Fishing Time: 11:00 am to 4:00 pm
Weather: Unbelievably warm, clear, no wind, T-60s
Moon Phase: 33% Moon
Location: Weber River
Best Bait: gray sow bug. size 24
Who Went: Dustin Pellegrino, Dunc
I had the day off and no one to fish with so I figured it
would be a good day to chase a species of fish that not many fishermen find
appealing. I have been trying to catch
every species of game fish that Utah has to offer and the mountain whitefish is
one that has eluded me for a long time. The whitefish inhabits many of the
rivers found in northern Utah, but since most of my stream and river fishing
occurs in central and southern Utah, I have yet to cross the mountain whitefish
off my list. Today was the day to change that.
I headed towards the Weber River after talking to a few
fishermen that frequent the river often and can’t seem to keep the whitefish
off their line while targeting trout.
Perfect! I don’t want trout
today! Well let’s be honest, any
fish is always invited to tug on my line, but today was whitefish hunting day.
I drove up river starting from Oakley, Utah, only to find miles and
miles of private property. I did find
one hole that wasn’t posted so I stopped in to have a look, but found no
bites. I texted Dustin Pellegrino
(Grino), a fly fishing buddy of mine, and he informed me that he was off work
early today and would meet me at a spot where he usually can’t keep them
off. I made my way downstream towards
his spot and hit a couple other holes below Echo Reservoir on my way, but still
couldn’t find any fish.
When I met up with Grino he was amazed at how low the
river was. He said it was the lowest
he’s ever seen it. This winter continues
to disappoint with precipitation, but the warm weather sure makes it nice to
walk the river in February. We fished all afternoon in
a T-shirt. I can't remember ever doing that in February.
We moved to one of Grino’s other spots and again found low
water. I found one fairly deep hole that
finally produced a hook up, but the fish came off only a few seconds into the
fight. That’s fly fishing. I continued to work the same hole until it
finally happened. I hooked up with a
small fish and waited in anticipation to see if it was a trout or a
whitefish. Unlike most fly fisherman on the
river, I was ecstatic to see it was a little whitefish on the end of my
line. After a quick fight I finally
landed my first ever mountain whitefish.
I worked
the hole for another half hour, but he seemed to be the only fish in there
willing to bite my offering.
We moved to one last spot upstream between Echo reservoir and Rockport
Reservoir and found some better and deeper stretches of water. We fished there the rest of the afternoon,
but didn’t land a fish. Grino was not
about to get skunked and fished hard, but to no avail. Just before dark we called it quits.
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The fishing was horrible, but I was still excited. I waited a
long time to check the mountain whitefish off my list and today I’m one step
closer to achieving my goal. I only have
a few species left and three of them only exist (that I know of) at Bear
Lake. Looks like a Bear Lake trip is in
my future…
