The Weber Never Gets Old

Joe and I met up this morning to see what damage we could do on the Weber. My alarm didn't go off, so I was a little late to the party. I arrived around 8 a.m. to find that Joe had already landed three Browns! Even though the sun was out, the morning hours were a chilly 36 degrees. The river was surprisingly low for this time of year. That, along with a cloudless day, made us concentrate more on shady areas and cover.

Joe was throwing different crank baits, while I started out using a variety of different jigs. I soon realized that cranks were the way to go today. These fish were not just going after them, they would explode on them! There were several times that we almost had the pole ripped from our grasp from the force of the strike. The fight usually didn't last long though, and all the fish were released to grow and be caught another day. The fishing wasn't fast, but it was good enough to keep us engaged the whole day. We each had our share of Brown trout with Joe landing a few cutthroat as well.  We finished around 4 p.m. satisfied with another great day on the river.

 

 Crank baits were the way to go today.

Up close and personal with a beautiful Bonneville Cutthroat.

Others were also out enjoying the sunny day. A plane towing a glider.

A chunky Brown taken on a crank.

What a beauty!

My best and last fish of the day. Got him on a jig.

A sweet release... I love this river!

South Fork of the Snake River

This weekend was filled with family and fishing! My in-laws invited all of the family up to their cabin in Idaho, and most of us were able to make it. I love getting together with family and catching up on everything that's going on. I also love that when we get together, it turns into a non-stop food-fest! I swear I gain a few pounds every time we get together, and while I enjoy it, my waste-line suffers the consequences.

Their cabin is close to the south fork of the Snake River, so we decided to do a little recon/fishing trip to get a better idea of where some good fishing spots were. There are several places to launch from, and many sections of river to fish. We ended up choosing a section just a few miles away since we only had a few hours to fish. We got our pontoons and gear ready an launched around 7 am.

We floated a few hundred yards before we started fishing. As I was getting my rod out, I looked up to see my Father-in-law hook into a fish on his first cast on his fly rod! He had a quick fight, and soon landed the first fish of the day which was a Whitefish. Talk about the right way to start a trip!

As we continued down the river, it started raining, and the fish didn't seem to want to eat. With having no luck with my fly rod, I switched to my spinning rod and started throwing jigs. They didn't seem to want them either at first. That seemed to change as the rain stopped. I floated onto a promising hole, and no sooner did my jig hit the water, a Brown smacked it! He came to the net quickly, and I snapped a quick shot, and released him. I picked up three more trout in the next hole, including a Snake River cutthroat. My brother-in-law also hooked into one on a fly, but the fish managed to come off before he could get him in. It soon started raining again, and continued for the rest of the trip.

In all, we landed six fish, and had a few get away. That's a successful recon trip in my book any day. We plan to hit several more section throughout the next few months. I'm looking forward to exploring this great river, and figuring out how to unlock the beastly trout that it holds.

 



Setting out on our trip.

First Brown of the day.

Not the best weather, but beautiful just the same.

The one-and-only Snake River Cutthroat of this trip.

 

A Winter Weber Adventure

This fishing trip started out partly cloudy with moments of sunshine and ended in an all-out blizzard. We arrived just before sunrise, and while Rob was putting his fly rod together, I went down to the river to make a few casts. My first hookup came on the second cast, and a few head-shakes later, I landed a nice Brown. He was a little on the skinny side, but this catch gave notice that we were in for a great day on the river.

Once Rob was set up, we walked to the first hole and both of us were into fish quickly. Rob was using a beaded hairs ear with a rainbow warrior dropper, and I was flinging some jigs. This first hole produced a couple fish each with several misses mixed in. I caught the tail-end of Rob's first hookup on video (I love my new iPhone), and you can see it for yourself below.

 

First fish of the day.

 

 

The next few holes and stretches of river didn't produce much, but we did land a few here and there. The fishing seemed to pick up as the weather deteriorated. The harder the snow fell, the more the bite picked up, at least that's what it seemed. Breaking ice out of our eyelets became a constant battle, but with the catching being good, it didn't seem like that big of a deal.

 

One of several Cutthroat trout.



Beats Skiing if you ask me...

