Weather: Windy, Windy, Windy, sunny, clear, 50's
Moon Phase: 80% Moon
Location: Strawberry Reservoir
Bait: White tube jigs tipped with minnows or worm
Who Went: Phil, Mike Zenger, Me
I only had to work a few hours on Friday so I called my cousin Phil to see if he wanted to make a late morning run up to the berry. I think he was pretty excited about the phone call and so the plan was made. Phil's buddy Mike Zenger also wanted to go and the smack talk of who would catch the most fish began before we even got on the road! We got up there around 12:30 and were welcomed with gale force winds! We headed through the white caps past Mud Creek Bay and back into Strawberry Bay where we started our day. On the first drop of the day I missed two good hits and I had no idea that I was about to put on a clinic on how "not to" set a hook all day long! Zenger caught the first fish to start us off and the smack talk started to get good. Phil also started catching fish as well, but I was still fishless!
We also ended up fishing at Chicken Creek East, and the back of East Portal Bay without much success. The weird thing was we actually got a decent amount of hits throughout the day but just didn't land many. I was the worst missing hit after hit, but Phil also missed quite a few and Zenger some as well! With about an hour left of daylight, Phil had a slight lead on the fish count and Zenger was right behind him. I was in last place with 1 fish and about 30 missed hook sets! It was frustrating to say the least!
The wind was still whipping so we decided to hide behind the mountain over at Haws Point and try our luck there until dark. It ended up being a good choice. The wind finally died down and we started catching some fish. Unfortunately we only had about half an hour to do it until dark.
Phil and Zenger continued to battle for supremacy while I stayed at the bottom.
The final tally was 9 fish for the winner Phil, 8 fish for Zenger and 4 for me. The weirdest part of the trip was that we never found any areas where we continually saw fish on the finder. Even when we started catching them at the end, they were not showing up on the finder. We just couldn't find any good concentrations of fish! We had a blast though and want to get back up there before winter sets in, so I'm sure we will! 
For a long time now I've read reports about fisherman making these long hikes deep into the 
The hike was absolutely gorgeous, but very difficult and when we started seeing these tracks all the way up the trail, we were glad we brought protection.
We hiked through many different types of terrain on the way up and took pictures all the way. We started out in the 
Not to long after hiking into the deep pines we hit some steep rocky conditions along with some snow. It was like this for about 2 miles!
After trudging through the snow with wet feet, we finally made it to the first of the three lakes.
We only rested for a minute before we tied on a fly and a bubble and started casting. I had two hits on my first cast but had nothing to show for it. It has been a few years since I last fished using a fly and a bubble and it is a difficult thing to master especially for a bass fisherman like myself. I have a tendency to rip lures through a fishes mouth with my hard hook sets, and fishing with a fly and a bubble requires very finesse hook sets, and even more so when your catching 
Finally after about ten missed hits, I hooked and landed my first ever Arctic 
After that it was Hunt's turn, but he started out with the hot hand for cutthroat. He must have landed a half dozen of these guys before finally landing his first 
Then it was Newtons turn...
And 
And then there was a 
After about two hours of fishing we all landed quite a few fish and had a lot of fun, except for when I slipped and fell shin deep into the lake! We didn't make it to the next two lakes cause we just didn't need to. We caught plenty of fish in Round Lake. We also wanted to hit the trail going down in the light and do a little evening hunting. We still ended up hiking the last mile in the dark. We hunted pretty hard on the hike down and even took a side trail for probably another half mile round trip, but didn't find anything living. We got to the truck in pitch black conditions with no moon and we were all beat! It was a full day and felt like a great accomplishment. We must have hiked close to 9 miles total. That only leaves one fish on the list of 
Once I finally got it in John was already hooked up with one of his own. I waited with the net to land his fish and I just happened to glance at the fish finder only to see it was a black out with fish everywhere! We landed Johns fish and just tossed it in the boat so we could continue to fish.
I missed three more bites and then the fish were gone! We continued to cast for another hour and I ended up picking up one more straggler before I had to leave due to other commitments. I wanted to stay all night after feeling the battle they put on! It's safe to say I might be seeing a little more of Willard in the future! Good times!
