Work, Work, Work,

Today was quite a crazy fishing trip. It started off great, It was Matt, Kyle(XBAMFX), and myself. I invited Lyf Erickson and his family, and also one of my customers Wade Milne. He was going to bring up his boys and go shoot rock chucks. We got up around 4 and all had some action, but not a lot. Kyle got a couple, I don't remember what Matt did, I got one that was a 19," that was quite a fight, and quite heavy. Lyf and Bryn were spinner fishing around the spring side of the lake. They weren't having any luck though. Wade showed up, so I kicked back to shore to tell him where to go, but he was all alone and hinted that he wanted me to show him where to go, so I did. By this time it was about 7:30, so I had some good time in the water already, so i figured what the hell. I hadn't got to spend anytime with Wade outside his shop, so i figured it would be a good opportunity. I showed him some places and he shot some rock chucks. We got to talk and get to know each other a little better which was great. He seemed like he really enjoyed it as well. Lyf caught up with us and Bryn got to watch Wade shoot a couple rock chucks. She seemed to enjoy it, its a darn shame. We had walked around until about dusk, so i got back in the water in time to get another hit, but missed another one. I had about 3 hits landed one. It has been very slow fishing lately, but when you get one its always a special treat. They are harder fighting and a lot bigger than the last few years, but not the volume, catch 22. On the way home we sure had a good time listening to Kyle tell us about WOW, what a game. Even though I had to do what i hate the most, watching people shoot live animals with guns, it turned out to be an all right trip.

Think we would have known

Kyle Lallis and myself took off for Blue springs around 3:30. We got up there and started fishing on what seemed to be a perfect day. There was a nice breeze on the water and the air was cooler than Hurricane by around 25 degrees. We both started fishing woolly bugger down deep. We both weren't catching anything for sometime, then Kyle got a couple fish. We both fished long and hard, I was changing flies like a fat women trying on pants that make her look skinny. Ha ha. It was very slow, Kyle and I started talking about why it might be slow, and we realized that it was a fool moon night and the moon has been out and bright for many nights now. We both started fishing are way back and both caught a fish. I got a few more bites and ended up landing one fish, and Kyle got 3. It was Kyle's first time in a float tube with a fly rod, but not his first by any means with a fly rod. (I'm sure you got a kick out of that Steve.) It was also Kyle's first time at Blue Springs. I think he enjoyed the scenery it looks a lot better than most bass ponds. I've said it once, I've said it a 100 times, "trout do not live in ugly places". We talked about going up to Blue Springs again this weekend, and also about a trip to corn creek, and the Santa Clara river.

Sevier River June 14 2008

I went up to Circleville with Emily's family to see her Dad for Fathers day, so I slipped out when no one was looking and went fishing. I started fishing around 4 at one of the first spots in the river up Kingston canyon that had a blue ribbon fishery access area. Most of the river up Kingston canyon is private, so these signs are helpful. The river is still high and murky. I not knowing how to fish the sevier real well started fishing up stream with woolly bugger. It was so fast that I started fishing downstream and stripping upriver. I actually caught a fish with this method fairly quickly. Not sure if luck or pure genius. It was around 13," but put up a great fight. I walked up the river trying to get to know the area better and look for pools or slower water with fish I could sight fish. I fished until the light in the canyon disappeared and started to get dark. I only got the one fish, but came away ready to read up on techniques used to fish this river.

Flannelmouth Sucker

Today Matt and I headed up to the Virgin to try again. We started off by going up the narrows path to find out the water was still to murky, so we headed back down to the big bend lookout spot. I started off fishing with sinking line and a woolly bugger. Matt started off fishing with floating line and a woolly bugger. We fished for a fair amount of time and I finally got something on. This was it, I have finally caught a huge trout of the Virgin in the Main Canyon. Oh Contrary my friends it was not a trout. When I saw this thing I walked to the shore line and dragged it in to take a closer look. It was about 16" and yellowish in color. It had the nastiest mouth I have ever seen in all my day of fishing. I cut the line and wasn't going to touch it, but decided to quit being such a pussy and picked it up and examined it a little closer. It was uglier than I could have imagined. We didn't' have a camera, but I found some pictures of this sucker fish. Although ugly, it sure did put up a good fight. That was all we caught and headed home with our heads hung a little higher.

