Perspective

Caden's account:

In the trip I remember making hot dogs for dinner and we worked on the first legends of Caden! [a book him and his brother are writing] And we went fishing for a couple of hours then headed back to have some cheese burgers! And in the last day we went fishing for a little bit then we went to camp, packed up and left!

Atley's Account:

When my Dad told me we were going fishing/camping I wasn't surprised, my Dad had been talking about camping with Grandpa a lot! So after we were ready we left. We listened to music on the way and had a good time. After we got to Fish Lake we spent a bit of time looking for a campsite. It was so crowded. So many people in one place that wasn't a city! 

After we were done setting up we went fishing at a lake that I don't remember the name of. I fished a little bit but I didn't catch anything. After we left we ate dinner, it was my brother's night to cook so we had hot dogs, they were very good! After dinner I fell asleep really fast! My Dad went fishing in the morning and when he came back, Caden and I were still in bed! It was like 9:30 AM So we ate poptarts and drew until it was time to go fishing again. After we got to our fishing spot I played with my cousins and took pictures it was a crowded area with all of the people. After my Grandpa and Uncle left I fished a little bit and caught a fish it was small.... A little while after, we left and cooked hamburgers at camp for Dinner and it was delicious! We went to bed a while after. In the morning my Dad went fishing. When he got back we packed up and left!

My Account:

My Dad decided that he'd like to go camping before we get busy building houses and preparing for the next hunting season & school year so we made it happen. Decided to get out of the heat and head for the mountains. Fish Lake is a place that we always talk about going to more often but never seem to, so now seemed like a great time to get up there. Unfortunately, some wind decided to make a mess that my Dad had to help clean up and we got a little bit of a late start to our trip.

Once we had made it down to the lake we went out in search of a place to put our trailers and had a bit of trouble finding a good one. My trailer is pretty small and can be set up in relatively small spots, but Weston's and my Dad's trailers are pretty big and so finding a spot to accommodate them was a little more of a challenge. We ended up staying in a campground that cost us a bit of money, but made for a nice camp spot. Weston came up a little later, so he missed out on finding a camp spot but still had to make the rounds in order to find us. By the time camp was decided on and set up the boys were starving, so Caden made some hotdogs that tasted great!

Bright and early, Dad and I headed out to try several spots around Fish Lake but had a hard time finding a productive spot. Dad did manage to catch a pretty splake, but other than that the early morning was a strikeout. 

Decided to head back to camp and get everyone else so we could take a ride to a 'nearby' reservoir to see if our luck would change. Forsyth Reservoir is a place that I'd never fished before but one that I'll definitely return to. The boys and I elected to fish near the dam but Weston, Dad and their families decided to find another spot that would be easier with the little kids. We found a few fish that were willing to come to a Baby Damsel as long as it was near the bottom with a slow retrieve. 

It got hot quick, so we headed back to camp for sandwiches and an unplanned nap. The boys spent their time in camp drawing and working on a story that they've been working on together. Part of me wanted them to head outside and explore, but after spending the better part of the morning in the sun they probably needed a break. In the evening we decided to try Fish Lake again, this time with the whole camp.

Lots of fish were surfacing, so I decided to go with a midge cluster pattern pulled behind a casting bubble on my spinning outfit. Initially it was the bait fishers that did well with my Dad's wife Deb catching a couple of small bows. I think everyone ended up catching a couple and it was fun to see the girls react to the fish. 

After the rest got bored with the fishing, the boys and I stayed on a little longer. Atley finally pulled himself out from behind the camera to fish a bit for himself and caught a little planter for himself. Then we spent a few minutes skipping rocks (the boys know better than to do this while people are trying to fish) and the boys were happy.

One last bright and early excursion for Dad and me found us on top of a mountain looking for fishy water. The first reservoir we stopped at looked promising, but all we saw were waterdogs (my Grandpa always claimed that if a lake had waterdogs it meant that there weren't any fish) so we headed on hoping to catch a few before heading back to clean up camp. 

We found a pretty lake to try out and I used my spinning outfit again. It didn't take long for some rainbows to check in by way of a black Woolly Bugger and Prince nymph behind my casting bubble. A large cougar track on shore was pretty cool to see, until we heard the cat going after some nesting ducks, then it was really cool! Dad didn't have much luck until he slowed his retrieve down, but even then he could only buy a couple of hits before we had to head back to camp.

Cleaned up and headed for home, where we decided to take the trailer straight to our new property. Excited to see that the footings had been poured and the foundation was being formed up!

Hope you're as lucky,

Kidder

Chukar

I wish that my motivations were completely selfless, but I'll be honest, I needed hours for the dedicated hunter program. This will be my third and final year in the program until I apply again, so I really needed to finish up my service hours. I've really enjoyed being able to hunt the archery, muzzleloader and rifle seasons and only getting two tags for the three year span of the program hasn't seemed like that big of a drawback to me. A perk to the program is that if you get a cow elk permit for the same area you can than hunt elk during your deer seasons.

So I needed 12 more hours to complete the 32 required for the program. The chukar guzzler project seemed to fit the bill pretty well and came before we start building our new house, which I'm expecting will take up all of my time & energy. So I woke up early on Saturday to make the drive over the mountains. I enjoyed the views, and seeing some buck deer, but didn't have to stop.

Building the guzzler wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't so far off the road. We started by digging a 4'x4' hole 3' deep. Then I spent most of the day hauling parts while others put it together. Everyone has a role, mine was mule. Pretty interesting to see how these are put together and despite the heat and hard work (or maybe because of it) I thought it was pretty fun. It was also an insight to how hard our Division of Wildlife Resources works for us here in Utah. One more project and I'll have my hours done, then I'll be ready for the hunts to start come August.

Hope you're as lucky,

Kidder

Getting Out

It's been a while since I've made it out fishing. Over a month, in fact, unless you count the few minutes I carried a rod while walking by a blue line. It's been even longer since I felt rusty with my fly casting. The water was clear, and the weather was nice, which made it feel great to be out there. The fish were active and excited to try a Tri-Colored Nymph for breakfast, which made it even better. The first awkward cast had me hooked into a fish momentarily and on the second cast I brought a little brownie to hand. Beautiful little fish that reminded me of why I'm so obsessed with fishing. 

Despite it being very accessible, with good numbers of fish and some decent hatches I just seem to consistently overlook this stream. I'd say that I'll try and remedy that, but honestly I probably won't, there are just too many good places to fish near where I live. Makes you wonder why I haven't been getting out, doesn't it?

I was getting consistent action so I took the opportunity to try out some different patterns, with not much hatching nothing worked better than the Tri-Colored nymph that I started with. Though I did get a couple to come up to a Pauterbaugh Caddis, which was the top fly in my dry/dropper rig. Seemed like every hole had a few fish that were willing to play. 

Once I reached a certain bend in the stream the bite just turned off. I still managed to get a couple more fish but they were fewer and further between. I'm not sure if I'd just reached a point where someone else had fished lately, or if it was just time of day. Either way, I'd had a good day and was overdue for heading back home. It felt really good to get out again.

Hope you're as lucky,

Kidder