river I'd never really fished, and a good chance to get a final outing with one of my more frequent fishing partners... I guess we're limited to fishing holiday vacations now.

Sorry for the lack of pictures (again). I'm headed up to the Wind Rivers in a week, and I promise to take the camera...

In the Beginning

Well,

This blog thing has caught my attention, more by forcible immersion in the blogger atmosphere than anything else. My wife has the constant need to see what her friends are doing by "blog surfing". Shortly thereafter, I was shown a blog dedicated to the only thing that could make me appreciate this "blogger" lifestyle: Fly Fishing.

So, here it is, the first official fly fishing post of my life. I'll fish for just about anything, and prefer to avoid the crowds that swarm on the Provo. I rarely take pictures of my fishing adventures; I seem to have the knack for winding up well over chest deep on just about every fishing trip I take. Countless cell phones have fallen victim to the raging waters of the Weber, Provo, Little Dell Reservoir, and Mantua... One day I'll have a waterproof cell phone that floats...

Hopefully you find my posts entertaining, and possibly informative. Suggestions are always welcome.