Here is my drawing for the week.
Here is Jeff Kennedy’s piece. I like the drama and energy – the very definition of tarpon fishing – his colors give this painting.
Jason has a nice drawing with ink and wash. I like the sketch a lot.
According to Bretty Prettyman at the Salt Lake Tribune, there are a few new bills in the works that are working to allow citizens fishing access to public waters that flow through private lands. This is something I can get behind. In Utah we don’t have a lot of stream/rivers well suited for fly fishing and those that we do have, are either underneath a reservoir or run through large stretches of private land. Some land owners have been good to allow fishermen access particularly on the Weber River in along I-80 near Coalville, Hoytsville, and Wanship. I guess my biggest concern about all of this is that people treat the land with varying degrees of respect and it is frustrating to see people leave their trash or who have trashed land owners property in other ways such as breaking fences or gates. I think if common sense were more common and people could be trusted to follow the rules this wouldn’t really be an issue. I hope bill can pass and even more if it does, I hope we as fishermen do all we can to respect the rights of land owners.
How about where you fish, are you able to recreate within a natural stream bed on private land or must you first ask permission? What do you think of such legislation?
I came across a few interesting outdoors related headlines this weekend. Here is the run down:
I have been following the blogs of Jeff Kennedy and Jason Borger for about a year now. They are both renowned artists, Jeff specializes in flies and I think Jason does lots of different things including writing. Anyway, I know neither of them personally but saw that they are doing a thing together they call Drawing Flies 52, drawing one fly per week for the coming year. Jeff has the rules posted here. I wasn’t really invited to join in the fun, nor would I expect to be, but I thought it sounded cool so I thought I would ride along. I don’t presume to be on the same level of skill as either of them, but enjoy doodling trout and flies so hopefully they won’t mind if I draw along. Coincidentally, Jason’s dad Gary Borger, was one of my first fly fishing tutors, well he was a virtual tutor anyway. I used to check out his fly fishing videos, Fly Fishing For Trout with Gary Borger
Week 1: The Mickey Finn: Jeff, Jason
Week 2: The Humpy: Jeff, Jason
We’ll see how long I can keep this up 
Last October I was on a float trip fishing the South Fork of the Snake River with my favorite guide Bart Taylor and my cousin. We were fishing streamers all day and meeting with pretty good success. Around lunch time, my cousin hooked up with a nice 16-17 inch rainbow trout. Bart dropped anchor while we landed the fish and snapped a couple photos. As we released the fish, it slipped from our hands prematurely and started to float on it side down stream. Bart immediately started to pull up anchor so we could retrieve it. It was seconds after the fish hit the water and a mere 6-8 feet away from the boat, that an eagle swooped down and grabbed the fish from the surface and lighted on another tree to eat his prize catch.
Needless to say, this took us all by surprise. I just missed accidentally capturing the moment on camera as I took a photo of the fish right as it was dropped (picture to the left). Bart says he didn’t see what had happened, but knew something strange was happening because he could feel the gust of wind as the eagle pulled back just before hitting the fish. He looked up just after the fish was taken. We all looked at each other to make sure we hadn’t just hallucinated the whole thing after hours of slinging lead. We looked up to see another eagle sitting in a bare cottonwood tree, presumably waiting for us to drop him another snack. I think the first bird must have left his perch the moment that fish hit the water, if not a moment before. It was a truly amazing encounter that I am grateful have witnessed.
My most recent fishing trip confirmed a suspicion I have had from my prior trips; my waders have a leak. And not just one leak, both legs have leaks in the knees, right on the edge of a taped seem. I have some Orvis breathable waders with reinforced knees, but these leaks are from wearing on the inseam on each knee, I guess from rubbing while walking. Basically about 2 inches of weakened fabric. I filled them up in the shower to find the exact spot. Thankfully the waders have a repair kit so I applied some heat tape on the inside of the weak area. Hopefully that will do the trick. Guess I’ll find out soon enough . Thankfully, these were pretty small repairs.
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 a fish. Rainbows aren’t common fare on the Provo River and this one as a great fish. It took the RFSN. The fish was a beautiful shade of steel blues and lavenders. I had originally thought I was snagged when I hooked it but he eventually started moving and put up a pretty good fight.
By the time I hooked him I had run out of 5x tippet (I know, stupid) but had switched to 4x and it didn’t seem to be an issue and allowed me to play him a little harder. I took a couple more browns from the same long run and then moved up several hundred yards. The weather was getting colder so I called it a day. Not a bad way to spend 3 hours.
Some additional notes from the trip. I saw several american dippers, song sparrows, and a bald eagle flew over head through the snow. I also observed at least 2 fish feeding up on the surface but didn’t make the switch to dries. It was a fun trip. Enjoy the slide show.
During the recent Thanksgiving holiday my family and I visited my wife’s family in Arizona. My father-in-law is an avid fisherman specializing in bass of all kinds. We usually take his boat out at least once while during a visit. This year we went to Saguaro Lake in pursuit of Yellow Bass. Up until last year I had no idea that such a fish existed. They are small and resemble a White Bass, but have a yellowish tint to them.
To catch these little guys you have to find a spot where hey are grouped and jig for them. They tend to be in about 20-40 feet of water and you can really only catch them if they are on the bottom. Suspended fish are too hard to catch. The secret jig we use is a 1 oz lead weight painted white with a faint pearly fleck and a treble hook attached to the bottom. Such a simple jig has turned an amazing variety of fish in my last two trips for yellow bass including a channel cat, a largemouth bass, two bluegill and of course lots of yellow bass. Here are photos from the last trip:
Photos from 2008:
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I am always on the lookout for big fish stories and found this great one from the Salt Lake Tribune. This woman caught an enormous lake trout on a fly in the Wind River mountains in Wyoming:
http://www.sltrib.com/outdoors/ci_14027915
I am always jealous of stories like this. I never seem to have issues catching fish but they never have much size to them…hopefully soon!
Today we got a pretty good snow in the Salt Lake Valley. About 4-5 inches I would guess are on the ground at my house. I had to go run some errands tonight and it was pretty slow going, but got most of what I need to done. I am hoping to get out fishing next week after Christmas but snow doesn’t bother me too much. I recall one winter fishing outing where the outer fabric of my neoprene waders froze solid at the knees as I was standing in shallower water. I had to gingerly hobble back into the river to thaw the ice and then remembered to keep moving!