Kolob ice off

Met Josh at Kolob

I headed up to fish Kolob Reservoir after work to see if I could get into some ice off fishing. I was able to drive to the reservoir and walked to the dam side of reservoir. I fished around to the point between dam and boat dock. I had no luck trying several different things. I was fishing and Josh walked up, we fished together for awhile and no luck. I asked Josh if he wanted to try Blue Springs and he was up for it. We fished the north inlet and didn't have luck for sometime, but I finally ended up getting a nice slab! It was near 20" and probably around 4lb's. Very close after Josh hooked this nice rainbow. It was a little smaller, but still had some serious girth. I snapped this quick pic and we fished until dark. We both had more bites, but nothing else landed. I had a great time, and got to know Josh a lot better. He is a very knowledgeable and am excited about a possible Green River trip in a couple weeks.

Not quite a guide yet!

Thanks to Mike for sneaking a picture of me. However, not very good form. I was throwing a couple flies, thingamabobber, and lots of weight. Whats with all the orange shirts?

We took off for Marble Canyon after work on Thursday. It was Mike, Ty and myself. We had a good dinner at the hotel, then headed back to the room for some fishing dvd's and Mike tied up a few flies for the morning.

We thought we woke up early enough to find some of the hot spots to fish, but I guess 5:30 wasn't early enough. We drove up to the dam to show Mike how small of a spec we would be in case ol Glen decided to burst.

We ended up fishing in the same spot that a guide had taken me to a month earlier. Mike and I started off with a couple quick fish. Mike landing one of them while I chased the boat that almost floated down the river, due to fast rising water. We kept a better eye after that. We fished hard all day, and tried about everything. Mike and I ended up with 4 or 5, and Ty landed a couple.

It appeared that it was a tough day of fishing everywhere. We got off the river around 3:30 and we had 3 guides right behind us. I didn't see too many big smiles from other fishermen, and heard from another fishermen later at home that he knew a guy that didn't do so hot the same day. I think the sun off and on put the fish down. The midges were out, but the fish seem to be put down.

A little side note, for anyone reading this at my work, I post trips at convenience. If I write I went fishing today, that day was most likely on the weekend. If I called in sick and went fishing, well maybe I felt better, or maybe just decided to use up some sick days fishing. If any problems with that please feel free to talk to me about it.

Summer Trip

I am planning on hitting all the local waters this year from the Sevier, Boulder mountains, few trips up north to the hit the Provo at my sisters house, and possibly trip to stay at friends and fish the Logan river, just to name a few. However, I want to plan a good summer trip to an "A" list river.

I've really been liking the idea of fishing the South fork of the Snake near Swan Valley Idaho or the Arkansas river in Colorado near Carson City. Both are about 8 hours away and both are prime fishing spots. Arkansas is better for targeting big browns and lots of fish. South Fork is lots of dry fly fishing for lots eager cuts.

I would like to take a guided day on the first day and fish/float on own the second. I figure a 4 day trip would work, a day for driving each way and 2 days of fishing. The average guided trip for two anglers for a full day is $500 on the South Fork. Arkansas is around $350-$400 If we got 3 others beside myself we could really cut the expenses of the trip.

I think around mid-late July would work for the flows on both rivers to be down. Possibly earlier who knows. Let me know if interested.

15 seconds of fame

In a recent post I told of the interview I had with Adam Eakle of roughin outdoors. I was afraid he would put me in the weekly show, and he did. However, he only put a short clip of me fishing and an even shorter clip of my interview thank goodness. The clip is on the websites movie player(right side of screen), labeled Sevier river. I imagine the link will be up soon.

