Hoppers

Here's some pictures of a couple awesome days of hopper fishing with Matt and Mike. We had our first run in with a landowner using our Conatser rights granted to us at Congress' last session. The first day we ran into Steve, he was quite sure of kicking us out. He understood the law, but was upset to see someone using their rights. He was sure we couldn't pass a certain pool, and would assume trespassing if he saw us past that point. After we easily waded through the hole we saw Steve again and he was flustered and obviously upset. We kept fishing and he left. We caught lots of fish on hoppers and a couple slabs. On the way home Matt and I started fishing a little creek that was thought to have fish and sure enough caught some native cutts and brookies.

Couple days later we went up again to enjoy some more hopper action. We ran into Steve at the same spot as before. He was very courteous and seemed to be getting used to the fact that this was going to happen. We talked to him about politics and ranching. We invited him and eventually pleaded him to come throw a line with us to see why we loved fishing. He declined, but attitude was much different than the trip before. Matt and I were excited to have that over with and thought we were done with problems from the landowners. Not 1o minutes later I hear Matt yell, " thanks alot" and look up to see an old man and younger guy throwing boulders and logs into the water. After a couple minutes of the childish behavior I yelled, " we have every right to be here". He told us to get the hell out and leave. I yelled to Matt, "get your videocamera and film this guy" he hurried back to his 40' diesel.

Pretty crazy, but what do you do? Keep fishing! Catching started off slow, but when a little breeze picked up and the heat turned on we started getting into them. We walked further up than the trip before and caught some slabs. Although great fishing, it is very tiring walking up river, but I think its worth it.

Mike with his slab of the day

Whitefish before troutNice shot by Mike

Extended arms like so make fish look bigger. Matt's secret

Matt loves his whitefish. Maybe becauase he catches so many of them.

When the day was almost over and my legs were so tired and missed a couple footsteps and ended up in the drink to cool off.

Day 2 not in order

Day 1 in order

Went up north with Josh to meet Dan and do some fishing. We fished the same river most of the trip, but hit the Provo for a bit on Friday night.

This fish was caught amongst all the 6" Bonneville cutthroat you could want. I think Dan foul hooked it, but I don't remember.

First fish I've ever seen Dan let go. I guess he forgot his stringer.

Saw this cold one in the Provo waiting for someone to pluck it out it out of the frog water and slam it.

Luckily.......

Here's the snake they through on my side of the car, it started climbing down the window. After the fishing Dan made us steaks at his place which were pretty scrumptious considering we ate the hind end of the cow. We went down to get some malts in Heber and ended up at Dan's place of employment, The Police Station. Dan knows that I think most cops are just plain idiots, but everyone thinks that, right? We ended up watchin police vidoes and shooting the breeze with the Sarge and some of the other cops. After a couple of hours hanging out watching videos and telling stories were just about to leave and Farva thought it would be funny to have his dog scare me a little bit. I don't like police dogs, but I guess cops aren't so bad after all.

A Fine Fishermen

"A Fine Fishermen"
This will be a new highlight section for kolobflyfishing. If you want to show off a fish you caught in southern utah, or anywhere for that matter. "A Fine Fishermen" derives from "A river runs through it." It is the line when Paul and Normans Dad says after he catches the monster. You all remember, the memorable fish that takes him down the river. Send your pictures to kolobflyfishing@hotmail.com

The brown trout pictured below is just under 30" and a little more than 7lbs. The stream in southern Utah where it was caught is not much wider than the length of the fish. I have fished this stream and never seen a fish bigger than 10". I'd like to think there are more of these monsters, but I think this is the last fish this big in southern Utah. Casey is a great salesmen, but a fine fishermen. If you want anything to do with ATV's you can him up in Hurricane at Moto Zoo, and while your there you can have him tell you more about how he caught this monster.

Bears, Blood and the Boulders

Great trip to the Boulders with Matt and Mike. Mike made freshly caught Brookie taco's that were awesome. First time keeping a fish for me in a long time, actually Matt killed them;) We fished a couple great lakes, but only because the lakes we wanted to fish were shut down due to smoldering ashes in the forest. It was still a great trip with some of the set backs. Matt was glad that I had such great doctor skills, when I pulled a scud hook out of his ear. I didn't feel like giving him his bill right after, since he was a little pale. We ended up fishing what felt like an old friend on the way home. We had caught plenty of smaller fish and were going trophy hunting. We started with hoppers and quickly changed to streamers. We didn't have many strikes, but the fish we did get smashed the fly which is fun to watch. I spooked myself out of a 20"+ brown due to excitement. It was an overall good trip with good friends.

Cali Bate on Us

Leave this trip to them

Instead of writing on my last trip, I'll let a couple of my fishing partners do the writing for me. It is about time I do a tribute to my two good friends Matt and Mike's blogs anyways.

Googley Eyes Himself(Mike)


and finally.....



Our future Attorney(Matt)

Kolob Petition
You don't have to donate, as soon as you enter your name and press enter your name is added to the petition. We need as many petitions as we can get, so any one of age, please sign.

What i lay awake thinking about at night.

