Best Solo

I just can't seem to get enough of the small stream fishing lately. The nice weather of the previous days was gone, replaced with wind, rain & cold. Utah Spring. I resolved to stay home today and work on one of the many projects I seem to always have going. So, out to the garage to take the clamps off of a new net I'm building to find that the outer lamination had broken out...dang. That's okay, I have rods to turn. Made some good progress on one of the rods at first, but thoughts of the fish that lived so relatively close by drove me to say, "Screw it" and throw my stuff in the truck. The promise of an upcoming week full of work and not fishing helped to keep me motivated against the weather and soon I was out the door. 

The day began exactly how I'd imagined it would when I was still working at home, rigged up a Puterbaugh Caddis with a double dropper BH Prince Nymph & a BH Pheasant Tail, threw to the first likely spot and hooked into a fat 12" brownie to start the day. I spotted another fish rising at the head of the pool, but rather than re-rig for the scattered blue wing olive hatch I threw the flies that I already had on. As you'd imagine, the clumsy rig put the fish down in a hurry. Another throw into the riffle that fed into the pool with a decent drift led to a strike on my dropper. When the dry popped under I lifted the rod tip and felt some weight on the other end. The fish gave some serious head shakes and ran up and down the stretch, but my 4 weight fiberglass had enough backbone to keep it from taking me down into a stretch where it wouldn't be easy to follow. After a long, dogged, fight the brown slid, as much as would fit, into my net. Definitely my best fish on this stream and a great fish anywhere! It was a beautiful fish with brown, red, black and even some silver showing on it. Too big to get a decent photograph of by myself, but I tried... 

Just for perspective, my arm is completely straightened out!

Moving forward I found some small fish but the further I went the worse fishing seemed to get until a break in the rain when I found some cutthroat that are already getting dressed for their upcoming dance. When the rain started again, along with some icy wind, I kept moving with the hope of fishing a few spots that I haven't been to in years. The first lightning and thunder of the year had me questioning my sanity. The hail storm that followed removed all doubt, I'm crazy. Still happy I was able to get out, despite the weather. 

Hope you're as lucky,

- Kidder

I love Cutts! 

I'll take fish like this on a light rod all day