Roughin Outdoors Clip

Tying Expo Day 2

Round 2 of the expo was great. It was a lot busier today than yesterday, but there were a lot more tyer's on the floor too. I watched Marty, a guy that was part of my fly swap. He is a great guy and discovered in the mail when I got home he had sent me a couple of his dvd's as extra's with his flies. I got some great indicators from Herb. There were so many great things today. I met with Scott from Utah fly patterns. He is a really cool guy and ties great soft hackles. I watched my friend John tie ap emergers. I also watched one of his friends he fishes with at Henry's Fork tie with a nor vise. One of the great highlights was my friend Mike and I got to watch Charlie Craven tie some flies. We watched him tie a lime humpy, and we asked him to tie a juju midge for us and he did. It was really neat to watch, I have been messing around with that pattern for awhile and should have it figured out now. I definately won't miss this show again. I think Mike enjoyed it as well, even though we both wasted our $ on the raffles with nothing to show for it. I've even thought about tying next year, but who knows.

Wasatch Fly Tying Expo

-Infamous Grumpy

Today I went to my first Wasatch fly tying expo. I wasn't able to get there in time to get a personalized autograph book by Charlie Craven at Western Rivers fly shop. I then went to the expo and was really shocked at how chill everything was. Everybody was really nice and helpful. My friend Mike showed up to my surprise. I watched 6 or 7 different tiers do there things and one rod builder. I met Boyd, the guy that sells the fluorocarbon tying thread, if you haven't got this let me know and I'll get you his # its a must have. I watched Charles Card tie polish nymphs using the Czech weave. I hope I can figure this out someday. I met Cheech and finally bought my Grumpy's that i have been waiting for since he posted some for sale. I watched him tie some up and it was great, can't wait to tie some up for myself. I entered into some raffles, and bs'd with a bunch of the guys from the forum. I'm excited to see John tie tomorrow and watch Craven tie.

Roughin Outdoors Interview. Arggg

I was up fishing a stream up 89 near Circleville today, and here's what happened. I was originally meeting Emily's family visiting there Dad, and later planned to fish at otter creek. However, I can never make it all the way to the reservoir without fishing a stream. I have yet to fish otter creek due to this problem. When I pulled up to the stream access there was DWR trucks and others down at the water. I went up to the next spot and fished streamers, figuring the water was murky i could get some hits. No such luck. I went down to get some lunch in town, but the place was closed so downed some water and cheetos and was back on it. The DWR guys had moved into my hole, and i noticed they were filming, so I snuck in for a closer look. They were electro shocking and keeping data for the state. I went back to fishing and noticed Adam Eackle from Roughin Outdoors coming my way with his camera. He asked if he could film me fish, and I shrugged "sure". I was pretty embarassed and said that it was nothing pretty, just throwing streamers, but he didn't care. He filmed off and on and we casually talked about conservation, fishing and the local area for about 30 minutes. I had a fish on while talking, but lost it. He then asked if I would do an interview, I didn't want to be rude, so I agreed. I felt like a huge douchebag, and he had the camera right up in my grill asking me questions that we talked about earlier, but with camera a foot away, I was tongue tied and looked like an idiot. He invited me over to watch the shocking process, it was pretty amazing. Some decent size fish as well.Later that day, Steve Kroff showed up and we did some fishing. We tried streamers, I had one good hit, but tried nymphs for the rest of the day. Each had some luck, I only landed one, Steve almost had one. Weird day, but great weather. I wrote an email to roughin outdoors, hoping Adam gets it and cuts out my interview, hope to save some of my dignity.

You Healthy?

Starting up the canyon!

Lees Ferry SGS & SPC Trip, March 13, 2009
What can I say, but what a trip! We started the trip off with dinner in Kanab on our way to Marble Canyon. We ate at a Nedra's where we watched Steve cry from eating a habanero pepper disguised as a banana pepper. Quite funny.

The next morning we got up early for breakfast and to get our licenses. We met Skip Dixon(well known guide) at the restraunt where we had some small talk about fishing and what we needed to get.

