Spring Fishing On The Weber River

Mountain whitefish

My favorite local origination TV show, Roughin’ It Outdoors, ran a couple of segments on the joys of fly fishing for mountain whitefish on Utah’s Weber River. There are two segments below. The first where they catch a few nice whitefish, the second where they proceed to cook and eat them.  I can personally vouch for the tasty nature of the mountain whitefish, particularly when caught in late winter, early spring.  Check out the videos:

• Spring Fishing On The Weber River (via Roughin’ It Outdoors)
• Cooking Whitefish (via Roughin’ It Outdoors)

I know a lot of fly anglers have a philosophical problem with whitefish, but what is the problem really?  They eat all the same food as trout so if your “trash fish” mentality is based on you are what you eat, then the same holds true for trout.  They inhabit all the same waters in the Mountain West as trout, so it can’t be based on that.  I have taken whitefish using dry flies, nymphs, wet flies, and – as of last fall – even on streamers so you can’t just say they only eat nymphs and other stuff the grub from the bottom.  I have eaten whitefish and they are really tasty.  I will confess that in my early years of fly fishing I was on the other side of the fence and would toss them up on the bank like they were a carp or some invasive species.  But the fact is, they have been living successfully in our favorite waters for much longer than trout.  They are classified as salmonids, as are trout.  So what is it then?  Is it the color?  Is it the small, slightly downward pointed mouths? Is their somewhat timid fighting style?  Aren’t they due some respect and at least a courteous release once caught? What is your opinion?

I had a great outing today on the Lower Provo River in Provo Canyon, UT.  It started off rather sketchy as the day was really snowy and I wasn’t sure if my 20 year old Honda Accord was up to the task, but I figured if I just took it easy I could get there without any issue.  My usual 40 minute drive was more like 80 minutes, but once I got there I found I had the whole stretch to myself.  I went to Vivian Park and fished up from the bridge.  Given then weather I determined I would be nymphing.  It was about 18-20 degrees Fahrenheit and a constant snow was falling.  I had in mind to fish a fly I haven’t used in a while; a big, juicy cranefly larva pattern about size 6.  I trailed it with a size 14 red fox squirrel nymph.  For weight I used a BB size split shot and an 8 ft leader with 5x tippet.  On my fifth cast of the day, I took a nice brown trout about 15 in long.  It took to the air straight away after being hooked.  Once I landed it, I could see that he had eaten the cranefly larva.  Over the next 10 minutes minutes I landed two more fish both were mountain whitefish of decent size and both foul hooked.  I think they were taking the cranefly and I was hooking them with the RFSN.  The cranefly was big enough they couldn’t fit it in their tiny mouths.  I hooked 3 or 4 more browns ranging from 11-14 inches and all on the cranefly.  The fish of day had to be the 18 inch rainbow that was a healthy slab of … Continue Reading