Another Windy One

Emily and I went to Kolob to stay with my Mom's entertainment, so I invited Tim Herrera to come up for a quick trip. I met Tim and his brother at the lake around 7pm. The winds were in the 20mph constantly they're might have been gusts in the 30's. It was miserable weather, but I didn't want Tim to drive up for nothing. We fished for a couple hours. I caught one out in my tube on a pheasant tail. It was terribly windy and I could barely move around in the water. Tim and his brother were throwing spinners from the shore. They didn't get anything, but with the weather we weren't expecting much. We did talk about planning a Boulder Mountain trip, so that excited me. I will be fishing up in Circleville this weekend at Paiute and the Sevier river.

Not even a wound finned minnow!

June 2 2008 Zion - Virgin River
I have grown up around the Virgin my whole life and you don't often think of the Virgin simultaneously with trout, but there are, we just need to find them. My Dad grew up fishing below the bridge in Zion with his Grandfather. The trout were stocked then and they caught them on worms, but regardless thats trout in the Virgin. I have walked up the narrows walk path several times and have seen large trout in the river on a few different occasions. I have also heard about big trout being taken, I have just never tried. I decided today was the day. I took off up the canyon around 3. I took my backpack and rode the shuttle up the narrows stop and walked up the path watching the river very closely. It was quite murky, but some areas with visibility. I walked to where I have seen the trout before, and came up with no visible fish, so I headed back down. I rode the shuttle back the weeping rock stop and took off up the river from there. This was my backdrop, it was something else. I started up river and finally saw some life. They were small fish, but looked like trout. They were mostly around 6", but saw one that was maybe 8" in the same pool. That gave me hope, so I got the rod ready and started off with a stimulator pattern, because there were grasshoppers all over. However, no bites. I was shocked. I took off to find more pools. I kept seeing small fish on my way up river. I then walked up a pool and saw a fish that had to be at least 16." I had no luck, but was given great hope. On my way back I watched some fish in a pool from above and couldn't tell if they were trout or chubs. I need to do some research. I will try again in a week or so when the water is more clear.

It's Heating Up...

May 30-Steve and I got to Blue Springs fishing around 2. We started off pretty slow catching a couple. It was great weather probably around 70-75' and the water was up to 64'. We kept fishing through the afternoon, and I'm glad we did. It heated up quick, the fishing that is. Every time Steve hooked on I hooked on to a fish. It was awesome I think we had 3 double headers. Steve was having a blast, and I was too. I think we both ended up with 5 or 6. I can say that I have never had fish fight the way these fish are fighting this year. We would have caught more fish that night, but we were too busy fighting the fish we had. I think every fish took about 10-15 minutes to get released. All the fish varied from 17"-20," but all weighed a great deal. I caught one 20" that probably weighed 4-5lbs. We fished until around 8, Steve kept one trout to cook.

May 31-We took the girls down to the bottom of Lava Point to go hike West Rim Trail. Then the we (Brian, Steve, Me) got to fishing. Steve got Brian set up on shore bait fishing, and then came out on his tube. I caught a quick 3 on the spring side of the lake. I then went back to see if I could get Brian some fish. The fish weren't biting like the night before, but we gave it a shot. Brian was fishing bait of the bottom with weights. While he did that I was taking advantage of the fish swarming the shallows by the boat dock. I was catching frisky trout on dry flies off and on. I ended up taking a nap in the back of Steve's truck for about and hour. We then went back to the cabin for lunch after a pretty unproductive day for the Bacciocco's. We had a quick sandwich and were back at it. I snagged a couple of my Grandma's bubbles out of her fishing box, and showed them how I used to set up for bait fishing. Within 3o seconds, no joke, he had a fish. Steve was quick to follow. They ended up catching 4-5, and keeping a couple for my Grandma. I kept fishing from the shore catching fish on dries, I didn't count, but it was quite constant for sometime. It was windy to begin the day, but to end was quite nice, we fished from 9 -2. Again the fish are fighting uncontrollably. Its great.

Collins Yearly Ass Kickin

May 23-Well Collin did it again. He came down without fishing since our last years fishing trip, and showed me how it was done. We started the day off the day by riding the mountain biking trail JEM trail. It was great, besides having to walk half of the trail due to a flat tire. We then headed up to Blue Springs for the night. We woke up and fished that morning. We froze, I don't think it was above 40' the entire day. The water was 52-54'. Collin caught 7 hence the picture, and I believe I caught 1 maybe 2.
May 25- We decided to go up again the next night after we all went and hiked the eagle crags in Rockville. We fished the morning, cold again. I think Collin got 4-5, and i had 2-3. Water was still cold. The entire weekend was cold, rainy and snowy. Although, terrible weather we sure had a good time. We usually fish together and shoot the breeze the majority of our time. I fished again alone that night and caught a couple but still slower than normal. This year with increased snow pack and irregularly cool season the fishing has been slow starting, but read on it gets better.