Why must i Choose? ;(

As of late i have been sending the snow covered mountains of Utah in search of deep powder. This past weekend i was able to enjoy a full day of steep lines of hip deep powder snows. Oh yeah man it was heaven sent. But as this week crawls along i find myself wanting to get out on the river. Whats a boy to do? On one hand i can fish all year round, but on the other the fishing is sweet in the winter months & i only get a few months a year to ski. Why must i choose? Grrrr.

Whitefish Shootout T-shirt ideas

But on a black shirt with white writing?

Swap flies are complete !!!

Last stop..........MP

Met up with some guys from Utah on the fly. Hit the MP as the sun was headed to bed. Every one else had left........They all said the "Hatch" wasn't there. Weird because we were still catching fish ;)

Brown,White & Gold

First Kutt of the year

Broke back brown.........

Best browns I have seen in a while.

Ripped lip

Monster on a white fish

One of about five Golden suckers

25" plus........... After a 15 minute fight.

I took a short drive to the Weber this weekend. This being a solo trip i wanted to cover a lot of water. I started early and moved up river before the sun came up. A bitter breeze kept my head down the whole way. (Being just above 0 degrees didn't help) Every drift i fished was bunk. Not a fish in sight. It was just one of those days. The last pool I fished was calm, slow moving and very deep. I switched up the line up and tossed into the drift. First cast......nothing. Second cast......nothing. This continued well past the fifty count. This drift was too perfect to not hold fish. Where were they? I took a break, ate some lunch and warmed up in the sun.

After a good half hour I made a new plan of attack. Looked over the run and noticed i had only been fishing the inside and center. I quickly moved down river to the other side. False cast.....shoot. perfect right on the seam..........wham! fish on. Pretty good tug, A nice 17-18" brown. Next cast bunk. Next same spot Wham! my poor 5# Bent hard bouncing left and right. Felt like a oak door. As I pulled toward the bank It surfaced.....A big fat Golden sucker. He took my #12 Green larva right in the suck hole. LOL I am starting to not like these fish. I caught close to 5 Suckers in an hour. Luckly i was able to balance them out with a few more browns,White fish and a Nice looking Kutt. All in all it was a very good day.

2010 UTAH FLY FISHING CHALLANGE

Challenge Details:
1. This is a challenge for you, not a competition against others! Therefore there is no reason to be anything but honest. ( Photos of "Fish to Face" are required) Catch all species of game fish in Utah By the end of 2010.

2. Fish caught must meet the following conditions:
---Must be caught on a fly and using fly fishing equipment
---Must be caught in Utah
---Must be caught lawfully as outlined in the Utah Fishing Proclamation
---Fair hooked(In the mouth)
---Fish must be landed to count
---No scent attractors or bits of bait on the fly

3. Use the fish challenge scoresheet for the list of species and corresponding points to keep your score.

4. Scoresheet:
--Brown Trout = 1 Point
--Rainbow Trout = 1 Point
--Cutthroat Trout = 1 Point
--Brook Trout = 2 Points
--Lake Trout = 7 Points
--Splake Trout = 6 Points
--Tiger Trout = 6 Points
--Grayling = 6 Points
--Mountain Whitefish = 1 Point
--Kokanee = 6 Points
--Crappie = 2 Points
--Perch = 3 Points
--Bluegill = 2 Points
--Green Sunfish = 3 Points
--White bass = 4 Points
--Wiper = 6 Points
--Small Mouth Bass = 2 Points
--Large Mouth Bass = 3 Points
--Walleye = 7 Points
--Catfish = 6 Points
--Striped Bass = 8 Points
--Carp = 7 Points
--Tiger Muskie = 10 Points

Total Points Possible: 100

Its only the 5th day of 2010 and Im up to 9 points. Im going for it.........I will document all my efforts. I have some work to do, Last year i only scored 11 points.

Firsts on the river for 2010

First carp off the weber....

Sucking monster of the weber......

Eggs Ala carte

Early morning is a bad time to be headed up the canyon after snow. The wind had blown the slush into a coarse ice and the sun was strugling to wake up. After a white knuckle hour we slowly slid off the exit and towards the parking lot. Being the first ones there we rushed to gear up and get up river. After a small cold hike we were into some fish ;) All in all it was a pretty good day. Pulled in a Carp!!!! What the hell man? I never would have thought that a carp would be in the river. Good times.