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

After Hours

Sometimes you just have to make time to get out when you really don't have it. With that in mind Ross and I hit up a stream after work in hopes of finding some tug to keep our sanity. At the first hole it was obvious that it had been a long Winter for Ross, as he was struggling with some tangles. I just traded him rods until he hooked into a decent fish that knew how to win the fight. The brown took to the air and then ran right at him and got off. From there we worked our way upstream trading off fish.

A good fish, glad he got it to hand

We came up on a couple of rising fish and I managed to hook and land the smallest fish I've ever caught. That's the most air this fish will ever experience (oops). 

Pretty lil thing

With the dark came the cold and just when we were about to call it for the day I caught my last fish, on my last cast (I could get used to this!). 

Hope you can get out,

Kidder

Sunday Afternoon

The Wife, my Sister and some other family members have lately taken to getting together and painting. It's not really my thing, but I figured while they painted I could get some wraps done on one of the neglected rods sitting in my kitchen. Too bad everything I tried looked like crap and I didn't actually get anything done. Oh well, at least they had fun on a Saturday night.

In the morning Del cooked everyone a big breakfast of sausage, eggs and hash browns. It took a little while for the effects of too much good food to wear off but once they did my sister and niece headed home, the wife headed for a nap and I headed for a small stream with Atley in-tow. 

It's always great when Atley decides to come fishing, we always have a great time and he always seems to catch the biggest fish. Makes me wonder why it can be so hard to get him out the door sometimes. Atley's outgrown his waders so we just fished from the bank, luckily it's not that big of a deal on this stream. Sure enough, Atley landed a nice one at the first hole we decided to fish. 

I love it when he gets excited about a fish!

The most impressive thing about his fish (besides the unlikeliness of the stream it came from) was the fact that I wasn't hardly paying attention when he made the cast, set the hook and began fighting the fish. He played it hard and I was glad that my little fiberglass rod had some give to protect the tippet from snapping. Atley sure can fish when he wants to! This was the last picture that my camera wanted to take for the day and, as we found out on Atley's next fish, my phone was too full to take any pictures. So out came Atley's little flip phone for some terrible looking pictures, but they were still proof!

From there we kept catching fish on either a BH Prince Nymph or a BH Hare's Ear whenever we could find water deep enough for a fish to hold. Sunday afternoon was quickly slipping away when I made my last cast at the head of a deep pool that had so far skunked me. The dry fly that we were using as an indicator went under just after my cast hit the water but when I raised the rod it was a lively fish on the end of the line. After a good fight one of the best fish I've seen on this stream came to hand and Atley was ready to take my picture.

A great fish and a terrible picture. Yes, my feet are in the water.....I slipped, and it was cold

Definitely a stream that we'll be spending some time at this year! Hope you can get out....

- Kidder