Fishing and Friends

This past weekend, Kevin and I headed out to the Weber to catch some fish. We have been friends for several years, but this was the first time we had fished together.  It was also Kevin's first go on the Weeb. We arrived at the river early, and the fishing was a little slow starting out. As we made our way up river, the fishing seemed to pick up. By the end of the day, we were getting fish out of just about every hole.

It was amazing to see the browns jockeying for position on their spawning beds. You could see them splashing around up river, and their wake as they cut through the shallow water. At times, there were beds in such shallow water, that their backs were out of the water! It reminded me a lot of fishing for salmon in Washington.

We were extra careful of our footing as we made our way along the river, as to not step on or disturb the beds. We picked off fish from several holes, and were able to land several quality fish. The fight that a feisty brown gives will never get old! It turned out to be a great day, and I'm looking forward to fishing (or hunting) with Kevin again soon.

 

Almost to the net!

A nice 20 inch Weber brown.

Kevin with his first fish from the Weber!

Feed me!

A stout brown that slammed Kevin's offering.

This brown was quite acrobatic, jumping several times out of the water.

Snapshot of the Week Contest Winner

This past Saturday, I found out I won KSL Outdoors Snapshot of the Week contest. You can see the video here. Below are the pictures I submitted. A big thank you to KSL Outdoors and Camp Chef for the honor.

 

Road Trip

Road trips are so fun! I just got back from helping a friend move from New Jersey to Austin, Texas. We took the southern route though 12 states, 6 of which I had not visited before. Along the way, we stopped at a few historical and sports related sites. By far my favorite stop along the way was Mount Vernon; the home of George Washington. It had a reverence about it. My favorite room had the original game table where several of our founding fathers would sit and play cards. It was surreal to walk through the home our our first, and greatest President.

As we traveled, we also tried to eat at as many Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives or Man vs. Food locations we came across. Needless to say, I'm sure we ate our body weight in delicious BBQ and other tasty treats. We also visited many university sports complexes where many classic games were played. Here are a few pictures of the trip.

 

Mount Vernon; the home of George Washington. It's one of the neatest places I have ever visited.

A view of the Potomac River from the back patio of Washington's mansion.

Hallowed ground.

George Washington's Tomb.

Inscriptions carved into George Washington's tomb by soldiers during the Civil war.

 

Michael Jordan's old stomping grounds. 

 

Duke's historic basketball venue.

Bull Durham! Hit the bull and get a free steak!

Wahoo Tacos from Cabo Fish Taco in Charlotte, NC. I must try if you drive through the area.

Role Tide!
 

I bought a duck call, Jack!

Cowboys stadium is unreal!

This is the hall where America's Team takes the field.

We tossed the football around for a good hour after the tour.

 

The Texas State Capitol Building in Austin. It's 50 feet taller than the U.S. Capitol Building while every other state is 50 feet shorter.

 

The Grand Canyon from 30,000 feet.

One of the best views I've seen on a flight.

Strawberry And The Weeb

This post will cover a couple trips from the past few weeks. The first trip was at Strawberry with my Dad a few weeks ago. This trip was special because it was the first time my Dad had fished Strawberry in over 50 years. The last time was when he was a boy with his father.  I enjoyed hearing about the memories of that trip, and hoped to add a good fishing memory of our own.

We decided to try out Mud Creek, and we fished from shore. My Dad went with a gold Jakes lure, while I threw big Rapalas.  My Dad outfished me, and caught all rainbows. I only caught cutthroat. It was such a fun day hanging out with my Dad! Hopefully, We will get to get out again before the snow falls.

18 inch cutthroat.

My dad enjoying the nice day.

24" cutthroat.

The second trip was two days ago on the Weber River. It is the first time since early spring that I've fished it. The water was perfect, and the flows were higher than normal for this time of year. I arrived at sun up, and had to break ice out of my eyelets for the first few hours. The fishing wasn't as fast as I thought it would be, but I still pulled nice fish on a regular basis. I found out later that day I had been fishing behind someone which explained the slower fishing.
I landed 14 fish with all of them being browns with the exception of two cutthroat trout that gave me a solid fight. Three of the browns went 20 inches or more with the biggest being a beautiful 23 inch hen. I didn't see any beds, but I believe the spawn should start any time now.

Mr. blue cheeks.

This 23 inch hen brown topped the chart for biggest catch today.

The net held up just fine.