Lake Powell on the fly!

I have a few traditions that I like to try to stay up with as best as possible. I always root for the Bears and Cubs, I always get chicken fried steak when I go to Texas Roadhouse. And, when I can, I always go to Lake Powell every year. I started going in 2009, and than in 2010. I was either deployed, going to a deployment, or just returning from one for the last 3 years. I was finally home this year and made the commitment to go. Usually my brother joins us, but he is currently in Korea taking care of business.

I made it pretty early to the lake last Friday and waited for my dad to show up. When he did we started fishing right away the night before we got the house boat. The weather was awesome when we started.

We were able to enjoy the awesome weather while it lasted, which was not for long

We went from Slick Rock Canyon, all of the way up into Red Canyon and almost every canyon in between, and almost all the nook and crannies on the main channel

I did like the way Castle Rock was looking and we spent quiet a bit of time in that part of the lake so I took more than one picture of it

Last year on the trip I was not able to take because I was in Afghanistan, my brother, dad, and family friends camped in Knowles Canyon but since the water level has dropped 40 feet from the same time last year their camp site it high and dry

On the way out of Knowles I spotted some brush under water where a creek would flow in during a storm and decided to bust out the 7 wt with some sink tip and a perch pattern streamer

And the fishing started right up and was non stop for quiet a while. Sunday I caught wall eye, striper, crappie, small mouth, and large mouth all on the fly and we kept a mess of them for dinner and a fish fry.

Monday presented the exact same conditions only warmer. The water temp when we started was 58, warming to over 65 until the crash. We took off bright and early and headed up lake.

And as usual the fishing was non stop. Since the weather was so great it did happen to push a ton of fish a bit  shallower than the previous day, great for me since I did not have to use the full sinking line yet and just stuck to a 6 wt, intermediate line, and clousers. Once again we were able to get into a ton of nice fish, and another mixed bag, on the fly

Tuesday started out just like Monday but come 1030 in the morning a HUGE front blew through. Though the skies were pretty clear, the temp dropped from 25 to 35 degrees, thats a best guess, what was once 90, was now 60. We were still able to pick up fish but we came in around lunch time and were done for the day. 

Wednesday came, and once again the wind was out of control. So I decided to grab the pup and make a hike up on of the canyons. 

He is 114lbs of hard charging lab and nothing can slow him down. He did flush a few small birds and pointed, which was neat to see and he was a little confused because he did not hear a shotgun blast go off, but once he realized we were out to have fun he stopped searching and started having a good time in the little creek on the way up the canyon.

Once we got a little closer to our intended target I was able to spy what we were looking for 

And here is a closer view

And if you looked hard enough you could still see some of the original pictographs that had not been restored 

And here is a very faint warrior 

We wandered around the ruins a little, I took a look inside the Kiva and the cooking pits

And took a few quick pics

Moose, the pup, sat down on the little trail up and stayed, just like I told him, until I was done, he did great, and I almost missed one hell of a view

We made the short walk back to the house boat and once Moose got something to eat, it was lights out right after this picture was taken

Thursday came and the wind was still going berserk but we decided to head out and tried our best to battle the relentless assault and we did pretty well

What we found out, when we cleaned wall eye, we found that a vast majority of them still had eggs, and not newly developing ones, these looked like they were just ready to drop

Friday came, and the wind was finally gone. It was time to get at it.

 I was glad I could finally cast more than 75 feet with little effort. I was rewarded by some hard charging large mouth and small mouth all of which were a blast on the fly rod

It was an awesome end to one hell of a week. even the dog had such a good time, he slept through all of the hoots and hollers

I cant wait until next year comes and we get to do it again. I learned alot about fly fishing for wall eye, and even more about the little nuances of fly fishing Lake Powell.

Another trip is coming up this week as well, so more pics and more fish!

More fishing!

So at 0143 my dog woke me up because he had to go outside. Since I was up I figured I may as well get up and do something. I forgot to check the mail yesterday and went out to get it, and while I was out there I noticed how nice and clean my truck looked, it needed to get dusty!

After about 6 minutes, mission accomplished. I have a trip coming up to some where awesome and needed to exercise my heavy artillery

I started kicking around and throwing some meaty streamers and was surprised by this guy

Not 15 seconds later I got her twin brother and was able to some how snag a face shot

The wind kicked up hard around 0900 so I decided to go check on something else and could not help but stop and admire the scenery 

I stopped at another lake that has just started to open up, and I believe I was the first one to float it. I bobbed around for maybe an hour and got one tiny little cutthroat and decided to head home for the day.

In about 9 days I have one hell of a trip coming up, lots of pictures and fish face shots to come!

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

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!

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

North Fork Outdoors

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

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!

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!