Rain, Rain.

Alarm went off and I'm laying there thinking, "Do I really want to go today?" In my defense it's been raining a bit here in Central Utah, not anywhere near Colorado but enough to dirty our streams. I really wasn't ready to go, didn't have any food or anything ready.  Didn't have anyone else lined up to go with. Just when I thought to heck with it, the little voice in my head called me a wussy and I was up and getting ready to go.

Even with the decision to go out of the way I still wasn't all that motivated, which made for some cool pictures en route.

Fall colors are starting to show

Mist & Reflection

After a short hike I was fishing, and was quickly into a couple of Cutthroat Trout on a BH-Pheasant Tail. Finally I was finding the motivation I needed and decided to make the long hike to the prime area.

First Fish

Nice place

You know it's been wet when you start seeing
 mushrooms on hilltops

Definitely worth the hike

Nice

To say things "picked up" from this point on would be a huge understatement.  It was a mixed bag of Brown Trout and Cutthroat Trout.  Caught on both dries and droppers.  For the Dry Fly I was getting good action on a Chubby Chernobyl (black with a single white wing, maybe I'm the only one who ties them this way?) after I switched to it from a Hares-Ear Parachute that was drawing a blank.  The droppers that worked best were a red Copper John and a red San Juan Worm, though I did get some on a couple of other patterns on and off throughout the day.

First of many chubby browns

They can't all be huge

About the average fish for the day

Dark one in the rain

Water's getting dirtier

Seemed like every thirty yards or so I'd come up on another hole that would produce fish after chubby fish.  In between I was picking up some in the pocket water.  The action stayed hot even through a downpour until suddenly I wasn't picking up hardly any fish.  Knowing that time was short I began making the hike out.  A different perspective made it very clear that the water clarity had taken a turn for the worst, luckily my day was done anyway.

That was a lot clearer before...

Such a fatty

So glad I decided to make the extra effort.  This was easily the best day I've ever had on this stream, with more fish and bigger fish.  Hopefully you can get out and enjoy the water.

In Between

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to play two gigs with my quartet.  Which is great, but left some serious down time on Sunday.  Yep, had a hard time finding something to fill in that time...really tough.

Got to the trailhead a bit later than I had hoped but still had time to put in a couple of miles into the Uinta Mountains at the Crystal Lake Trailhead and find some brookies that were looking up for a Red-Butted Renegade.

Photos courtesy of Ross Christensen, who
made the hike even though he didn't have a rod.

Loved being back in the Uintas.  Can't believe that I haven't been there in so long, and totally plan on making a return trip soon.  I was almost late to the gig, but figure it was totally worth it.  Hope you can get out and enjoy the water.

Out with the Boy

I hate appointments.  No matter when you schedule them, they're still inconvenient and a pain in the butt.  While it's true that I didn't have anything else to fill out my day (for the first time in two weeks) I really wanted to use that down time to hit some streams I've been neglecting.  Atley was game, and even got the stuff ready to go while I was at the meeting.

We made it to Gooseberry Creek by ten and found the water low and clear.  Quickly we were into fish using a Stone-Flopper with a red Copper-John dropper.  On a nice looking bend pool, Atley was able to get into several hits, eventually hooking his first for the day.

As we moved upstream the fishing got steadily more challenging which definitely didn't fit the bill for the day.  Eager to get my boy into more fish, we decided to hit one of the other small creeks in the area.

It wasn't the fast action that we were hoping for, but we managed to catch a few.  Atley stuck his second fish, a chubby little brown.

After that, it seemed like all he wanted to do was play with the camera.  Oh well, better for him to have a good experience than for me to insist that he fishes the whole time.  I caught some more, a mixed bag of Browns and Cutthroat while Altey manned the camera.  We tried out some underwater shots for the first time.  They're not great, but fun to play with.

Had a great time out today!  Atley covered some serious miles, fished like a pro, and took some great pics.  Hope you can get out and enjoy the water.

Average?

6:00am is not that early!  Especially when you're heading out to one of your favorite places in the world!  With that in mind I managed to break my dry spell and headed out "early" Monday morning.  After picking up a couple of friends on the way we were greeted with no visible fish in the slightly high stream.  Oh well, I still had confidence that my stream would produce for us.

Started out a little slow, but we managed to pick up a few fish here and there.  Tried different stuff, but the fishing just didn't seem to be what it normally is.  

Matt showin' off his first fish on the fly!
I love teaching people how to do this. 

Then in the afternoon the fishing just got better.  Not like a steady rise in action, but just bam! Now fishing is good!  Wondering if the first section we were in got slammed over the holiday weekend, because from here on out fishing was significantly better!

The old pro was workin' it.

Managed to pick some up on a new fly pattern.  The Stoneflopper.

Dig the big blue spot on his face.

Right about when it was time to head fishing got crazy good for me.  But the action stayed about the same for the other guys which made it hard to stay.  Oh well, great time with great company in a great place.  Kinda makes it hard to call any day average...  Hope you can get out and enjoy the water.

Awesome canyon.