I had a hard time deciding on a place to fish this weekend. I had it pre-planned to take my float tube and leave the boat at home to save money, and I wanted to try somewhere that I don't fish often. The spot I narrowed it down to was Deer Creek Reservoir. Its close to home, and probably the one reservoir within close proximity to my house that I don't know much about. I wish I could say I increased my knowledge while fishing there, but unfortunately I didn't have much success. I was mainly fishing for trout and walleye, and I used an assortment of different tactics to try and entice them with. I tried jigging with a tube jig tipped with worm. I tossed curly tailed grubs. I threw rapalas and spinners. I tried dragging the bottom with tube jigs and curly tailed grubs trying to find the walleye. I also drop-shotted a gulp minnow thinking that might peak their interest. I fished depths from 1 foot all the way out to about 40 feet of water, and after 3 hours of no bites, I decided to fish for the only species I have caught consistently up there, Smallmouth Bass. I rigged up a drop-shot with a roboworm and started casting towards the rocky shoreline, and within a few casts I had a hit but did not hook up. Shortly after getting hit, I landed the first fish of the day with this 10-12 incher.
I Had a couple more bass that wanted to play, along with one small bluegill, but that was it for the trip. Once again I left Deer Creek Reservoir with a dissapointed feeling and wished I had went somewhere else! I did stop by the Provo River right below the Jordanelle Reservoir Dam to see what it was all about. I have heard stories of some big Brown Trout coming from this area, but have steered clear of this stretch of river due to the fact that its a fly fishing hot zone. Unless you pull up to the parking lot in a suburu, and get out of the Suby decked out in your columbia fly fishing gear and russle around the river banks turning over rocks to find the hatch, then you can feel a little out of place. You also have to go back to the car and sit on your bumper and tie your own fly matching that newly found hatch, and then go out and be "one with the river," as you fling your pocket lint around. This is the life of a true purist fisherman! Whatever, I went anyway, and just as I described I pulled up to a parking lot full of Suburu's and a bunch of hippie lookin dudes hanging out together tying flies and drinking pale ale. I hopped out of the truck, grabbed my spinning rod, tied on a rapala right in front of them matching my hatch, and headed down to the river. Unfortunately the river is still running very fast and it made it impossible to fish a rapala effectively and I didn't end up catching anything, but I explored the area and I think it could be a great place to fish in the fall when the river settles down. All in all it was an average trip, but it beats sitting on the couch.
Its that time of the year again and its becoming an annual trip for me and my old man. Chasing monster Lake Trout at Flaming Gorge Reservoir. This time my dads best friend Mike Hansen wanted to tag along and take his chances on catching a fish of a lifetime. He's glad he did! We got up there on Thursday night and had plans of fishing Friday through Sunday. With the sun going down on Thursday night the first storm of the trip started rolling in.
We went to bed and hoped for the best for Friday morning. It ended up being beautiful and the best morning of the trip. Surprisingly my old man was waking us up before the alarms even went off (this never happens)! We were on the water early and started fishing Linwood bay. The breeze was still lingering from last nights storm so we decided to move to a spot we felt would be sheltered by the wind. This area is called Swim Beach and it ended up being a very good move. We were seeing fish all over on the fish finder and were getting some real active chasers when Mike screamed "Fish On". I grabbed the camera and started filming and my dad took net duties.
We do not have an official weight on this fish cause I only have a 20 lb scale, but my guess is somewhere between 20-25 pounds. It was a beautiful fish and we got her back in the water for others to catch and enjoy. It was a great start to the trip and Mike was excited. Then about 20 minutes later Mike was yelling again, and pulled in this nice 8 pound mack.
After that it was my dads turn and he landed this nice 7 pound mack!
I ended Friday mornings fishing by making the final drop of the day and landing the smallest fish of the trip at 5 pounds.
The wind started blowing pretty good by 11:00 a.m. so we headed back to camp with plans to hit the evening hard when the winds died down. The only problem was that the winds didn't die down THE REST OF THE TRIP!!! We lost our tent the second day. We were all sitting in camp chairs next to the tent when a wind gust came up and we heard a big snap and then rip. The tent poles snapped in the wind and the sharp edge where the pole broke ripped a long hole right through the tent.
My old man ran to town and bought a couple two man tents which worked well for me and him, but Mike being 6' 5" had to leave the door open and hang his feet out to sleep which was a funny sight. We still went out and fished every morning and evening, but the weather just didn't want to cooperate. You can tell in this picture that even right before dusk the wind was still blowing us around.
We did have a few good hits and I had one that was on for about two seconds that felt like a good one. Mike had the hot hand on this trip and was able to land the only fish caught after Friday morning with another 8 pound mack.
I felt it was still a successful trip for the most part, but my main goal was to get my old man into a monster fish which didn't happen. He did catch a nice 7 pound fish and I think he had a good time, so the big one for him will have to wait til next year!
I was excited and thought that we might get into some more but it ended up being the only walleye of the day. We did however catch around 20 very nice perch that made for some excellent table fare the next evening. I have never been a fish eater, but these perch are unbelievably tasty and I never thought I would say this but I might be targeting more perch in the future!