FISH LAKE MOUNTAIN 2011

We are able to go Fish Lake every summer.  Fish lake is fun to fish, but hanging a cheese ball is not my favorite kind of fishing.  There are a lot of other fishing experiences around.  The last couple of years I have floated Mill Meadow Resevoir.  It is a pretty little resevoir near the town of Fremont.  I love fishing here because if provides the opportunity to catch good sized Brown Trout.  These are beautiful fish.  I fished the evening and caught 8 fish, all Brown Trout.  The weather turned off nice, although when I first got there I was concerned because of lighting and it was raining lightly.  I was the only one on the lake.  I caught all the fish on a black wooly bugger.  Here are a couple of pictures of different fish. 

The smallest fish of the day

Others were about 15-17"

Beaufiul red spots of the Brown Trout

Brown Trout at night

Brown with storm in background

The other awesome fishing experience I had was fishing UM Creek.  It is my favorite river to fish.  I fish it with huge foam hoppers and it is a blast to watch the fish come and grab the fly off the surface.  It is a pretty river in a pretty valley.  I hooked four, but was not quick enough to set the hook on two. Here is a couple of pictures of the two Cutthroat that I pulled out of the water.

Colorado River Cutthroat with UM Creek in background

14" UM Creek Colorado River Cutthroat

KOLOB RESEVOIR

I always forget how much I love Kolob until I go.  I love where I live because of the close proximity to great little lakes. With the wife out of town for a week, I was able to go on two consecutive nights.  It is amazing to me how the same species of fish can have such different behavior on each individual lake and even on different nights.   For the first two hours on the first night, I could not even get a fish to bite.  I tried different flies, different lines at different depths, and even different stripping and trolling techniques.  Finally, I tied on a black Wooly Bugger and just drifted with it; no kicking and no stripping.  That seemed to work and I caught 5 fish in about a half hour.  They were all big, healthy fish.  One looked like a pure cutthroat and was almost a keeper at 20.5".  The others were cutbows of about 18".  All were very pretty fish.  Just when the fishing was starting to get good, the rain came and washed me out.  Even with the slow fishing at first and the rain the night was perfect for fishing.

Pretty colors on a Kolob Cutbow

Pretty fish with the storm coming in

Nice country on the way to Kolob Resevoir

The fly they liked.  A black BH Wooly Bugger

STRAWBERRY ON TWO HOURS OF SLEEP

I was fornunate enough to be able to fish Strawberry this July. I was really excited because I got a new waterproof camera. We stayed up until 2 a.m. getting things ready and then woke up at 4 a.m. The water was really calm and it was a nice morning. I caught 7, 4 rainbows and 3 cuts. Since the cutthroat have to be 22" long to keep, I put them all back although I did catch a couple of nice ones. The guys at Fish Tech Outfitters told me the fly to use, and they were right on. I caught all the fish on one fly. I adjusted the weight, but never swithched the fly. It was a great day on the water.


This is my first underwater shot of a fish. I think it turned out really well. The reflection on this is cool. Hopefully this is the first of many good underwater shots.


The famous teeth of a cutthroat.

This is what my fly line looked like while I was trolling and stripping. I let the sinking line out all the way to the backing.

A nice typical Strawberry Cutthroat.

The rainbows for the fish fry. 21" and 18" fat bows.

We got off the lake a little earlier than expected, but a great day.

Summer Soltice 2011

Went to Yankee Meadow tonight. The first couple of hours of fishing were slow. The road to the Yankee has been closed and just opened Saturday because they were fixing a bridge. Usually I like to go earlier in the spring. At about 8 o'clock, the fish starting jumping and biting. I switched to a sink tip line and was able to catch fish on that and some dry flies. I love when that works. The fishing was good for about an hour and then when it got dark, they stopped feeding. It was a picture perfect night. I love the Yankee because it is a such a pretty place. I caught 6 and brought home 2 of the bigger ones. I did catch one little cut, but no brookies. I thought this picture would turn out better, but oh well. A good night of fishing.

Paragonah in June

I was able to go to Paragonah Resevoir on a Saturday night and then again on Monday. On Saturday I had success on a wooly bugger/scud combo. I was using a full sinking line. I caught about 20 fish. I brought home 6 of the bigger ones and wish I could have brought home 2 more since the limit at Paragonah is 8 and could use some harvesting. I thought I would catch 2 more bigger ones, but when the fish stop biting, they stop fast. On Monday I tried my sink tip line. I used many different flies, but did not have the same success. I think the full moon might have had something to do with it too. I brought home 2 nice rainbows (for 'Gonah) and .................

A pretty tiger trout.......................................................................................

Snow Goose Hunt?

On the last day of the snow goose hunt we decided to take our float tubes in case the birds were gone. It is a good thing we did. I had caught a couple of smaller fish a couple of days earlier. It was freezing cold but we lasted long enough to each haul in a big rainbow. Check out the nice red spring spawning colors.

