First Try at Winter Fishing

Today I went fishing in Hatch on the East fork of the Sevier. I wanted to go to my usual places, but they weren't accessible. First, I went to the first pull off (south) and the road hadn't been drove through, and with all the snow I didn't want to push my luck. Next, I went to the other pull off (north) and the river was frozen over, except for a couple feet in the middle. Not knowing enough about winter fishing, i didn't know what to do with that situation. I explored around Hatch and ended up fishing near the cabins where I camped last time. In the whole area of cabins I only saw one person staying, so i geared up and walked to the river through someones back yard. Everyone has turkey feeders in there back yards, so there are turkeys all over, and there huge. I started fishing a stretch of very good flats and riffles. In this area the water was murky, but I thought I'd fish it anyways. I fished started off with a type of a san-juan imitation, and a hares ear dropper. I didn't have any luck, so I switched over to a zebra midge and a red brassie. I didn't have any luck. I need to learn more about winter fishing and the techniques i need to use. All and all it was a good day to be in the water the weather was nice in the 50's. I had turkeys, deer, and even a bald eagle all right next to me.

Great News

My hope for trout being in the Virgin River in Zions main canyon has been decreasing, but today i found an article that gave me a little hope. I was looking at the river trying to see some fish, and had no luck, although, the water was very clear low. Here's a link of the website that gave me hope. Let me know if you wanna go fish it.

http://www.nps.gov/zion/naturescience/upload/Summary%20of%20Fish%20of%20Zion%20National%20Park.pdf

Annual Read

Every year in about December I get the fishing blues and turn to some of my favorite authors. A book that I read every year is "the river why" by James David Duncan. It is a great book about a teenager named Gus and his journey through life and fishing. If you haven't had a chance to read it I encourage you to get a copy. You can borrow mine, but its getting pretty ragged with the back cover finally falling off.

TIME TO GET TYING

These are some of the flies I've tied in the last couple days of tying. Most of them are small midge patterns for Lees Ferry. If you want to get together and tie, or if you would like to learn to tie, let me know. The winter time is a great time to stock up your fly boxes. I have a few extra vices and most of the tools, so if you want ill borrow you the goods to get started.

Whale of a time!!!

Finally, a successful fishing trip. This is one of the first overnight fishing trips with more than 2 persons in a long time. Tuesday night Ty, Kyle Lallis, and I headed to Cliff dwellers Lodge in Marble Canyon. We had a great dinner at the restaurant and talked with a few of the locals about the fishing. We then got our fishing gear ready in the room, and later I taught Ty and Kyle how to play poker.

That morning we got out of fly shop with our licenses and lunches around 7:15. We got on the water I imagine around 8. We drove the boat through the canyon slowly at first unaware of the underwater boulders or logs. We luckily didn't see any and a couple miles in got the idea of how to drive the boat like a pro.

We fished first at duck island. We had no luck, but saw fish rising in unreachable water by wading. In the winter and summer the dam releases more water in a given time due to the high demands, so in the morning the water was rising very quickly until about 11. Therefore, the fishing was best to drifting boats in deep currents. Being beginners with the boat in the river we were unsuccessful with the drifting. We did waste some time trying though.

At 11:30 we got to a little bank near the dam and ate our lunches. By now the water was down and the fish were coming to shallower waters again. My first 5 casts in the water here i had fish on and landed 2 very quickly. The fish were a healthy 15-16". I landed another in the same spot. Ty had a couple fish in the area too. Kyle had one on that got off. We posed for a couple quick pictures in front of the dam. Ty caught a picture of me just in time while landing a 16" in a deep run by our lunch spot. We were catching the fish on San-Juan worms, zebra midges and a special worm pattern i tied before the trip. We then headed down river and fished couple different gravel bars. Ty was very successful at one of the riffles and landed a couple more. I had a few bites, but didn't land any.

We tried drifting down and throwing dries and nymphs, but didn't have any luck. We got back to the boat dock just at dark. We had great time fishing and feel like we learned a lot of how to fish the river for future trips. LANDED Kyle Ballard=5, Ty Bringhurst=4, Kyle(ZBAMFZ)=0.

We hope to be going again near the week of Christmas. Possibly the Saturday before.

Random PIcs from Last Year

Skunked...... Mammoth, Asay/Bass Pond

Fishing trip with Kyle Lallis. No fish, didn't even see a fish. Cold line and eyelets froze.

Kyle & Kyle Blue Springs

Pictures coming

This trip was quite a let down compared to the week before. We woke up early and got in the lake. The lake had a thin layer of ice I broke through with my pontoon boat. I caught a few fish that day on dark zonkers, but not many. I can't remember how Kyle did. I know he had some fish chasing some spinners why he let his waders dry out from his float tube. Oh, he did land one on a spinner now i think about it. I invited Leo Fehrenbacker and he brought a buddy and a car full of kids. I told him the secret spot, and they caught fish pretty consistently. They took home a stringer of about 6 fish probably averaging 3lbs each.

Kolob/Blue Springs

Pictures Coming

I started fishing in my pontoon today at Kolob Reservoir around 7:30. There were only 3 other fishermen at the reservoir all of them were from Nevada. They were very talkative and helpful. We all talked about our day and shared patterns we were having luck with. I was fishing with olive and brown zonkers. I had landed a 4 there that morning, but missed a couple nice fish.

I decided around 12 to go to blue springs, so after eating my lunch i got on the water around 1. I didn't stop catching fish from the time my fin hit the water. I started fishing with an olive zonker and probably landed 12-14 fish. These weren't just any fish. They were all above 3lbs, and that's being very conservative. Every fish I caught was longer than 19, I had trouble releasing one of the first fish, and had to keep it. I thought it was going to be one of the smaller fish and that 19" was the smallest fish I caught all day. I measured every fish and the biggest was 21 1/2" and the rest were between 19" - 21 1/2".

Matt and showed up around 4 to fish for himself. He caught a few in about an hour and a half's time. I ended up fishing from 7:3o and got home around 7. It was a great day and had such a good time. Even though i was by myself i was laughing and having such a good time catching all those fish i couldn't keep it in. I listened to my ipod most of the day and noticed that i was much more patient and relaxed with my fishing. There aren't many days like this and i definitely wont forgot it.

Hatch with Ty

more coming

Asay with Matt

more coming

Green River Trip

What a trip.....more coming