11/23/11-Fishing Trip

Today, Kelly and I hit the Weber river, between Coalville and Wanship.  Over the years I have gotten to know this section of the river fairly well, between Hobson and about a mile west (up river) of Creamery Lane.  I was a little disappointed.  I fished some water I haven't seen in over a year and with the high run off we had this past spring and high water levels all summer, this pretty much washed out some great fishing holes. 

Today fishing was slow to fair.  In years past, during this time of year I would expect to catch 20-30+ fish.  Granted, 80% of the fish are white fish, but still, a fish is a fish, right?  With Kelly's 2nd or 3rd cast,  fish on!! He's finally getting the hang of all this fishing stuff.  With a few little reminders on knots and setting his pole up, he's got it all figured out.  After I yelled, fish on! the fish threw the hook.  Not sure what it was, but K said it felt nice and fought pretty hard.  It was pretty windy today, so a lot of frustration with getting tangled up, breaking lines and snagging.   With the frustration setting in, Kelly decided to hit the road only after fishing for about 1 hour and 30 mins.

I decided to head up river where I've hooked into some nice trout before, 18"+ range.  This is where it really started to get frustrating for me.  Some deep runs I recall fishing in the past where gone, flatted out by constant high water.  I was hoping to track down some 20" browns through this section, but just hooked a few white fish.  I  did notice some smaller baetis starting to come off and thought I would hit one section where I knew some cutthroat's always like to feed in some back eddies in the foam.  Sure enough, just as I started to study the water, a nose here, a fin there and it was time for me to tie on size 18 emerger.  These were tough casts, you have the main river flowing down stream and the eddie heading up stream.  You need enough slack in your line to compensate the faster water moving down stream while getting your fly to catch the eddie and go up stream.  The 1 out of 10 casts when you get this to happen, pay dirt!!  I hooked into 7 fish and only landed 5.  All cutthroats, 14-16" range.  And of course, the 2 I didn't land, seemed stronger, ran faster and I'll say were closer to 18";)     

Over all, a so, so day.  We both started out with sow bugs (blondie and brunette) and dropping some egg patterns.  I didn't land a single trout nymphing and whities seemed to take both combinations, really 50/50 on sow bugs verses my egg pattern.  This was a great way to start my 4 day weekend, catching some decent fish and being on the water on this beautiful day.  Hope to see you on the water soon, Fish On!!

~Arch