Small River with Big Surprises

Fishing Time: 8:00 am to 4:00 pm

Weather: sunny, slight breeze, warm T-60s

Moon Phase: 87% Moon

Location: Southern Utah

Best Baits: Hare’s ear nymph

Who Went: Roger Parks, Dunc

My buddy Roger headed south last weekend and came back with good reports, so I talked him into making another trip with me this weekend.  The weather report said it would be 61 degrees, so I was excited to get out after a long winter and warm up a bit.  The weather didn’t disappoint and neither did the fishing.

Roger tied up some hare’s ear nymphs that he did well on the week before, so I rigged one up and put another as a dropper and we started walking down river.  The river was shallow with low flows, so we hit mainly the deeper holes.  The first deep hole produced some small rainbows and a decent brown for Roger. 

The second hole looked very fishy and was probably the deepest hole we saw all day.  I quickly landed a couple rainbows and Roger found some fish as well, before I set the hook on something I knew was different.  It didn’t move at all with my hook set and immediately went down and stayed down.  It took me a few minutes to even get it to surface and when it did… I knew it was a nice fish.  The fight continued until Roger was finally able to put a net on it.  No measurements or weights on the nice rainbow trout, but it was a beautiful fat football.  One of the nicest fish I’ve caught on a fly rod.

We continued fishing every deep hole we could find and pulled at least a fish or two from each one.  Even doubled up a couple times. 

By afternoon it felt hot as the breeze died down and the temperatures climbed over 60 degrees.  Such a good day to be outside and wandering a river.  The good fishing just put it over the top.  We are already planning our next trip! 

Warm Water Fish and Weather in February

Fishing Time: 8:00 am to 5:00 pm

Weather:  Sunny, calm, and very warm, T-60s

Moon Phase: 22% Waning Moon

Location: Sevier River, DMAD Reservoir, and Gunnison Bend Reservoir

Best Baits: Blue Fox Spinner (firetiger), ice fly under a slip bobber

Who Went: Chad Fuller, Dunc

The weather forecast showed near record breaking weather, so ice fishing just didn’t feel right.  I decided to make a drive south near Delta to fish the Sevier River and I dragged my buddy Chad along for the day.

I had some pre-marked spots on google earth along the river that I wanted to try.  The first spot looked good, but we came up empty handed.  The second spot looked better, but no bites.  The third spot was called Fool Creek Reservoir, and it definitely fooled us.  We had to park and hike a short distance in only to find a dry lakebed.  The reservoir is gone. 

The fourth area was on Gunnison Bend Reservoir, and we finally got on the board with a little white bass.  

After that we were back on the river and found our best producing spot where we landed a few small pike. 

After hitting all my river spots, we tried fishing DMAD reservoir in search of white crappie but had no luck.  The weather made the day a success even though the fishing wasn’t great.  Still caught my first pike from the Sevier River, so that was cool.  Miss the days when Yuba produced some monsters.  We also saw thousands of snow geese on Gunnison Bend...

Chasing Walleye through the Ice

Fishing Time: 1 pm – 7 pm

Weather: sunny, clear, windy (constant 20-25 mph with gust up to 30)

Moon Phase: 85% Moon

Location: Starvation Reservoir

Best Baits: buckshot jigs

Who Went: Casey Davies, Dunc

It’s February and the walleye bug is starting to hit me.  Not sure why as I still can’t consistently catch them, but a little research says that people have been catching them through the ice at Starvation, which got me a little excited.  I have never caught a walleye through the ice.

Casey was dumb enough to fall into my walleye delusion and committed to going with me.  The idea was to arrive to Starvation early afternoon and hike to our spot then prep for the last hour of daylight during walleye prime time.

We did find a few rainbow trout that wanted to play in the afternoon that kept us happy, but the wind was a consistent 20-25 mph and that wasn’t fun. 

My research said the walleye will show up just before dark cruising the bottom, and the crazy part is, that is exactly what happened.  We didn’t see a fish on the bottom all afternoon, but about 30-min before dark the bottom came alive.  

Now for the annoying part… we couldn’t buy a bite!  The wind didn’t help because it was tough to detect bites, but either way we could not hook one.  This frustrates me so much because everything went as planned and I just want to know if they really were walleye!  Unfortunately, I will never know…

Big Rainbows and Wild Times at a Private Ranch

Fishing Time: 10:00 am to 4:30 pm

Weather: Beautiful, sunny, calm wind, T-40s

Moon Phase: 85% Moon

Location: LC Fly Fishing Lodge

Best Bait: 2-inch yellow tube jig tipped with worm

Who Went: Rick Everson and 10 of his buddies, Dunc

Rick has a connection with the owner of the LC Lodge and invited me on a fishing trip up there for his birthday with all his buddies.  We arrived late Friday night and fished on Saturday.  There is a total of 20 different ponds, and they all hold a variety of trout.  The ice was anywhere from 6-12 inches thick depending on the pond.  Rick had a good birthday outfit for his ice adventure and the party started quickly.

