Heber Valley - on the Provo River

Photo's taken in late October - C'mon, I've been busy!

Fall is amazing in Utah - the mountains, the animal life to be seen - especially the deer and elk that start to find their winter homes.  Oh, and the fishing is fine!!!  The late caddis hatches are my favorite.  This year I found a big mayfly in October that was a really bright lime green (the green on the outside of the lime) with long light dun tail and a light dun wing at least a half inch tall.  I had a couple flies in my box with which I could fake it pretty well - caught a couple and lost the flies in the grass casting toward the bank where they were rising and rising and rising and rising and rising.  It was so fun to see the fish so busy - but frustrating to not be able to approach them after I lost those flies; nothing else would work.



Hooked!

This adventure was actually just before Thanksgiving.

These big fellas were hooked for a few minutes.  I've been hooked my whole life and Jr. is now hooked for the rest of his.  He was working his way into another one, that looked a good 6 inches longer than these, while I was up in the sage brush coaching his cast and telling him what the fish was doing, where it was moving around in it's hole in relation to his casting, etc. - until I moved a little and spooked it.  Jr. didn't get too upset at his old man, thank goodness!  On this river if you fish for them from where you can see them yourself they'll be gone before you even get started - so the team is the only way.  The guy in the weeds just needs to be sneakier than I was that time.

Looks like he's been doing this for a long time!

Sometimes they don't want to be held and loved.

A few miles up stream from Starvation Reservoir. 

The name "Starvation" has been credited to two legends. One saying that a group of mountain men caught in winter snows survived by stealing a cache of food belonging to local Indians and as a result the Indians starved. The other more often told legend, relates the opposite story of the Indians stealing the trapper's cache of food leaving the trappers to starve. It is, however, very likely that neither legend, even if true, bears reference to the naming of the dam and reservoir.

    In the late 1800s and early 1900s, cattlemen and homesteaders tried to make a go of it along the banks of the Strawberry River in the area now occupied by the reservoir and dam. Their story is one of hardship, perseverance and facing near starvation in a very hostile and harsh environment. Winters were hard, long and extremely cold. Their cattle and livestock often froze during these winter months, and the short growing season was hindered by flooding, hailstorms, early frosts and other calamities. They nicknamed the area "Starvation" and it was from this reference that the highway bridge, reservoir, dam and state park received their names.

We don't just fish Northern Utah!

This summer (first weekend of August) there was some first time exploration of the Boulder Mountain lakes in Central/Southern Utah.  Here's one of the discoveries.  This one definately counts!

Daddy's Girl

She's been fishing with me many times but now she fishes.  I think she got over a dozen on this trip - dry fly!  We backpacked into the Uinta Mts. to this little canyon where the Duchesne River begins.  Each day we were there we caught dozens and dozens of Brookies and Cutthroats.  We didn't even have to spend all day doing it.

The trip was made with the young women from church and a few adult youth leaders.  Besides the fishing we had such a fantastic time together - getting to know eachother, growing our trust in eachother and faith in Jesus.  All the girls that went with us caught at least one fish - a few of them caught several.  With the exeption of my girl this was a new experience for them - backpacking, fishing, they each cleaned one fish too, cooking over the fire, no showers, no toilets, etc.  They were so much fun to be with and I think they fell in love with the wilderness experience, and were excited to have conquered something new that beforehand seemed so difficult.

Caddis flies everywhere!

This adventure was actually three weeks ago - before I became a super blogger - so don't go rushing down there with caddis as your only option.

Lots of caddis in the trees and under the trees crawling & swimming out of the water to the trees, and rocks and up our legs - flying around and falling back on the water - just dancing about.  I don't think it was the heaviest time or day of the hatch - sometimes there are so many the air is just speckled with them.  But there were plenty and had been for a while so the fish new all about it.  Here along the bank, especially under the overhanging branches there were fish lined up waiting for the little bugs to drift by on their way to the surface or fall from branches or from flight. 

Elk Hair Caddis and tan emergers - mostly Sarkle Pupae and just a little side arm cast to flip them underneath the trees, taking care to keep the line out of the faster current next to the target - drag free!

Bridal Veil Falls

(behind me from where I was fishing)

 

Keepin' it out of the trees!

Most of the fish in little mountain streams aren't too big but they are so fun to see in action.  They come up for flies on the surface like it's their last meal.  It was real tricky for us to get our flies right where we wanted them. Our casts sometimes needed to slip between willows hanging over the stream from each side leaving sometimes a gap of only two feet.  Most of the day was pretty calm with only a gentle breeze but that breeze would often take the cast off target just enough and into the trees.  But whenever our bugs (elk hair caddis, caddis pupae, caddis emerger, and ants) hit the spot there was a little brown trout waiting (about 10 to 15 per hour).  All the crawling around on the rocks and in the brush, the ants all over us and scraped shins is always worth it.