Willow Creek with Worms

I went on a reconnaissance mission to gauge the progress of the run-off at a local haunt I hold dear. The past couple years I started at 2nd creek and worked my way down the mountain as the water calms and clears. As I drove higher up the mountain, I could see there was much more snow then years past. As I pulled off the highway onto the dirt road that leads to 2nd creek, my heart sank; the road was completely covered in 2-3 feet of snow. But all hope wasn't lost because while driving up, I noticed Willow Creek and the canyon just below wasn't as high and dirty as I had anticipated.

I knew I wasn't likely to hook-up on top, so I tied on my favorite pattern for such an occasion...a worm. I'm not talking about those wiggly, slimy tubes of meat that come in Styrofoam cups, I mean a San Juan Worm and its many bastard offspring. In the last year, the worm has become a staple in my fly box. Some might call that digression in the sport of fly fishing, but I just call it common sense.

I experimented with a few other patterns, but none worked as consistently as the worm. It only took a few moments to figure out the code for catching these fish. When I found slow, deep water among the ciaos of whipping current, I tucked my cast as close to the edge as possible and pounded the hole until it wouldn't give up any more fish. Most of the good holes I came upon rewarded me with multiple catches. Even if I missed a strike or two, if i was persistent, I would eventually catch my prize.

Pounding a run or hole over 20 casts is foreign from my style of small stream fishing. I usually give each spot a few tries and move on. But since there were only a handful of good holes, I took my time. I started with my 5wt, but soon grew tired of raking the fish right in. These fish are not brutes by any means, but when I switched to my 2wt it really got fun. I caught nearly two dozen browns and bows up to 11-12" within a couple hundred yards of the stream.

I took a lunch break before moving down into the canyon below Willow Creek. Beef and vegetable stew was on the menu and it hit the spot.

Within moments of wetting my line in this new section, I was into multiple fish. But as I moved further up the canyon, the walls narrowed as the catch rate fell off. I only picked up about a 1/2 dozen more fish in this section before I headed home.

Goldfish On The Fly

The plan was to take Connor up Cedar Canyon to the kid's pond at Woods Ranch. The road to the pond was completely covered in snow. I drove back towards home, but Connor had his heart set on going fishing. I drove him down the St George and after picking up his cousin, we hit the community pond scene. Not much action on the rainbow, sparkle powerbait or white marshmallows, but we picked one up on a blue/silver Kastmaster. I was also able to coax one of the many resident goldfish to a Butch Caddis.

Bassin' Below

I finally got down to the bass pond with Kyle this week. We tried a mid-day trip on Wednesday to no avail. But we met up again with Matt on Saturday morning and gave it another shot. A few bass were fooled, but nothing on top. These bass are stout, hard-fitting SOBs and my 12 weight rod was just the ticket to give them hell. Didn't bring a scale, but I'm pretty sure I broke the 3 lb mark and completed the first FF goal for 2010.

After many attempts to get bendo on his fairy-wand, Kyle resorted to chucko-casting while Matt entertained with music and dance from the movie Annie.

Little Reservoir

The last few years, I've kicked off the beginning of the "fair weather" fishing season on Little Reservoir with my family. Within the last year, Connor is much more interested in fishing and is able to reel fish in mostly by himself. Connor asks to go fishing almost every day. We are excited to add a new face to the scene at the end of this summer; Connor's getting a little brother!

Steve and I made a quick trip to wet some flies this evening. We first stopped at the Meadows and found the flow was fishable, but the water was off-color. I was able to stick one small brown in the first run. But after an hour without even a bump, we decided to try plan B. We headed to Big Fish Lake in hopes of finding better results.

The lake had recently lost its icing, so the water was very nippy. Steve hooked into a few fat bows while I whipped the water with my line. I was happy to witness Steve grin from ear to ear as he landed his largest trout yet on the fly.

Salmonfly Adult

This is a little something I've been working on. I got the body from Dream Drift Flies and really like how these came out. It's kind of a ripoff of Cheech's Petite Sirloin. Hope it gets crushed by some fish lips soon.