odds and ends

This week was full of short stops at multiple venues.  I'll just let the pictures do the talking...they're worth a thousand words right?

Black Canyon

The water was dirty, but the lighting on the canyon walls was breathtaking.  A few fish came to hand, but I really had to work for them.

High Country

Took an exploratory side trip to kill a couple hours.  I found a nice little lake with some brookies in it.

The lake would have been a lot better if I had my float tube with me.  The stream ended up making my day though.

It was a tough little stream to fish though.  Really grown in.

Awesome to find a new cuttie hang out so close to home though.

Oh and there were a ton of these around too!! Yum

More High Country

Had to get back into the higher country to check some places out.

Found some brookies in an overflow pipe.  

Tight living quarters.

Beautiful area...

So that's my odds and ends post.  A montage of short mini-trips.  I really need a good solid day of fishing.  Hopefully that happens soon.

Until then,
Life is short, let's live it well.

Utah-The Berry

I was finally able to go fish in my native waters among my kin.  Ah Utah…the land of great natural beauty and some impressive fisheries.  My wife and I took the weekend to visit with our families.  It was a great time of catching up.

My dad and I decided to pull the boat out for a day trip.  We set our sights on an old friend, Strawberry Reservoir.  The ‘berry’ produces a lot of great fish.  Big cutts and bows are found in her depths, as well as some great kokanee.  We arrived to a beautiful serene morning.

The fog was just lifting, though some remained in the narrows until the sun crept higher into the sky.

We were employing a fishing tactic that I’m not very familiar with. That is, trolling with downriggers.  As a guy who likes to walk creeks, hike to small lakes, and kick around in a float tube…it was hard to sit still and wait.  Luckily we didn’t have to wait long.

The cutties came quickly.  The slot limit on the Berry has done well for the cutthroat, though we didn’t get any slot busters (23”+) today.  The fishing slowed and we moved on to another part of the lake.  Here we got into the kokes.  I honestly don’t have a lot of experience with kokanee salmon.  However, I can see how one would get addicted to them pretty quickly. 

They fight HARD…

My brother Nick had his pole bend over and line scream from his reel.  The result was a 20”+ koke.  I’m pretty sure it made his day…heck it made all of our day.

Some thick fish up here...

More soon followed…some pretty good ones too!

Such a cool fish.  I was very impressed by their strength.  As you can see some were starting to turn pink in preparation of the spawn, but there were some silver bullets too.  We didn't even get a picture of all them.

A few more cutthroat came to play before the looming wind and lightning forced us off the water.

It was a great time with my dad and brother.  Wish I could see them more.  I love where I  live in Colorado, but man sometimes I miss those Utah fish.

Life is short, live it well.

Bread and Butter

No big day trips for me lately…just a couple after work specials at the local haunts to keep me sane.   Paco and the Portal are my bread and butter.  They're both close to home and hold some great fish.

Pa-Co-Chu-Puk

There were so many people on the river it became difficult to fish in comfort.  However, the water was clear and fish were biting.  They were even found in some of the most unlikely of places.

Rainbows showed up too.

East Portal

With the murky flows and pouring rain, I had the canyon mostly to myself.  I’m sorry some of the pictures aren’t wonderful.  I had to deal with rain and fading light.  Fishing turned on for bows after the sun went down.  Sadly not all fish were photographed.  The fish in Black Canyon have such amazing colors, and they live in such an amazing place.

This guy's mouth had evidence of being caught before.

Life is short, live it well