Hey Everyone,
I'm embarrassed to say this but I've been fishing four times this year and have completely skunked, that is until yesterday when I finally got a day to go trout fishing up in Utah.
My wife and I took the day to drive up from Vegas to Beaver to fish the river there. It's still running a little high from the run-off but its starting to round into form. Did I say my wife AND I went fishing? Well let me give a little preface. I'm pretty religious about keeping my casting sharp and practice every other day or so, my wife hasn't touched her fly rod in two years so I imagine you see where this is going. Anyway, we drove up and stopped at Beaver Sport and Pawn the only sporting good shop in 50 miles to pick up licenses an advice. This is a great shop. They don't have tons of stuff, but they got what you really need on the river and tons of advice that you can only get in a small town. If you're fishing in the area make a stop by. In additions to licenses we picked up half a dozen golden humpies, some yellow para-hoppers, and a nice little map that the owners helped mark with some good spots. We checked a couple out and picked a forest service campground that had good access and where the current wasn't too swift. The water isn't all the way down and it's still pretty fast for my wife who isn't a strong wader. It will be better in a couple weeks. So I rigged up our two 7 1/2's. My wife uses a Dan Craft blank 4wt and I use a black Lamiglas blank 4wt. The river is about twenty feet wide and has a pretty decent casting lane as long as you're moving up river. I start my wife with a humpy and I can sense right away that it might be a tough day. Timing is way off, however, on her second cast she gets a good solid hit, but misses on the set. After undoing a couple of my wife's wind knots I get a chance to cast and pull three quick ones out of one hole on an elk hair caddis. Envious wife, so I start her on the next hole, she struggles and needs a new leader and tippet. I make some quick casts and pick up a couple more including one nice twelve inch brown then hand her my rod and get to work on hers. Oh yeah, you know where this is going. Hand her back her rod, fix mine, make a couple casts, hand her my rod so I can fix hers, repeat for the rest of the morning.
In the end, the morning went something like this, nine trout to me, none for my wife, 7 or 8 rebuilt leaders all the way to the tapered butt, one trip back to the car because I forgot the leader spools, four spills in the river by my increasingly frustrated wife and a lost para-hopper that I thought I would try but was so anxious to get a cast in right after I tied it on that I didn't check my back cast. Time to break for lunch.
We drive back in to Beaver and stop at Beaver Sport and Pawn for restaurant recommendations and buy my wife a twenty five dollar Shakespeare Ultra Light spin outfit (no comments please) and a Panther Martin. Did I mention the rod was RED. We had lunch at the Timberline out by the highway as recommended. Nice place, good food. Back to the river for a couple hours before we head back to Vegas. Pick a nice hole, set my wife up with the spinning rig, five casts, three fish including the biggest of the day. Smiles all around including her official pronunciation "OK, I'm happy now". She took a break and I picked up a couple more on a BWO until rain up in the mountain started to make the river too hard to work.
All in all a good day. Seven hours driving for eight hours fishing. I'm no longer skunked. A pretty high fish count for as few casts as I made. I'm pretty fast at rebuilding a leader now. A bruised, but happy wife with a new red rod and a PROMISE to work on her casting before we go again in a couple weeks (I will find a more open spot). And a nice sunset when we got home.
As luck would have it these are the only photos I took.
First, the love of my life.
and last, the sunset when we got home.
I'm embarrassed to say this but I've been fishing four times this year and have completely skunked, that is until yesterday when I finally got a day to go trout fishing up in Utah.
My wife and I took the day to drive up from Vegas to Beaver to fish the river there. It's still running a little high from the run-off but its starting to round into form. Did I say my wife AND I went fishing? Well let me give a little preface. I'm pretty religious about keeping my casting sharp and practice every other day or so, my wife hasn't touched her fly rod in two years so I imagine you see where this is going. Anyway, we drove up and stopped at Beaver Sport and Pawn the only sporting good shop in 50 miles to pick up licenses an advice. This is a great shop. They don't have tons of stuff, but they got what you really need on the river and tons of advice that you can only get in a small town. If you're fishing in the area make a stop by. In additions to licenses we picked up half a dozen golden humpies, some yellow para-hoppers, and a nice little map that the owners helped mark with some good spots. We checked a couple out and picked a forest service campground that had good access and where the current wasn't too swift. The water isn't all the way down and it's still pretty fast for my wife who isn't a strong wader. It will be better in a couple weeks. So I rigged up our two 7 1/2's. My wife uses a Dan Craft blank 4wt and I use a black Lamiglas blank 4wt. The river is about twenty feet wide and has a pretty decent casting lane as long as you're moving up river. I start my wife with a humpy and I can sense right away that it might be a tough day. Timing is way off, however, on her second cast she gets a good solid hit, but misses on the set. After undoing a couple of my wife's wind knots I get a chance to cast and pull three quick ones out of one hole on an elk hair caddis. Envious wife, so I start her on the next hole, she struggles and needs a new leader and tippet. I make some quick casts and pick up a couple more including one nice twelve inch brown then hand her my rod and get to work on hers. Oh yeah, you know where this is going. Hand her back her rod, fix mine, make a couple casts, hand her my rod so I can fix hers, repeat for the rest of the morning.
In the end, the morning went something like this, nine trout to me, none for my wife, 7 or 8 rebuilt leaders all the way to the tapered butt, one trip back to the car because I forgot the leader spools, four spills in the river by my increasingly frustrated wife and a lost para-hopper that I thought I would try but was so anxious to get a cast in right after I tied it on that I didn't check my back cast. Time to break for lunch.
We drive back in to Beaver and stop at Beaver Sport and Pawn for restaurant recommendations and buy my wife a twenty five dollar Shakespeare Ultra Light spin outfit (no comments please) and a Panther Martin. Did I mention the rod was RED. We had lunch at the Timberline out by the highway as recommended. Nice place, good food. Back to the river for a couple hours before we head back to Vegas. Pick a nice hole, set my wife up with the spinning rig, five casts, three fish including the biggest of the day. Smiles all around including her official pronunciation "OK, I'm happy now". She took a break and I picked up a couple more on a BWO until rain up in the mountain started to make the river too hard to work.
All in all a good day. Seven hours driving for eight hours fishing. I'm no longer skunked. A pretty high fish count for as few casts as I made. I'm pretty fast at rebuilding a leader now. A bruised, but happy wife with a new red rod and a PROMISE to work on her casting before we go again in a couple weeks (I will find a more open spot). And a nice sunset when we got home.
As luck would have it these are the only photos I took.
First, the love of my life.
and last, the sunset when we got home.
