SEVIER RIVER

With the weather forecast slated for the mid 70's, I figured I couldn't go wrong travelling up to southern Utah for a day of fly fishing! My plan was to fish a spring fed creek that has wild rainbows; but when I arrived the water was high and off color, plan "B" was to head down to the Sevier River.

This is just a great area to fish, it also helps to have the river to yourself all day!

The first fish I had on was a decent size cutthroat, he managed to slip the hook before I could net him, unfortunately; I didn't catch anther one. The main population in this river is Brown trout, Rainbow, and a few cutthroat.


I caught 6 fish out of the run near the boulder, 1 rainbow an 5 browns. I was using a heavy streamer with a size 18 copper john dropper, all browns were caught on the copper john , the Rainbow fell for the streamer.

Some of the browns I caught throughout the day.....

 Another great day on the water!

SOUTHERN UTAH

This is the first fishing trip of 2012, hopefully many more to come! The weather was great but the fishing was really slow, the water was a bit off color which goes hand in hand with the high flows the river is seeing right now. There is about a month or so until some of the spring fed creeks in my vicinity will have ideal fishing conditions, so today this river had to do.

I started fishing around 11am,  caught a few little fish hear and there but never did find a run I could pull 2 or more fish out of! I typically don't fish high rivers; so my skill level may be whats lacking.

I was rewarded with a great fish towards the end of the day, a solid 23"  not skinny either, she has been eating good all winter. Fishing in high waters/ currents is one thing, but with a fish like this on it really makes it a challenge to land the fish.

Here is another healthy fish I was able to catch.....

It has been since October 2011; the last time I was out on the water fishing, It sure felt good to get back out there!

GOOSE CREEK--COLORADO

I was lucky enough to spend 5 days fishing various location throughout southwest Colorado, the highlight of the trip was 3 days spent in the Weminuche wilderness. The lower 9miles of this creek is all private waters which is famous for its excellent fly fishing. My plan had me backpacking into the upper portion of Goose Creek and fly fishing for a couple of days, I haven't heard of anyone fishing the upper portion of this creek, everything to come was a mystery!

The trail head to begin the hike sits at 1100 feet, driving there was an adventure in itself.

Fall was in full swing and made for some awesome backpacking scenery. The hike there was about 7miles which was fairly easy going from 1100 feet to 9000 feet, it was the hike out that was not going to be fun!

My first view of Goose Creek....

The first day of fishing I hiked down river from camp a few miles and slowly fished my way back up.  Truly a wild back country fishing adventure; that made me work for the fish I caught. The fishing and scenery was great!

The fish in the creek were good size and very powerful.....

On day two I hiked upstream from camp and fished for a few hours, most of the day was spent hiking there and back.

 I did manage to catch a nice cutthroat trout but he slipped out of my hand, I never did catch another one.

This day was also the start of Elk hunting season, I  spotted someones kill in the distance being cautious of other animals or a pissed off hunter I stayed clear of the elk and just zoomed in for a picture. Before my hike back to camp, I ate lunch about 200 yards away and never did see a hunter show up to claim the kill.

The hike out was brutal 2000 feet of elevation gain and a section of switchbacks that's seems like takes hours. This is a area I would recommend to anyone willing to get out for a adventure!

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!