Category: Fishing Reports

If you are going to fish it, might as well as tell us how it was

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Utah Safari Pt 3 – Current Creek

After a full day of hiking and fishing on Nameless Spring Creek, we drove back into Vernal, and ate a quick meal in a restaurant.  yeah…we wimped out on the camp dinner, but we knew that we still had about 2.5 hours to drive to our next camping spot and our excuse was that we did not want to be prepping and eating dinner at 10PM.

We figured that it would be difficult to find a free and available camping spot where we were heading.  We got lucky in that as we drove up the dirt road, we found one spot in an area all alone from the crowds, above a section of river that we were going to fish the next morning…perfect!  it did rain a bit that night, but nothing that was going to cloud up the water.  All was good.

At this point we were back in known territory for me.  I have had the pleasure of fishing Current Creek the previous year and I really liked this little creek.  Technically, the Current is a tail-water, but it fishes more like a meadow stream with all the beaver dams.  The fish are very pretty and range from small to beastly.  Your average size fish is about 12″, but you have the potential to catch “a ton” of fish in the course of the days fishing.

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Utah Safari Pt 2 – Nameless Spring Creek in Eastern Utah

After a great day on the Green, we camped one more night in the killer spot we found below Dutch John and departed the next morning for [nameless] spring creek outside of Vernal Utah.  It was a short 2.5 hour drive from our camping spot.

I promised not to divulge the name of this spring creek, and I plan to keep that promise (unless you happen to be one of my closest fishing buddies).  This place reminded me of Hot Creek.  It burbles out of the ground, flows for about 5 miles and confluences with the Green.  It was small creek overgrown with brush and tons of that horrible plant, stinging nettle.

We arrived at the parking area, and were elated to find that there was only one other vehicle.  We prepped for the day and started the hike.  I knew that we were going to hike most of the way down to the Green and then fish our way back upstream.  I was anticipating an 8 mile day of hiking and at the end of the day, that is exactly how I felt.  On the hike downstream, we passed several really cool petroglyph sites, so of course we had to stop and check them out.  About half-way down, we ran into the other carload of folks and they were HIKERS.  That meant that we were the only fishermen on the river (so far).

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Utah Safari Pt 1 – The Green River

After a brutal 7 hour drive from Lost Wages to Salt Lake city, I arrived at my friend Jay’s house.  He had been busy packing up his truck for our journey, so it was simply a matter of transferring my fishing gear from my vehicle to his truck and it was back on the road.  I am fortunate that Jay was willing to drive the 4 hours from Salt Lake to the Green as I was in no condition to drive anymore that day.

We arrived in Dutch John around 1AM and it was time to look for a camping spot.  Fortunately for us, we were prepared to camp in Forest Service (that means FREE) land as Jay’s truck had a shell with a padded carpet kit exactly for this purpose.  We found a suitable site with little trouble, and turned in for the night.

The next day dawned bright, cloudless, and hot by the early AM.  We cleaned up camp, grabbed a quick breakfast, and headed down to Little Hole to start our fishing trip.  The Green is a big, beautiful river filled with big, beautiful trout.  As we were walking down to the river from the parking area, we saw tons of grasshoppers jumping around.  Could this be a sign?

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West Carson River – 07/21/08 Early AM

I know that I said I was not going to fish the West Carson anymore, but I had no idea when I opened my mouth that I was going to jinx the works.  We had several small storms in quick succession and now my favorite river, the East Carson, is a muddy, off-color mess.  I hope it comes down before I leave on my work trip.

I arrived on the river at about 7:30am which is “just a hair” late in the morning for the current water and air temps.  As always, the gauging station hole was in the shadows.  I crept down to my usual rock and was observing bug activity and enjoying some peace and tranquility when a large cinnamon bear sow popped out of the trees not more than 30 feet from me.  I do not think that she saw me in the water as I was kneeling behind some rocks and being still, but when I yelped in surprise, she jumped as well and took off running.  Just watching her run reinforced the fact that there IS NO WAY to outrun a bear…man was she moving fast.

That excitement over, I go back to my observing.  I see very little bug activity, so I decide to tie on a #16 yellow humpy with a soft-hackled hare’s ear dropper.  I got some half-hearted strikes right off the bat, but nothing serious.  I quickly move up to the next hole and start casting.  Same responses.  Refusals.  I snip off that rig and I tie on a #16 Royal Trude.  Again, more refusal strikes.  This hole is now spooked from all the rejected casts.

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North Fork American River (7/13)

I’m thinking that this last outing will be my last one on the North Fork American River until next spring.  The water has dropped so much, that the trout have moved in search for colder water.

I fished the NF today from 4:00 PM until 8:00PM.  From the looks of it, I knew that I would have to dredge the pools.  I rigged up with a #14 Pheasant Tail and a #16 Mercer’s BWO Trigger Nymph.  Within five minutes, I hooked up an eight inch Rainbow Trout.  It was a feisty little bugger that jumped around.  I worked my way downstream to the next pool.  No fish were to be had.  I walked back up to the first pool and hooked up immediately with another eight inch Rainbow Trout.

For the next two hours, I decided to work the downstream pools.  There were lots of baby Smallmouth Bass swimming everywhere!  There were not fly shy either.  I would drift my flies through the slots and yank ’em in.  I saw a few 18″+ smallies.  They wouldn’t even look at a fly.  I wish that I had my streamers with me.

I walked back up to the first pool since it was getting late.  Immediately, I hooked up.  A ten inch Rainbow Trout took my Trigger Nymph.

Before calling it a day, I decided to look down from the footbridge.  I saw a slot that could potentially hold fish.  I walked down and fished it.  I first dead drifted my nymphs.  Nada.  I changed to a #16 Pheasant Tail soft hackle.  I got a grab, then it went limp.

From there, I called it quits.