SUCCESSFUL DUCK HUNT!

Not only did we bag some birds, this day was Orvis' first retrieve. He is only 9 months old and has a lot learn, but so do I. He makes duck hunting more enjoyable. We had birds coming at us all day. I shot a few and missed a few, but a fun day in the mud.

Deer Hunt 2010

I finally drew a southern unit deer hunt. I was fornunate to have access to some private land to hunt on. It was the first time in a long time I had gone camping and done the deer hunt thing like the old times. My brothers and dad camped and myself, my brother, his son, and some other family went hunting. It snowed a couple of inches the evening before and that was a good thing. We woke up early, waited for some daylight and started pushing. We we all met up, bucks were all around us. We all saw some good deer and I was able to get two shots off at a nice four point. The first shot the deer was on the run, so I didn't feel to bad about that one. The second shot I just missed. I was so mad that I had missed that opportunity. We planned some more and started hunting. After an hour I was certain I had missed my opportunity for that day. Just before we met up again, I saw some horns on the horizion. It was a two point. I asked my cousins if any of them wanted to shoot it and they didn't (They both ended up shooting bigger bucks). I let one fly and I thought I saw it drop to its knees. When we got up there, the deer was gone. I started walking around saying I hit it. My brother and cousin were behind me and the deer was circling. They saw it and it was hobbling around. We finished it off and I had my buck.

I shot the deer a long ways from a road, so me and my cousin drug him about an hour and a half to a road. It was a lot of work, but definately worth it. The next day my cousin shot a deer in the same area and drug it on the same trail I had drug my buck. While he was dragging it he noticed lion tracks in the snow. The lion was tracking my deer's blood trail from the day before.

Yankee Meadow Rainbows

A couple of nice Yankee Meadow rainbows.

Kents Lake 2010

I love float tubing small lakes. There are several on the Beaver Mountains. One of my favorites is Kents Lake. It is a beautiful little lake. It is so shallow that there are few places where you cannot see the bottom of the lake. Trout grow big here. Also, there are a variety. You never know if you have hooked into a brookie, rainbow, cut, or tiger trout. I caught a couple of nice cuts and rainbows on this trip. The first rainbow I hooked into dove straight back down in the weeds and it took about 5 minutes to land. I love fighting fish on a fly rod. It is also fun because you can use floating or in my case sink tip line. Fun day.

Mill Meadow Brown Trout

Snow Geese

Ty was as excited as I was when I brought home these snow geese. I had never hunted them before. My brother in law and I went to our spot and tried some intereted tactics. One of them involved underwear and a lucky duck. We were watching in awe as the canadians were buzzing around us at a range of 10 ft. We didn't know what to expect for the snow geese. We finally saw some and tried to sneak up on them, which didn't work. We covered ourselves with a painters drop cloth and waited in the spot were we spooked them. About a half hour later the sounds got deafening and the the sky turned black. I think our "tactics" scared them away again. I moved to a different spot and waited. Soon they were back again. I had a plug in my gun and was able to shoot 3 geese as they came in. A half hour later they were back and I dropped 2. We waited around for a couple of hours and they never came back. It was a blast to hunt these beautiful birds. I have been able to use a lot of these feathers to tie flies. I hope I have the opportunity to get into these birds again!


TY AND I
GOOD LOOKING BIRDS

Ducks Flying

We had a good evening duck hunt. Had birds coming in after the lucky and dropped our limit. Ty was excited to see the ducks when we got home.

Yankee Triple Crown

Trip to Yankee Meadow proved to be successful. I went after work on a weekday, so I got on the lake a little later than usual. I love the fishing right before and right after dark, but on this day the fish were biting and I wish I got there earlier. Here is a few late night snapshots, next to the backup LL Bean rod. I also released 8-10 smaller fish.

This night was also awesome because I caught the Triple Crown: Brookie, Cutthroat and Rainbow.

Another look at the triple crown.

Nice Yankee fall Brook Trout.

2009 Turkey

I drew a 2009 Southern Utah Turkey tag. After sitting in blinds, trying to put one to bed, and scouting many nights, I shot this bird as I was driving out west one evening with my father-in-law. We were just going to go for a drive to see if we could see anything and this LITTLE Jake ran across a road perpendicular to us. I jumped out of my truck and went and shot it. Hunting is simply being in the right place at the right time.

First Geese

In laws took me to the Duck Club for an evening hunt. We had the Lucky Duck set up and some duck decoys. Right before dark a goose came flying in right at the Lucky. I shot it and it went down, but then it took off running. Both Ron and I took off after it. I was not going to let my first goose get away. Then about 5 minutes later another goose came flying in and I was able to drop that one as well. I was stoked for my first couple of geese.