Pretty much same thing minus the four wheelers, chick, and lack of wind.

The Sea Was Angry

The boat fishing portion of this trip was a real let down. I planned the surf fishing so we could have a little more difficult day and I could get the rooster on the fly from the surf, and the boat fishing I thought would be the day to get our numbers up.We started the day off getting picked up in the marina in San Jose. Our guide was Alex and his helper. Brian and Steve started off trolling with live bait, while I was working with the fly rod casting at teasers. I started feeling sick about 5 minutes into casting. 'The sea was angry that day my friends, like an old man trying to return soup at a deli!"(Costanza)
We trolled around for awhile why I sat in the back trying to sleep of the sickness. The helper finally hooked into a Jack and gave the rod to Brian to reel in. He ended up losing it, and so did I. I can handle trolling around in the ocean, but when the boat stops I can't take it long. I yacked in the Sea of Cortez.
We fished for a while longer before we finally said lets end it early. The fish were not biting and our guides didn't seem to know what was going on. To be fair they usually fish the pacific and in trying to save us a drive we fished the SOC. It was still a good trip, and now I know what not to do in Cabo. I wish we would have planned two days of surf fishing. Oh well. Next time...

Hooked on Roostas

This week I had the great opportunity to spend the week in Cabo with my good friend and his family to celebrate his old age. We stayed at a snazzy resort that was on the beach in Cabo San Jose. I had two days of fishing on the books with Baja Anglers, one day surf fishing for roosters and one day on the boat fishing for roosters and others.
This picture above is a picture of my guide with a great rooster. He caught this fish showing me what not to do? Sucks, because if I would have casted and doing the "wrong" thing I would have caught this guy.
It was very different from any type of fishing I have ever done. Your cast needs to be fluid and powerful. I had too much of what the guide called a trout "flicker." There are two methods that we tried; stalking and teasing. Stalking roosters is just what it sounds like, stalking. It is sight fishing, but nothing like trout sight fishing you have about 2 seconds to act and your cast better be perfect, because you only get one chance. I tried this for a bit in the morning, but there wasn't much action up in the shallows. Teasing is what we concentrated on. Grant the guide throws some pop gear out with spin gear and the roosters go into a frenzy and chase these "teasers," when rooster is close enough you cast as far and as close as you can to the teaser. This was very tough with 40mph wind into my cast, but kinda got the hang of it by the end of the day.
We fished hard all day and I was beat up by the end of the day. I had 3 roosters on, and landed one. I should have realistically had about 15-20 on. By the time I finally got the hang of the casting into wind and working with the teasers the day was over. The fight of the fish I caught was awesome. They made the 10 weight rod and the Abel reel feel like my 3 weight. I couldn't believe the fight on these guys. They are amazing fish and I can't wait to get back. I definitely caught a fever in Mexico, a fever for Roosterfish.

No Bananas Mike

Mike heres your link you non believer. Bananas

Tough day at the ol Blue Springs, for the four of us anyways. Matt seemed to do just fine in the couple hours he was there. Started off talking to some members and listening to them tell me there is no fish in there your wasting your time. Whatever, not tough for the master, and especially when I hooked up on a nice 20" in the first 10 minutes out, also bad luck. Matt hooked up right away as well, also a nice 2o". I don't think theres any fish in there smaller than 18". Matt missed one, but ended up getting couple more nice trout. We pumped the first fishes belly, it had a nice olive damsel nymph. Fished them half the day, and nothing.

Greg Anderson made the trip with us and he had lots of action, but landed 3 I think? Steve came later in the day, and only fished a couple hours, but had no luck. Mike, what to say about this yayhoo. You would think being a supposed fishermen he would have heard that bananas are bad luck. Not Mike, he ate half a bushel on the way up, jinxing all of us. Slow day on the lake, but the weather was nice, and the fish caught were big. Next time if you invite monkey boy anywhere make sure he doesn't bring his bananas:)
get everyone you know to sign this

Put your HANCOCK on it. PLEASE

For any of you not sure about what is going on with Kolob reservoir. There was a petition passed around last year at local gas stations to change Kolob back to state regulations(bait fishing and 4 fish bag limit). The division of wildlife put together a committee to see what the best management plan would be for Kolob. The committee full of non fishers and cabin(trailer) owners was a very bias committee with a definite agenda, and did not use facts to come up with there plan.

The goals of the DWR 10 years ago was to lower amount of fish put into Kolob, it was to expensive stocking the lake so much, due to amount of fish harvested. Keep a healthy population of Colorado Cutthroat in reservoir, so Cutthroat can control size and population of golden shiners. Kolob has been proven to do all of the above goals, but since petition, DWR is turning there back on management plan and scientific data. If you would like more detail, facts, please email me at kolobflyfishing@hotmail.com

I finally have it ready. If you haven't got a chance to sign the petition to protect the fishery and the Colorado cutthroat in Kolob Reservoir here it is. Also, if you know of anyone that would be willing to post it on there site or blog to help with signatures it would be a big help. Let everyone you know to sign it, we need as many signatures as we can. My goal is 20,000.

Here it is

ONLINE PETITION: CLICK ME