Uinta Fix

Ah, nothing like the high country to satisfy a fiendish addiction to ice cold waters, breathtaking vistas, and finned friends! 

After last week's failure to get to the Uintas, thanks to vehicle problems, it was very rewarding to make it up the scenic HWY 150 (aka: the Mirror Lake Highway) on a sunny Saturday with my family.

Along the route, the upper reaches of the Provo River flow parallel to the road and make it quite difficult to keep from pulling over.  This proved to be too much for me to handle and I found it necessary to try out a nice run that was beckoning me.







Sadly, the action was lacking at this run, but I was fortunate to find something very special:  wild raspberries.  Yum!

 It's always a treat to find these, especially at the perfect time when they're ripe for the picking.  They were growing right next to the river and I made sure to grab a good handful to take back to the car.  My family enjoyed that and I redeemed myself for making them wait for me.

The next stop was Provo River Falls, a mandatory distraction for us.  The falls are always full of people, but what those folks don't always realize is that there are fish there too.

Somehow, they tend to hold in any spot that looks fishy and sometimes in places that seem impossible for them to get to.

Though my success is usually a lot greater than it was for this visit, I was still able to pull in a couple of chubby little brookies with the trusty Blue Fox.  I've found that I can usually catch stream brookies on the BF, but they won't touch it when I'm fishing still water.

Even James loves the falls, although we couldn't locate one of our usual diversions of the area, the chipmunks.  On a normal visit, they'll be all over the parking area, looking for handouts from the many tourists.

This hole provided one small brookie and a couple of missed strikes from something a bit larger than what I'm used to from this stretch.  It looked like a cutthroat and it was about 4 feet behind the log pictured below.  It would've been nice to confirm what species it was.  Catching cutts in this stretch is somewhat of a rarity for me.

I could spend hours fishing the falls and the stretches surrounding it.  Staircasing down the rocks, they provide endless opportunities to hook up in the splash pools.  

   

After our fun at the falls, it was time to get moving toward some lakes.  Our first stop was a place recommended to me by an old friend from work, who is full of great fishing information.  It's very small and it isn't far from the road, but most people don't stop to fish it, as they're normally on their way to more popular destinations up the trail a bit.

At first, I questioned the presence of fish since I was getting no play on the rod at all and the only signs of life I could find were in the form of flying insects and tiny little frogs.

Finally, I felt what was unmistakeably a bite and that encouraged me to keep trying.  Eventually, I dialed in on what and where to throw.  Then it was solid action, catching pretty good sized brookies for easy-access Uinta puddles.

 Not bad at all.  Nice place to catch some low pressure brookies.

 

Pretty soon, we'd spent enough time there and my boy's patience was wearing thin.  We decided it would be good to take a hike and enjoy a change of scenery.

Only a mile of gentle terrain and a clear trail brought us to Wall Lake.  This is a lake that I'd always wanted to visit, but never got around to.  Today was a great day to change that and I'm glad we were able to drop in for a short while.

Right away, I caught a small brookie with great vermiculation.


Wall Lake is amazing and I'll certainly be back someday for one of my solo trips, packing my tube.  It's a bit larger than many other Uinta lakes and being able to cover the water would really help out.

Aside from its size, its geographic features are also something I'll make sure to spend my time exploiting.  A great "wall" of cliffs lies along the west side and the lake and the water gets deep very quickly.  Kick trolling meaty streamers on sinking line seems like a lock along this side.

It's a great looking place with much potential in my opinion.  I'll be back to give it a solid effort in due time.

A breeze picked up and made my wife feel a little chilly, so that was it for our day's adventure.  James led the way back to the car (he insisted to be the leader) and we gave our state's ceiling a kiss goodbye.

It was a good day and much needed therapy for all of us.

Happy Fishing, Humans.