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.