Saturday morning, we fished 3-4 different ponds with only one fish to show for it before moving to the honey hole pond where we were able to land close to 15 nice rainbow trout.  They were all around 20-inches long and fat and healthy.  Ricks buddy Pulver had the hot hand and caught 8-9 himself using a yellow tube jig tipped with a worm.  We tried a few other ponds once the honey hole died down, but never did catch another fish. 

It was a wild trip with some wild dudes and the fishing came second to the partying, but still a fun experience and such a cool place.  The earthwork to create all the ponds was incredible.  I imagine it’s even prettier in the summer.  It had 3-4 different cabins on the 1,100-acre property all stocked with side by sides for your personal use.  Our cabin had 4 bedrooms and was beautifully done in dark woods and western décor.  Rick’s brother came who is a professional chef and cooked for us every meal.  We were not roughing it by any stretch.

Cold Weather at Flaming Gorge

Fishing Time: January 9-10 (Thursday and Friday)

Weather: Cold, single digit temperatures, snow on Thursday morning, Friday was calm and mostly clear skies.  No ice found from Sheep Creek up to Upper Marsh Bay

Moon Phase: 85% Moon

Location: Flaming Gorge (Sheep Creek up to Anvil Point)

Water Temp: 38 degrees

Best Bait: 7-inch Rainbow Tube Jig

Who Went: Bobber John, Rick Everson, Dunc

I received a phone call from Bobber John that he was coming into town to attend an event so naturally we turned it into a fishing trip.  He came in a few days early and Rick joined us for a few days up at Flaming Gorge. 

Day one we woke up to a half inch of snow in the boat and it continued snowing lightly most the morning.  Why do we do this? Mainly because it’s the only time of year there isn’t a million boats fishing all the lake trout areas.  However, it’s getting hard, and my boat was frozen, wouldn’t start, and a million other issues the cold brings with trying to launch a boat.

We talked to Captain Jim, the main fishing guide at Gorge, on the boat ramp, and he said the fish have been hard to find.  We started south and found out quick that Captain Jim was right.  No fish anywhere.  We moved north checking all the usual haunts and didn’t find fish until my last spot which was miles north in Wyoming.  Unfortunately, by the time we found fish it was 10:30 am and they weren’t very active.  We still fished hard for a few hours, but didn’t get one bite.  We were slightly demoralized, but had hopes that the next morning they would bite.

The highlight of the trip was the thermo-scoped rifle and binoculars that Everson brought on the trip.  It was the first time I've seen this technology and wow!  It was incredible and made for a couple fun nights chasing bunnies in the sage brush.

Day two we ran straight back to where we left fish, and they were there waiting for us.  We fished hard and had a lot of great looks, but for whatever reason just couldn’t buy a bite.  Later in the day we headed back south and tried to find some new fish.  We didn’t find many, but luckily at Antelope Flats, Bobber John was able to coax the only bite of the trip and landed one decent fish.  We didn’t weigh the fish, but it was in the 10–15-pound range.  That ended our day.

Day three we woke up to 20-25 mph winds and 30-40 mph gusts.  After dealing with two days straight of freezing cold this was the breaking point and we packed up and drove home.

Looking for Ice at 9,000 feet

Fishing Time: 8:30 am to 1:00 pm

Weather: light snow, slight breeze late morning, T-30s

Moon Phase: 42% Moon

Location: Mill Hollow Reservoir

Best Bait: small marabou or jig head with cutter bug (chartreuse)

Who Went: Casey Davies and 5 of his buddies, Devin, Dayton, Dunc

My boys wanted to go ice fishing over the holiday break, but finding ice is a little tough right now.  With no ice on the main lakes and 50 degrees forecasted past Christmas we had to think outside the box.  My buddy Casey mentioned a small alpine lake at 9,000 ft elevation that should have ice, but you need snowmobiles or at the very least a side by side to get there.  I have neither of those, so I told Casey if they go and have room for us to let us know.  Sure enough he called and said get up there so we met at the turn off at 8:00 and set off in his side by side with ice fishing sled in tow while his other friends had snowmobiles.

It’s a beautiful lake set in the pines, and we were the only group there.  We set up shop near the dam and immediately saw fish swimming around on the active target.  It didn’t take long before the boys started putting rainbows and tigers on the ice.  

Casey and his crew were having the same success.  I also setup the jaw jacker which finally produced and set the hook well!  

It was a fun day and Devin capped it off by catching our only brook trout.  It was small, but beautiful.  

The fishing died around noon and by 1 pm the boys had enough.  We loaded the gear and Casey drove us back down the hill with our sled.  It was a successful first outing to start off the 2024-25 ice season.