The Perfect River

This past Saturday with the colder than normal weather, I took a break from the wakeboarding and hit a stretch of trout water that I can now call one of my new favorites.  Its scenery is breathtaking, I only saw one other angler all day, it comprises most of native trout, its water is crystal clear and the fishing can be as technical as you want it. So what more can you ask for in the perfect stream?  It really is a special place and needs to be preserved and respected. This is about as perfect  a trout stream gets here in Utah.  The weather was less than ideal for big dry and dropper, but that didn’t stop the hungry mountain trout from devouring my PMX and PT.  I had always wondered what this stretch of river had to offer, but always found myself either fishing  before it or below it. I guess that’s what most of the fishermen do by pure negligence to the other great waters that surround it. I started the day walking about 3 miles of the river to get away from anyone and everyone. I wanted this day to be me, the river and the fish.  I don’t know why, but sometimes I just get that way. I really wanted to fish for Cutthroats with dries and everything else came second hand. As I approached the first decent run, I cast my flies into the lower section of the run and bam! A fish caught me by surprise as it launched itself after my floating flies.  I had done it!  

I had fulfill my days desire exactly like I wanted to. After that I worked my way upstream working all the fishy spots catching Cutts and Browns along the way, but a few hook-ups stick out a little more than others. 

The big surprise of the day was right at the base of a little waterfall. There was a little open slot (maybe 2×2) between big boulders that looked like they could hold a fish. Bubbles covered the surface, so as I went to lift my rod to recast I notice some pressure and then a big head came out of the water. I instantly realized I had a huge cutty on. It rapped me around the rear by log, then shot across the stream and wrapped my fly line around my pole and then like a train it shot down stream and snap! It was easily pushing 20 and an eye opening experience to be under control from now on. (because this stream does hold some surprises)  The next cast to the above run produced a very nice brown. Go figure…

As I was working my way up stream I noticed a nice little run on the opposite side of the stream. It wasn’t very deep, maybe a foot, but it had an off color bottom and overhanging bushes making it likely that a fish would hang out waiting for the next grasshopper or beetle to fall in. I got into position, made an OK cast and just like it should of , a nice cutty rose slowly and inhaled my PMX. It was as picture perfect as you can get.

The next bend in the river presented what once was a very large beaver dam that had been blowout creating the best hole in the river. I as analyzed the hole I noticed what I though was a log, was really a fish sitting about haft way down in the water column. I crawled up the bank to get a birds eye view and with a better view I noticed that the hole had two nice fish working its main current. After studying them I decided to give my dropper a couple more feet and with that I casted my flies into the run. As they drifted over the feeding fish, one of the fish moved up,  instinct set in and I set the hook  and had a nice brown on the other end. After letting the run settle for a min I could see that the other larger fish was still working the upper end of the run. I tried to make multiple casts at the fish but only catching the side of the old beaver dam and breaking off my outfit. After a new outfit I cast my flies to what I thought was too far left in the eddy, but out of no where the larger fish moved over and grabbed hold of my pheasant tail and gave me a great fight through the old logs of the beaver dam. It ending up being the most beautiful native cutthroat I had caught all day. As it danced in the water the reds, oranges, greens, and tans were as brillant as they were intended to be. 

I would have to say that the highlight of the trip was some of takes I had while site fishing my way back. The first was a cutty in really shallow flat water, it was sitting on the bottom of the stream.  I thought my cast would for sure spook it, but just like some of the other takes it moved up a couple feet to eat the dropper and the fight was one and off with in seconds…The last was just before I got back to the car. I spotted a rising fish and as I got closer I saw what I thought was a nice cutty. I casted up to it, but only had a take from a tiny fish. I tried a couple more casts in different seams, but with one last desperation try I cast back to where I saw the fish. The water turned and the large trout hammered my pmx in less that a foot of water. As it raced by me I noticed it wasn’t a cutty, but an oversized brookie. I got all excited, but it was short lived as it ran under a log and snapped the line. It was OK…I was fulfilled. It really was a perfect day of fishing on a perfect little trout stream.