Sunday, July 15, 2012

MANTI-LA SAL NATIONAL FOREST----UTAH

After researching some of the few waters in Utah that hold Yellowstone Cutthroat trout, I decided on a valley in the Manti-La Sal National forest that holds a few creeks and tributary's which all hold the Yellowstone Cutthroat.

 I hiked along a ridge overlooking the valley for about 4 miles before descending to the creek. This area has as good as scenery as anywhere I have been.



The fishing was surprisingly better than expected, for the size of the creek I expected to be catching 10 to 15" fish! I think the smallest I caught was 15 inch's, most averaged around 17" largest was 20". Cutthroat trout are know to be lazy fighters, especially Yellowstone Cutthroat; not these fish. All were long hard fighters with most jumping out of the water a few times in attempt to spit the hook! I lost my 1st two fish not expecting these guys to be such hard fighters, after a bit more attention on landing these guys I had no more issues.






The teeth on the bigger fish were razor sharp!


The spotted Rainbow!



Cut bow!


The smallest fish landed!


Some views of the creek while fishing.....





This is definitely an area I plan on backpacking into next time, I would like to have more time exploring the tributary's and fishing further upstream!


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