IF4 Film Festival Trip 2014

It was Sam's Spring Break and we originally planned to fish all day Thursday but last minute I got a wild hair and suggested we start early and attend the Utah leg of the IF4 film festival Wednesday night.  It was fun to be in a room with so many people who share a love for fly fishing. There was a TON of giveaways and the videos were top notch. I want to take the family next year and continue the fly-fishing indoctrination.

 

After getting pumped up from the IF4 show, we left early the next morning with a mission to chuck meaty morsels to willing trout. We arrived at Candy Canyon just as the sun was hitting the water and decided to try a stretch of river we've only eyed from the road. After a few great runs with not even a fishy follow, we relocated to our trusty stretch of streamer heaven and immediately began hooking into some beautiful Browns. 

Since I'm such a nice guy, I gave the best hole in the river to Sam. We fished this section a few times last fall and turned some nice fish in this hole. Sam soon connected into an 18" brown with an ugly mug.

 

The fishing remained good most of the morning. It's so much fun dancing big visible globs of fur, feathers, & steel past boulders and undercut banks anticipating the predatory strike. Half the fun of streamers is how visual it is. Even when a connection isn't made, the rush of moving fish keeps me going.

Ice-off on most of the southern Utah lakes has already happened. We wanted to end the day at Big Fish Lake. There was only a small section of the lake with ice. I did well last April as the ice was just peeling off. I'm not much of a lake fisherman and today the stars didn't quite line-up for me. Sam and I both caught a fish each before we decided to chase after something shiny and fish another stream with meat.

By the time we landed at the Brown Meadow, I was pretty pooped. We covered a few hundred yards of water with only one decent brown between the two of us so we called it a great day and headed home.

Six Fingers and Frog-water

Katy and I had a chance to go camping and fishing without the boys. We left them with my parents and headed up to a little stream I enjoy fishing from time to time. By the time we got up the canyon it was dark. Camping spots were tough to find but we managed to find a nice little spot tucked away in the willows and next to a small stream. 

The following morning we fished Six Fingers. I missed a turn and ended up wasting about an hour trying to find it, but we were lucky to have it to ourselves once we got there. We had a lot of fun catching some beautiful Bows, Cutts, and Browns. 

On the way back down the canyon we stopped to try our luck on a very small creek very little current. Small streams are my bread and butter, but this was an extreme to my norm. But we caught fish pool after pool. Casts had to be soft and completely accurate. But I found myself having more fun with these small fish in frog water than the larger fish we caught earlier in the day. One of my favorite trips with my favorite person. Thinking of it only makes me want summer to come that much sooner.

Brown Meadow Meat

 

 

 I've been experimenting with different articulated streamer patterns lately. I've usually tied my streamers heavy with the thought that making a big splash and getting my fly in the "strike zone" as quick as possible was key. But my paradigm is changing to keeping it higher in the water column and only using enough weight to get the fluff under the water. This most recent batch of streamers seems to be the right combination of water displacing fluff and weight.

 

I stopped by the Brown Meadow about a month ago and it was frozen. I wasn't sure what to expect today, but I decided to throw big streamers rather than fish ice-off at Minersville. I bought a new #7 Airflo Tactical taper line last week and I've been itching to get out and throw meat. My old line was a Rio bass taper #8, but it has gone through the ringer and needed replacing.

The water was fairly clear, but as low as I have ever seen in. I hooked up with a ~16" brown in the first hole but it took some time before my streamer was smashed again. I found ripping the streamer back to me with a few sudden slower strips was the ticket. I tried to use stealth as much as I could, but most runs were very shallow. Between me sludging through mud and Oakley running up to the next hole, many fish were spooked before I could entice them with a fly. The day was a success, but the walk back to the Jeep was daunting. I covered a lot of water and with boots caked with mud, it felt even further.