With work taking me up to Coalville, I spent the afternoon on a local lake catching Rainbows and Browns from the shore, stripping buggers. Ended the day on the river without any love from the bigger streamer eating browns that lurk in its undercut banks.

The following day I found myself, on a favorite local stream catching some nice sized buck browns for this tiny water.

Amazing fall weather and scenery took us up to ride the famed Wasatch Crest Trail. Throw-up hill was nothing to Liz, Mallary, and Greg, but for me and my downhill bike. It earned its name… The rest of the trail was fast downhill as we dropped into Mill Creek Canyon. It is one of the best Alpine trails I have been on in the state and a must ride for all mtn. bikers.

Sat. I found myself waking up at 4am to go on the annual Lancaster General Season Deer Hunt. Lucky for us the weather(Snow) held out just long enough to give us an eerie foggy morning and Andrew a shot at his first Mule Deer. The fun began as we had to choose to either drag the buck 2 miles up hill or 8 miles down. We choose up and after an hour of  toucher we made it back to the truck. (After a little 4×4 with the truck to get back) It was a great hunt to be part of.

Recounting the day as they over look Andrews Deer…

Finally it was the big day! As I open my garage I was welcomed with 6 inches of fresh snow. I thought for a minute back country snowboarding, but quickly my thoughts fell back to a certain lake that I can’t resist. My only goal was to have fun and enjoy being out on the water with my wife. Little did I know it was going to turn out to be one of my best days on the lake this year. Guess it got the b-day memo… It ended up being a blue sunny sky day with a slight breeze here and there, just perfect conditions for site fishing these large trout. The key to the day wasn’t so much the fly, but more the fast and slow retrieve. Cast let it sink to the desired depth.  Strip fast to get the fishes attention and spark a follow, once it follows, stop! Then slow down/twitch and wait for their mouth to open, SET! It was an all day event.

Our annual September Lake Powell trip was better then ever. (It even felt more like a vacation than a trip)  The weather for the most part stayed awesome giving us lots of glass for wakeboarding, surfing, sking and of course chasing boils. The main focus of the trip was water sports, since Liz and I had just picked up a Mastercraft X-30 the week before the trip. The ole Glastron was great and treated us well, but lets be real. Its not even close to as nice as an X-30.  With our new baby, I spent most of the off time checking out how things worked on the boat. (like the shower, bilge pump, ballast tanks, speakers, etc…) The rest of the time we hungout on the houseboat playing cards, eating, laying out, watching movies on the cliff walls and catching bass and carp that patrolled the houseboat. One of the best parts of the trip was that we didn’t have to go out side of our cove to find great fishing. The cove we stayed held lots of shad and where you find shad you find ambushing strippers and bass. So every morning and evening we listened for the boils and when we heard them its was an all out stampede to get to them before they stopped. In all it was a little piece of heaven on earth. There are few other things that rival a 7 day vacation to Lake Powell durning the first weekend in September. Its a magical place to say the least.  The pictures will help tell the rest of the story…

With hall passes from the wives, Hoss and I decided to try one of our favorite stillwaters. We had a hunch that these finicky fish would be in the shallows eating Chironomids and Scuds. We must have played our cards right, because the fish were in and they were on what we had.  We started stripping scuds over the moss beds for cruisers that we could site fish. It was very productive in the early hours as the fish were more aggressive and were targeting scuds in the shallows. As the late morning sun warmed the water we started noticing more and more fish breaking the surface further out, ambushing the emerging chironomids. With this in mind we switched over to a chirono set-up and with the help of the wind we were into fish on a constant basis. It was interesting to note that the more the wind blew the better the fishing was. But as the wind settled the fish were less interested in our offering. Luckily for us the wind blew almost all afternoon putting our bugs over lots of oversized Tiger &  Colorado Cutthroats Trout. As we ended our day all we could talk about was the next time we were going to come back. That when you know it was a great day! I’ll let the pics tell the rest of the story…

So this years ice off came at the worst possible time. By the time the lakes started to unveil themselves I was already well under the grasp of religiously fishing some local BWO hatches. When Strawberry was just getting good, I drove right past it and to the Green River for the week, missing out on some of my favorite fishing of the year. But it wasn’t a complete bust this year. Jord and I were able to sneak away chase some big kitties as they patrolled the ice free shallows. The day started off slow as we got to the lake to find that the ice that was open the day before re-froze, leaving us sitting around from 7am to noon waiting on the ice to peel back. Since we had some free time we managed to clean up the garbage around the lake and Jord was able to catch a little cutty as it moved into the shallows of the spring. Once the ice softened up we fished hard for the few fish that were active enough to want to eat in the freezing water. Even though the catch rate wasn’t a typical ice-off experience, it was still nice to be there and have the chance. My favorite fish of the day was a big momma tiger that I spotted just feet from the shore, when I casted over her. I told Jord that she wouldn’t eat, but as my fly floated over her face she opened her mouth and sucked it in. I was so surprised that I didn’t even set the hook, giving her all kinds of time to spit it out. As luck was on my side the hook stuck and I found I had a tight line and a big grin.

A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to fish with my two younger bros, Jordan and Gunner. Its always a good time when we fish together, with lots of messing around, trash talk and brotherly competition. This day was special though. We were targeting oversized fish that would make any angler smile. So with that  in mind the trash talking began. I was talking all kinds of trash to Jordan about our last outing, but it wasn’t until I hooked up with a small 26 inch bow on my second cast, that I was able to back-up what I was throwing up. After that my head and mouth grew ten sizes.  It really didn’t matter though, the picky fish were kind to us all that morning and we all had our hands on some of the biggest fish of our lives.

