UM CREEK--UTAH

Summertime in the high county of Utah opens up another world of fishing destinations, I decided to spend the weekend fly fishing some creeks in Fish Lake National forest. The first creek on my list was UM, from my parking destination I hiked back in a few miles feeling re assured I would be the only angler in the area. During the hike I realized my camera was not working, thank goodness for smart phones which made a great backup!

The area's I had chosen to fish was mostly open meadows that seemed to go on for miles.

The fishing was great, fishing this creek leads you to anticipation for possibly catching a tiger trout.I caught about 15 to 20 fish in about 4 hours.

Unfortunately I did not catch a tiger trout, although there's a chance the few fish that manged to get away could have been the tiger trout! All were cutthroat, none to large but for a creek definitely good size and a blast to catch, hoppers were the ticket!

I don't think I could have chosen a better day to be on the mountain, high of 71 and not a cloud for miles.

SM--CREEK---UTAH

This creek was the second on my list for the day, I still had 4 hours of good light left in the day and I was hoping the second half of my day was going to be as good as the first, it was wishful thinking. As I arrived at the area I had anticipated fishing; there were several groups of people posted up in there camp chairs with there spinning reel's in hand ! Not a good site for a fly fisherman, although I am sure they were enjoying there day. I decided to drive up the road a few miles and hike back in to some of the upper stretches.

The stream was quite small in the upper region, comparing to the lower section I had originally planned to fish, I managed a picture of the lower section but the sun glare by the time I got to the upper section was not working with the camera phone.

I tied on a royal coachman, one of my favorite flies and started casting to the feeding zones. From there it was brook trout after brook trout.

I did manage to catch one cutthroat, it was still very dark in color which makes the cutthroat marking stand out even more!

I did end up having a enjoyable time catching  little brook trout, I would most likely never return to this creek due to the crowds and lack of isolation.

EAST FORK OF THE SEVIER IN BLACK CANYON---UTAH

After finishing up my day of fly fishing on Antimony creek; I figured I would drive down the road and check out the water clarity in black canyon. It was not perfect but visible enough to sight fish for some browns.

I only spent a few hours fishing this section but it was very rewarding, I caught all my fish feeding in the riffles on dry flies.

You can tell the fish in this river have been hit hard by the long hard winter which equals high flows. This fish almost looks cartoon like, big head little body. Even the colors of the browns seemed to look off color, hopefully in a month or so they will fill out and brighten up!

This is another river I could spend all day fishing, you can see by the photos I took while fishing the reason why!

There is some great fishing in this part of the country!

ANTIMONY CREEK---UTAH

Was able to leave the heat of Las Vegas and make my first trip of the year to southern Utah, I had Antimony creek in my sights thanks to Circle Valley Anglers for informing me the stream was running average/ clear.

The scenery while fly fishing the creek was an experience in itself.

My first fish a colorful brown........

Most fish were average size but there was some large fish holding in the creek, my 3wt rod magnified the fight in the feisty wild rainbows!

This rainbow had the brightest colors of any in the creek that I had caught......

I managed to catch around 5 browns and lost count of how many rainbows, it was a great day of fly fishing!

The hike back to my truck was even scenic enough to keep my mind off the long hike out.

GRAND CANYON

I did some extensive google earth research,topo maps to find this location, I did not take to many picture of the hike due to the intensity and the pace I was travelling at. It is my guess that this area See's less than 20 anglers a year, and  possibly most arrive by raft just to camp and toss a line in the water for a hour or so. By far this had been one of the toughest backpack trips I have ever done!

It took me about 3-1/2 hours to reach the Colorado river, its amazing how small you feel once your in the Grand Canyon!

I found a large boulder to try my luck from, the current in this area was a bit tricky; after a few casts I had the depth needed and the currents figured out and from there it was fish after fish! I used several different setups, hopper midge///hopper san juan/////wollybugger midge/// san juan midge. With a good drift any of the setup's worked equally as well. I credit that to the lack of anglers these fish see.

Some rafters floating by, how amazing is this place!

On my way back to camp there was 3 large lizards hanging around, I decided to see what they thought of my hopper, to my surprise one of them jumped up and grabbed it and hooked himself lol.....I managed to unhook the poor guy and set him free!

After the lizard incident I arrived at my tent to find a rattlesnake slithering into the bushes! That's a bit nerve racking especially when your alone and so far away from help! He went his own way for the evening.

The hike out which I knew was going to be rough was just that! I averaged about 1.15 hr per mile. The hike is approximately 5 miles of up hill boulder scrambling, some times the only way is to go straight up the side of the loose boulder fields! Its was also HOTT to make it even more interesting.

This was a amazing trip, fishing was great the backpacking was extreme and the views were priceless. The Grand Canyon is definitely a special place!

SPRING MOUNTAIN NEVADA---MAY--2011

With me now living in Las Vegas,NV I decided to go chase down some native Lahontan cutthroat trout in a stream about 1-1/2 hours outside of town. Its hard to believe you can go from Vegas lights to a awesome area like this in such a short time!

This creek is spring feed and therefore stays cold enough year around for this beautiful Lahontan trout to thrive!

What a phenomenal little gem of a creek this is!

I caught all the fish off hopper/dry fly, you had to pick your casting lanes very well; tight quarters all the way up this creek!

These fish are just a great breed of trout! There seemed to be around 8 to 10 trout that were feeding in each pool, some pools I was able to be stealthy enough to pull 6 or 7 out.

This was another great day trip catching wild finicky trout!