SLOUGH CREEK

This highly anticipated trip to Slough Creek started out with a twist ; when we went to pick up our camp site permit for site 2S6 the ranger notified us of a dead Buffalo near the site. Wolves had actually killed the beast and then the Grizzly bears took over the kill, it was the presence of 5 grizzlies in the area that caused them to relocate our camp to 2S3 which is located in the second meadow. The camp site was actually quite nice with great views.

The first day we fished the second meadow which was actually some great fishing, this creek is for sure something special when it comes to fly fishing. You better bring your "A" game; these fish would only eat a perfectly placed fly and even then they still needed to like the fly. I spent a lot of time changing flies and narrowing it down to what these fish would eat, and it varied at different times of the day. The views while fishing the creek were unreal.

Some of the fish caught in the 2nd meadow, these native Yellowstone Cutthroat trout are a special fish!

The 2nd day we decided to push our luck and hike up to the 3rd meadow and do some fishing, hopefully the grizzlies in the area had the day off!

 We only fished the 3rd meadow for about 4 hours but did manage to catch a fair amount of fish.The fish did seem to be a bit smaller in the 3rd meadow.

After spending the previous 4 days fishing the Lamar river, Hellroaring creek, Cache creek, Gibbons river and  Soda Butte creek by far Slough Creek is hands down the best fishery in the park. The 3 days spent in the back country of Yellowstone National park was great!

CACHE CREEK/HELLROARING CREEK--YNP

After fishing just about every well known river/creek in the park, we decided to get away from the crowds and hike back in a few miles and hit a couple of creeks that see minimal fishing pressure. Actually the days we fished both of the creeks we didn't see one other fisherman, that's hard to come by in Yellowstone!

CACHE CREEK
This creek had some awesome scenery, it was heavily wooded on both sides of the creek which makes you wonder what could be watching you! We arrived around 2pm at the creek so we only got about 4 hours of fishing in before we needed to leave, to avoid hiking in the dark.

The fishing was great I lost count on how many Cutthroat I caught, most were feisty little guys but there were a few decent fish worth taking pictures of.

The biggest one I caught in the creek!

This creek has to be my second favorite in the park, hiking, adventure, and the fishing is great!

HELLROARING CREEK
This creek may be a bit more well known in the park than some of the other back country creeks, the hike crosses over the Yellowstone river with an impressive suspension bridge. The creek itself is more of a pocket water fishery with little fish hiding in every hole! Once again the fishing here was non stop catch and release, all in all just a fun day of fishing with some beautiful scenery all around!

Some of the fish caught on the creek.....

I would most likely not venture back to the creek; but don't let that take anything from this little gem, if you like no crowds and your rod bent this is the spot!

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.