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The problem however was that Jordan somehow landed the biggest fish of the day (I don’t know how?) and now has big head syndrome. This has got to change…next time Gunner and I will change that.

I had three locations in mind, but as I loaded the drift boat I decided I had some over due revenge on a favorite stillwater. The last time I was there, I got worked to say the least. It was one of those days that is measured by the time spent with family rather than catching success.  The brisk morning greeted me with the company of a few fellow fishermen. As I made my way around the lake I was surprised to see nothing happening. It was as if the lake had been cleaned out and all the fish were gone. Throughout the morning I had a few hook-ups and quick releases stripping a dark bugger and small scud, but no one else on the lake had gotten anything…I was starting to think I chose the wrong location. As I hung out with a few new friends swapping stories and strategies, they asked if I wanted to get out of this crap of a lake and go somewhere that always produces.  I thought about it for a second and really probably should have gone, but for some reason I couldn’t back down to the challenge…I told them I wanted to stalk the shoreline before I threw in the towel. Having a boat I had forgotten how much fun stalking cruising trout is. There is something about sighting a fish and then doing everything right to provoke that fish to eat. As I started my shore stalk I lengthened my leader to about 12 ft and added lighter tippet not to spook the shallow fish.  After I sized down on flies I was ready to go.  I found a nice brushy shoreline and on the first cast I had a nice tiger follow my flies right to the shore. I quickly recast to the same area and this time slowly twitched back. After a short pause and a quick twitch…Wham! My line flew across the water. I was hooked up with the same tiger. (Not Tiger Woods) It fought great and as I release the big healthy fish, I couldn’t help look around to see if my new buddies were still around. But I was alone and as happy as could be. As the day progressed I narrowed down a few spots that held a constant flow for cruising trout. As I approached one area I looked back along the shoreline that I had pasted and noticed below me was a nice Cutthroat that was sitting under a brush in less than a foot of water. I got into position let out some line and with a 20 ft cast my flies landed feet to the right of the fish. I quickly gave it a strip and noticed the fish dart out form under the tree. Suck! I thought I spooked it. But it stopped at my flies, mouth opened, I set the hook. Fish On! I couldn’t believe it, it was as picture perfect as you get. The rest of the day was full of sight fishing for over sized trout on small scuds and midges. The key was to get to higher ground to be able to spot the fish and put the flies in front of them and see when they take. Cause it is pretty fun watching a 26inch tiger mouth a #22 midge multiple times, before finally hooking the monster on the edge of it big mouth. Plus the tiny Midge hatch didn’t hurt any. It was one of those legendary days that stories are formed.  I like fish stories…

I love fishing with my best friend Cash. He is my little bros dog, but since he went on a two year vaction.  I have taken over the role of master. He is the perfect fishing partner no matter if I’m happy, mad or sad, he is always at my side to give support or that look of  “how the heck did you miss that one?”  No matter why they created the saying “mans best friend”.

Only If I Could Teach Him How To Net???

Last weekend was a great one, I was able to spend a couple days in a great place with some of my best friends and Dawgs.  Cash, Chubbs and I arrived to our destination late Friday night after work. After some fishing talk and BS’ing with a couple older gentlemen who were just getting ready to leave after a long hard day on the water. We lanched the boat and headed into the darkness.

Not hearing much excitement from our older  friends we were greatly surprised went our first cast produced a fish on and off within seconds. The rest of the night was just as we hoped and as we crawled into our sleeping bags at 2 am we were ancoiusly awaiting what the next morning had instore.  In fact it was one of the longest 3 hrs periods of my life, the air mattress went flat within 30 mins and with a couple Amps in my system I decided to wait it out looking at the stars. As the sun slowly arose in the canyon we were greeted by one of natures most beautiful sunrises I have ever witnessed.

Just like earlier that day we instanly started to figure out these weary fish and as luck would have it we not only had a beautiful rainless summer day, but we were also able to catch a couple fish in the process.

Even though it was just nice to be out with friends…and make a few along the way. (Our new WI & NC buddies from the DNR )

Playin a little Frisbee with Cash…I wish I could love something so much…oh wait I do

Knowing that “ice off’ doesn’t stay around for long I made it a priority to get up and fish the berry as much as possible. Within 3 days the ice had peeled back 30 yards making it harder to fish from the shore. Knowing that I would have to fish blind, I decided to change that. I hiked up the side hill until I had a good look at the water below. Within seconds I spotted two very large cutthroats cruising the shore line. I sunk down the hill and with perfect conditions. (A little breeze picked up and put a riffle on the water covering my shadow casts) I stripped in and as my bugger approached the shore, I saw a big silver flash and a large cutthroat had rolled on my fly feet from the shore. I set the hook and with two head shakes the hook was loose. WOW, I though, that was sick! In hopes that the second fish was still there I casted out again. Strip, tick, hook set and a miss. One last desperation cast I thought, count to 5, strip, pressure, hook set, fish on! This fish was nice, it rolled, shook its head and tried about everything it could to brake me off. After the tug a war the beautiful 24 inch Cutthroat can to hand. After the sun went behind the mountainside my spot fishing came to an end. the remainder of the night was given to slot cutties and watching the amazing sunset finish its day with a masterpiece.

Messing with colors….

Fins of Fire