I had really wanted to fish with Skip, but I figured the guys I was with were brand new could use the extra help. It was very tough for me to do, but talking with Skip before I figured he would be a better guide for brand new fly fishers. Steve and I met our guide Jeff English. He is a New York native, but found out he has been guiding on the Ferry for 20 years.

Steve and Jeff with Lees Ferry Rainbow

We started fishing below prop bar on a little island with two different runs. Jeff started me off fishing and I landed one right away(laser midge, zebra midge). I got a couple more quick fish, but then it slowed down. Steve got started and at first he wasn't getting the hang of the casting, but with Jeff working with him, I'd say about an hour into it he looked like a pro with long drag free drifts. He kept getting fish, but couldn't land them or get them on the line. After a bit we did some drifts off the boat where Steve was fishing. I caught about 4 quick fish. We loaded up and went up to the dam, but the spot was taken by another guide that Jeff wanted to fish.

Dam! Duh.

We went to another spot right around 12 mile and fished for a bit, by then Skip and the boys had come up river for lunch. We stopped and talked about how the day was going, filled up, and we were back to it. Skip and the guys headed back down to four miles and fished the remainder of the day. I walked up from where we ate lunch, and got my drift down and landed a couple more, but had lots of hits, and many fish on. It was great, Steve caught some off the boat too.

4 Happy Customers!

We drove up to the dam again, and still people in the main runs. Jeff was pretty bummed, but the river was very busy that day compared to average days. We went down below and fished near we were at lunch. We landed and hooked a lot of fish out of the boat, but Steve caught the biggest measuring to be 17." We started heading down river and fished with the other guys at 4 mile for about 2o minutes, had a couple on glo eggs. We then ended our day of fishing, got some pics with guides and headed home. I think everyone had a great day, I know I did!

Finally Defeated. Fish On!!!

Finally HB187 has been voted down for the second time. No thanks to my representative (Last), but regardless, its smashed. Remember to keep things positive; respect landowners, stay in water, pick up trash and tell the representatives thanks that voted "no." So until next year fish anywhere you'd like and keep a copy of the ruling in your fishing vest, so you can avoid getting buckshot in your ass. Fish On!!!

For more information on the bill and to see voting record check out
http://utahwaterguardians.wordpress.com/

Made a Newsletter

I subscribe to Front Range Anglers in Boulder Colorados monthly newsletter and this month I made it in there fish tales. I use these guys as much as I can on gear and fishing supplies. These are the guys that put aside John Gierach books, and have him personally sign them for me. They are a great shop and if you need something check these guys out. I just got a bass assortment of flies that they tie in house and they are amazing.

There's no link for the newsletter, so if you decide you want to see it let me know and i'll forward it to you.

It's a secret

Today I ventured out for a couple hours to a secret little stream somewhere in the lower half of the state. I dragged Emily along to enjoy the nice weather, and ended up fishing with me. I walked up to the water and saw a fish first cast hook up on a little bugger, second fish spotted same thing. I couldn't believe it. They are small little cutthroats, but they are a beautiful little fish, almost look like browns, but are definite cuts. When I saw how eager they were to eat, I put on a dry and they were definitely looking up. I caught some fish using the bow and arrow method of casting, just learned from my friend Mike, and surprising enough it worked and wasn't to difficult. I had a fish travel 4ft down water to take a fly it was awesome. I showed Emily how to stretch and flip the line and to my surprise 2 cast 2 fish. We kept fishing bigger holes and catching fish. What a great day. Emily caught fish almost every cast, and I caught a few. I did have one fish probably about 13"(trophy) on this stream, but didn't land it. I will definitely be going back, but can't tell where it is.

EDIT: HB 1-87 is NOT defeated, yet

Looks like the bill is being reconsidered. The fight isn’t over. I thought this might happen.

Please continue to speak with your representatives and encourage them to vote no.

All though, there have been some interesting ammendments being proposed which are good.

Keep track of the bill with the following link
http://le.utah.gov/~2009/htmdoc/hbillhtm/HB0187S02.htm