Saturday, March 30, 2013

Up in the mountains

We headed up into the mountains bright and early this morning and we were greeted by a stiff breeze, low temps, and tons of grouse


Even with the breeze and cooler temps we were able to start getting into fish right away, and the rainbows we caught were STUFFED!




We were getting Cutts, Rainbows, Browns and Brookies. One of the Brookies I caught has some nice color on it's flanks


I tried to get another picture of it's color but it flipped out of my hands.

It finally warmed up quiet a bit and so did the fishing



and it did not stop the rest of the day, no clue how many fish were caught, but sure was a killer day on the water


Still more to come yet









Thursday, March 28, 2013

A nice lazy day

So, my boss was cool enough to let me take today off, so what else was there to do but fish! I hauled ass off to a lake that recently opened up enough to float and to meet my buddy Scott. Scott is a Orvis guide at Falcons Ledge and knows his stuff. When I got to the lake I was more than a little surprised to see a vast majority of it has refrozen.



 There was just enough water to float, though it was not needed. I was also a little surprised to see 2 other fellers floating the lake by the time I got there. I Had just finished getting set up when Scott pulled up, and he was ready to go. We watched multiple small cutts jump right next to the ice shelf, some never came off, obviously being chased by something that was looking for a quick bite to eat. That meant it was time to throw meat! I tied on a Sex Dungeon and on my third cast I got nailed hard! The fish went airborne a few times, and for his size and girth im surprised his fat ass could get out of the water. Here is a shot of the big guy with my streamer in his jaw bone!


Scott was able to get a few profile pics of him as well


He taped out JUST shy of 24 inches, and he was pretty broad shouldered! 


After several small cuttys we headed to a few other places and managed to get into bows that went 20 to 22 inches but fought like freight trains


we fished another small lake before we called it a day and I needed pay back at this place. I had a hooked a few on 'mids but was having some gear problems causing me to lose some fish. After some adjustments I got my pay back


We are guessing he went 22 possibly 23 inches, he put a hurting on me that's for sure, mind you I am 6'1 and 230lbs as a reference, and we were just guessing on the length


Now that ice is off most of our special lakes, alot more to come!

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Fishing in the snow

We met up at 3am Saturday morning and made the long trip over to the Green River. We were smacked in the face with a blizzard just outside of Evanston and it really slowed us down. Once we got outside of Mountain View we were slowed down even more with 3 to 4 inches of snow on the roads. Once we finally got down to the put in area the two fellers I was with were pretty excited because they had never seen the Green before. We unloaded and got ready to fish.


I have to admit, it was pretty cold, with a high of 19F but I was snug as a bug because i really bundled up. The other two guys may have mentioned once or five times it was a little cold. It also did not help that they both took a small spill in the river because they were not used to wading such a clear, depth deceiving river.

These guys saw well over a thousand fish. They did not bring any to hand and missed quiet a few, it was more of a learning experience for them. I was able to bring a few fish to hand and they all had some nice color to them, but my rule is, if it is not over 20 inches long its not worth a picture. We had a blast running the river in our North Fork Outdoors Outlaw series boats, which you can find here



Even the guys that have never floated a river before and had very little idea how to move the boat around with fins or oars were able to have some fun in a little white water



We all ran into a bit of gear trouble. Case in point all three of us managed to break oars on our toons. Mine was a bit more difficult because I was in a framed boat and was not able to get my legs as low in the water to use my fins as effectively as I could in the other boats, dont get me wrong they worked well, but did not give the full power I needed.



I made the mistake of thinking we would have to portage Mother in Law rapid and that wasted 2 hours of time. We all ran it, and let me tell you it was fun as hell to run it in fins and one oar only. We than high tailed it home trying to end a very long day. We got to the take out at 7pm and hauled ass home. I got home and in bed after eating right at midnight. A long yet fun day that took alot out of us but as usual was worth it



Sunday, March 17, 2013

Open water dude!

After suffering a serious bout of cabin fever, a fishing buddy and I decided to take a long drive anywhere for some open water. We threw around a few ideas and at 245 in the morning, while loading up we settled on heading to the east instead of south like our original plan called for. I was more than a little surprised when we made it to the lake after a 3 hour drive to see open water that extended past the range of the headlights on my truck so we made the call to stay put instead of floating the river and it turned out that was the right call.


Once the sun came up and warmed the air the fishing was on fire. I have no clue how many I caught, I would guess between 45 and 55 brought to hand. A few times I would catch 8 in a row, miss one and catch 8 in a row again. No show stopping fish but my buddy got 2 of his biggest rainbows on a fly rod yet


We noticed several folks on boats and toons use zero common sense and come within feet of us, people really need to learn boating ethics and common courtesy because it was blatantly obvious some of them either did not care if they cut you off, ran threw your casting lanes, or came within feet of you which is very unsafe.

 He also managed to catch one that had a nice little gut on it


After checking out several other lakes and smaller waters in the area we made the drive home. 16 hours worth of traveling and checking up on the small waters we fish we made it home, the end to a stellar day. We already have next weekends trip in the planning stages. This was his first time on his new Scadden Out Law Renegade and I think he is hooked. Now we need to get him on moving water.

Speaking of moving water, I decided to get the second frame for my Avenger. I got this for the wife and I to float rivers here in UT, like the Green, and in CO like the Colorado, Arkansas and Gunnison.



I cant stop thinking about the fall and honkers and quakers. It will be here before you know it!


Saturday, March 9, 2013

Cold weather, hot fishing!

I have been fishing for several days the past few weeks. We have been pulling out browns, rainbows, cutthroat and whitefish. Just like that one thing you did that you regret, hey whitefish happen! One of the cuttys I caught was maybe 17 inches long but man did it have a gut on it!


I also managed one of the most torn up browns I have ever seen. Either an eagle, or raccoon  or mink got a hold of this guy.

More to come, looks like I will be doing my first still water trip in about a week and I am super excited!