We continued fishing as the snow continued to fall harder and harder. It wasn't bad at all until the wind started blowing. It went from lightly falling down to blowing sideways which made it feel like needles hitting your face. That's when we called it quits and started back to the vehicle. The walk back seemed like it took forever. The wind was blowing directly at us, which made visibility almost zero. This was the only part of the trip that wasn't fun.
I enjoyed watching Rob catch fish on the fly as much as catching them myself today. I'm going to make a greater effort this year to get better using a fly rod. I do alright on lakes, but don't have the feel for it as much when hitting rivers. I'll admit that it's hard doing the switch when you have confidence in what you're used to doing. I guess you will see how I do with this goal later this year.

Like a Boss...

 

 

Bad weather never felt so good!

More Succesful Trips on the Weber

Since the last post, I've hit the Weber two more times. The first trip, I met up with Rob and we fished his property. This was going to be a fly fishing trip, but I forgot the most important thing to make that happen; a fly rod! Luckily my spinning rod was in the truck so at least I could still fish. Rob had his 5 weight, and was catching lots of fish. He was using a Hairs Ear with a Rainbow Warrior dropper, landing fish on both. Rob makes fly fishing look easy, and I always learn something from him when we fish together.

 

The fish we landed on this trip ranged from around 12-17 inches. As we fished, I would usually hit the hole behind Rob, and I picked up a few hear and there. We made it up to the whole where I caught big browns back-to-back, and I was chomping at the bit for another. I made my first cast and started reeling. As I jigged my lure in, I saw a huge flash in the water and had a monster hit, but I missed him! That was the biggest flash I have ever seen, and I missed a shot at what likely would have been a new personal best! While we were there we also saw a big brown come out of the depths to sip a fly off the surface. I wish I would have got it on film, because it happened right below the bank where I was standing. We didn't pull anything from that area, but we left seeing some big fish. On to trip number two...

Brown Trout.

Cutthroat Trout.

Mountain Whitefish.

On the second trip I hit a different section of the river that I haven't fished in a long time. This particular stretch of river has really changed from the last time I was here. Some of my favorite holes don't exist anymore from how much the river has shifted. The catching was a lot slower than previous trips, but this is the first time I have seen spawning beds this year. It seems that the spawn is finally starting!

The few fish I did catch all had good size to them. The surprise catch of the day was a thick 21 inch rainbow that gave me a great fight! With the way it ripped drag from my spinning reel, I can only imagine what it would have been like on a fly rod! I don't catch a lot of rainbows on the Weber,  so I looked at this fish as a major score! I also caught a nice cutthroat, and several browns in the 14-16 inch range. These were some fun trips, but the hunt goes on for that lunker brown...

21 inch rainbow. The biggest I've caught from the Weber.

Cutthroat Trout.

Rainbows and Tigers and Cutts, Oh My!

When deciding where to go, we had a feeling to hit Current Creek Reservoir so we decided to follow our instincts and head out. We arrived at the lake around 10:30 am with sunny skies and a little breeze coming off the mountains. We set up our tubes and were soon on the water enjoying the great views that Current Creek has to offer. I tied on a black wooly bugger and trolled around with my fly rod. It wasn't long before I had hit after hit and soon had an angry rainbow dancing across the water on the end of my line. I actually lost several rainbows due to the fact that they fought me just as much out of the water as they did in it.  I then caught a cutthroat and today, they choose to dive instead of flying, so they came to the net alot easier.

My Father-in-law and brother-in-law on the other hand also caught a few good sized tiger trout as well as the cutts and rainbows. They caught they on castmasters close to shore. The tigers were so beautiful and one had a big hump on his back which made him even better! There was also a few guys I talked to in a canoe that landed several tigers with Rabalas.

All in all, the fishing was fast for most of the day and it turned out to be a great move to fish this reservoir. We will be hitting Crrent creek again for sure this year.

All set up and ready to go; a Super Fat Cat and two Renegades.

Cutthroat Trout

Rainbow Trout

Trolling around the lake.

Tiger Trout

Tiger Trout with some shoulders on him!

