I spent the end of the Summer chasing fish on still waters. One of those trips was to Southern Utah with my brother Jeff where for whatever reason he kept sayin', "We're doin' it!" Unfortunately, that trip and the one after it (this time with my Dad) produced very few fish and not much of a story. We went, fished hard, and caught very few fish. One of the highlights was finding a lake chuck full of grayling, but for whatever reason, we just didn't take any pictures of the few grayling we landed (and that's why you didn't hear about it here...)
School has started and my time is filled with work, but Jeff was able to get out and do some fishing mid-week and had some great success. That motivated me to head down his way on the weekend and get after some fish. A quick trip from his house got us to the lake where we found some dirty water, but I hooked into a fish pretty much right away on a Hare & Copper (I tie mine with a wire rib).
The mud was from a pretty hard rainstorm they'd had the night before, so we moved away from the inlet trying to find clearer water to fish. I found some more fish on the Hare & Copper, but Jeff struggled to get into anything for some reason. It's weird how often this happens, even though we were fishing the same flies in the same area I was catching fish and he just wasn't. If I ever figure it out I'll let you know.
We decided to run and take a look at another lake in the area, but water levels were depressingly low there and we headed back to the original lake to finish out the day. The fish were rising when we pulled up and it didn't take long for Jeff to hook and land his first fish of the day.
I was fishing a dry/dropper rig, because that's what I already had set up, and noticed that the fish were much more likely to take either fly if I stripped it in slowly. While we were both catching fish and enjoying the dropping temperatures a bull elk started bugling across the small reservoir and made the evening seem that much more beautiful and fall-like.
Unfortunately, Jeff got into a hurry while landing one of his fish and lifted up too aggressively, breaking his fly rod. It always sucks to break a rod, and we seem to break our fair share, but especially while the trout are rising. So we switched off fish (or three unsuccessful takes) well after the sun went down catching plenty by popping the dry fly and either hearing the splash or feeling the weight of the fish taking the fly.
The next morning we decided to hit a small stream that I've fished a couple of times over the years, but Jeff had yet to fish even though it's super close to his house. It didn't take long for us to find fish on both Hare & Copper flies and Chornobyl Ants. The fishing wasn't exactly easy with all the overhead tree branches, but the fish were willing if we got our flies on the water. Sooner than either of us were ready, the day was over and it was time for me to make the drive home. Until the next time when "We're doin' it!"
