Posts tagged utah fly fishing
Summer Chironomids Part 2
Oct 31st
With our past success lurking in my soul, I was having an addicts withdrawal to get back to these fish of dreams. An open Saturday, a new fishing partner and we were on the road in the early AM in hopes of another great day at the lake. Its always easy to wake up early in excitement for a day on the water. The way there always seems to fly by in anticipation of for whats to come. For us this morning there was no difference. We flew over the mountains and next thing we knew it, Jordan and I were there. We knew it was going to be a great day as we opened our Denali doors to see millions of large chironomids swarming the lake shore in hopes to mate and not be eaten before they get a chance. Instantly we picked up our chirono box and tied on a couple proven patterns. With in seconds I was hooked up, then Jordan and it followed suit the rest of the morning and into the early afternoon. It was a feeding frenzy and we were lucky enough to know what to use and how to use it. Lots of doubles were witnessed and with sore forearms by 10 am we thought we were witnessing fly fishing Eden. As you look at the pictures below stay focused…
Fly Fishing Film Tour This Weds
Feb 22nd
Early Winter Midge Storm
Nov 20th
With snow in the forecast I didn’t think much about fly fishing this weekend, in fact I was thinking bird hunting or some late season deer rut. Saturday found me chasing birds in the morning and after that I had the whole afternoon to hit the river. As I drove up the canyon I though what a beautiful day to be out, it had snowed 
earlier masking the trees in a blanket of pure white. I couldn’t help thinking back to last seasons amazing winter midge fishing that I missed so much. As I stepped out of the truck I was instantly greeted by the canyon’s bitter cold breeze. Wow, I thought it is going to be pretty tuff fishing on the hands today. (Cause anyone who knows me, knows I hate to wear gloves and only do on the coldest of days) I got to my spot, tied on my outfit and my hands were already done…I could barley move them and they had that uncomfortably hot feeling. I made a couple casts with my 
nymphs at the end of a run, when I looked behind me and noticed the water boiling with rising fish. By this time it had started to snow again and I though no way am I changing my whole outfit again!!! But as I watched 50 or more rising browns the excitement of small flies, light tippet, and sippers overcame my frozen hands. I took my sweet time re-tying my set up to make sure it was right. I decided to go with an #16 orange asher and a WD-40 as my emerger. I thought that the asher would help break up the hatch and the WD would be a perfect match for the smarter-picker fish. These flies did the trick and after a few missed hook sets (Ok, way too many) a small brown fail to the asher. Just as I thought things were starting to heat up, I caught a tree behind me and had to once again re-rig again. This time I sized down the asher to a #18 and used a brighter orange and I dropped a #22 para adams behind. This set up was deadly, I hooked more hungry browns than I could count. In fact I got to the point where I had to put on my mitts, but nothing mother nature could throw at me would push me off the river. Days like this where you’re the only one on the river and the fish are rising like it is their last super only happen so often. So as I sat on the banks half-frozen waving my 9ft stick to happy fish, I couldn’t feel any of the cold…I was living a fly fisherman’s dream.
Back on a familar hatch
Sep 28th
So with all the craz of family parties and getting back into life, post mission. I hadn’t had a chance to take my little bro fly fishing on our favorite local river. One of our favorite times of year and hatches to fish is the summer caddis hatch. It occurs on most western streams nightly and can be some of the best fishing one might experience as a fly fishermen. I caught wind that Jordan and Gunner were hitting up the river, so right after work I rushed home grabbed my gear and meet them on the river, where I thought they would be. The hatch didn’t really give us too much excitement until the sun went down and the fish came up. For the next 2 hrs we enjoyed fish after fish hitting our dry flies with reckless abandon. It was nice to be stream side again with my little bro that I spent so much time as a kid with learning this river. The difference is now we can land a fish or two if we are lucky.
Watch Out Fish, He’s Coming Back
Aug 21st
So I haven’t done this in the past, but I think a cool new feature would be to have an anglers spot light post every once in a while. You know give props to exceptional fly fishermen that can teach use all a thing or two by their story.
So my first spot light is my little bro Jordan “The Scientist” Gillespie
Growing Up: Jordan grew up seasonally fishing Utah’s famous stillwaters (Berry, Fish Lake) with his grandfather and family. From an early age you knew that Jordan had something special when it came to fishing. Unlike most kids that had their dads do everything for them. Jordan didn’t want any help. He wanted to figure it out and do it himself. This also rang true as Jordan unlike the other kids his age spent countless childhood hours roaming the Utah Lake shoreline (only mins from where he grew up) catching giant catfish, bass, walleye and monstrous carp.
Stepping up a level: Similar to his introduction into regular fishing, Jordan was introduced to Fly Fishing at a very 
young age. Learning and studying from his older siblings, Jordan quickly learned the secrets of fly fishing as well as tying his own flies, by the time he was 9 yrs old. Over the years of fishing with his older bros and older sis. Jordan learned to hold his own and like I 
stated before he liked to do things his way and by himself. I don’t know what exactly what he thinks, but fly fishing to Jordan is more than just a social event, it is a time to learn and grow within himself. Jordan is always the first one ready and on the river. He prefers solitude over company and if you try to fish with him he will usually slip away and find another hole or out fish you until you have had enough and leave. But there are those rare occasions that he walks the river with you and is the best fishing partner around, pushing you to be better the whole way. (Trust me there is never any brotherly competition, not!)
Skills: Jordan is known as the small stream killer. There is no small stream that he hasn’t figured out or can’t. He is a 
fanatic when it comes to using big ugly bugs and catching over sized fish with them. His favorite and most effective is a Mouse fished late at night. Apart from 
big ugly bugs, he is one of the best big dry fly fishermen I have fished with. No matter the time of year he can entice a large trout (or White Fish) to rise after his trusty PMX. The last of many skills I could mention is his casting ability. Long or short, he can hit the perfect spot followed by an effective drift. His casting proves itself every time we are out on the drift boat. He catches 3 times more fish than everyone else using the same flies and he is sitting in the back! Plus he is one heck of a fish dog trainer
Trouphy Fish: 10 pound bow caught in UT, 8 pound Walleye, 25inch Tiger Trout, 24 inch Brown on the Green River caught on a dry fly, 23 inch Cutty on the SF.
Home Waters: Provo, Green, and all surrounding small streams (condo stream)
When not fishing:Hanging out with his dog Cash, Wakeboarding, golfing, softball, b-ball, hunting, 4 wheeling, hiking, and anything else outdoors.
Coming Back: For the past two years Jordan has been off in the corn fields of Iowa serving an LDS mission. That doesn’t exactly mean he hasn’t been able to fish or make new ff friends in the Midwest. On his days off he has been able fish local bass ponds catching LM bass, walleye, crappie, sunfish, and some nice carp. He even made a friend that helped him build his first fly rod and as a gift gave him a matching Pfueger Summit reel. Come next week he is going to be back putting a hurt on Utah’s trout, like he never left. He already has planned two days on the Provo and 4 days on the Green for the first week he is home. I think he is a little excited to be back in the Rockies…
Iowa Bass
Jords Custom Rod: “True Disciples Fish”
The Perfect River
Aug 12th
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.