Flyin High On The Weber

I met up with Rob to hit the Weber, but today's trip was going to be different. Today is the first time I have fished the Weber only using a fly rod. You see, I have always been more comfortable and confident with a spinning rod in my hand and I would always take one when I fly fished. I guess you could say it was my crutch. Today was also a chance to try the new fishing rod I finally received from winning the Utah Trout Slam a while back (it's a long story). It didn't hurt that Rob is a fly fishing instructor either. He really helped correct some of my bad habits.

We got set up and started fishing, and Rob had the first fish of the day within five casts which turned out to be a nice rainbow. It didn't really slow down much from there which made for an incredible day. We both caught fish after fish with Rob landing around three to every one that I did. We were using beaded hairs ears with a dropper. We got into a mess of white fish in a few holes. I forgot how fun they are to catch and how hard they fight. They fought harder than any of the trout we caught, which may be why they have the nickname of "Rocky Mountain Bonefish". We even had a few doubles with them today. I don't get into them when I'm throwing big swim baits and plastics with the spinning rod. We also landed a bunch of browns, and a  good sized cutthroat for this river. This turned out to be one of the best fly fishing experiences I have had, and the new rod worked like a champ. The river treated us well today! 

First fish of the day; a rainbow trout.

Biggest white fish landed.

Fish On!

Brown trout.

Rob and I had a double on the white fish.

Who needs a net?

The only cutthroat trout landed.

Rainbow trout

White Fish (AKA Rocky Mountain Bonefish).

Brown trout

First Time On Frozen Strawberry

So I finally made it to Strawberry this year! We had a group of five venture out in the wee hours of the morning to see how the bite was through the ice. There's a good 8 inches of ice but when it's see through like it was today, it always gets me to walk differently. You could see through the ice about 10 feet which made for a good show as you reeled up fish. The ice was really making noise today and it shifted and expanded. One such time started with a loud boom and all of us moving about 5 inches to the right which almost made me have to change my shorts! While it about scared the you know what out of me, all the noise and expansion is a good thing as it is a sign of a healthy ice sheet.
The fishing was fast at times and non existent at others. One thing about ice fishing Strawberry that makes it so enjoyable is the constant big cutthroat trout that you get to fight. There is a slot limit in place on the lake were you can't keep any cutts between 15-22". The average catch on this trip was 18-20 inches with 2 going over the 22 inch mark. We fished all morning and into the afternoon before we called it quits. Between the 5 of us we ended up landing 70 fish with Jim at the top with 20 and I brought up the rear with 11. It was a fantastic day to get out and wet a line!

Average catch on this trip.
Nathan with his first catch of the day.

Rob with his double. The only one of the day.

There was quite a crowd in the morning.

Something has to give...

A Blast & Cast Day On 11/11/11

So on to the second day of the Weber. Today I went to a different stretch from the previous post but had the same luck. You know it's going to be a great day when you catch fish on your first two casts and it didn't slow down much the whole time I was there. Today I used the same swim bait the entire day! I didn't see as many beds through this stretch but the few I saw all had fish. Again, I could sit and watch those beds for hours! I again focused on the deeper holes leaving the spawning browns for another day. The biggest brown went 22 inches and thick enough I couldn't get my hand around it. 20 inches was a common theme for the browns and I picked up several cutts and a rainbow to finish out the day. For the fly fisherman, Today would have been dynamite for drys. I don't think I've ever seen as many rises on this river as I did today. Makes me want to change up rods for my next trip.
I ended my trip around 1 pm and headed down to my brothers for some hunting. He and my nephew had drawn out for the swan hunt and I tagged along to pick off any ducks that came around. We headed to our spot at the Bear River Bird Refuge and waited...and waited. Wildlife officials estimate that around 45,000 Swans are the the refuge right now. At the end of this month there should be around 165,000. We had a few groups fly close enough to get us excited but just out or range to shoot. I missed the few ducks that came in. I'm going to blame it on thinking about the great day of fishing I had earlier. We walked back to the truck empty handed other than a few pictures and a good time on the dyke.

22" hog.

Long and skinny.

First rainbow on the river in a long time.

Same deep whole as the rainbow on the very next cast.

Biggest cutt of the day.

Final fish of the day.

We had a great view of some swans but they were in the restricted area.

Where's Waldo?

Until next time.