Large Tiger Trout & Catching Up

It's been awhile since I posted, but I've still been fishing, of course.  The local waters have been my main destination, fishing the Provo River and Deer Creek Reservoir, but the fishing hasn't been that great.  

The Provo gave some small browns here and there, and DC has only yielded tiny bass, so that has gotten a little bit stale for me.  It's always good to get out, but sometimes my interest in the same old spots fades.  

Apparently, I've spoiled myself with such great places around the state.

Last week, I broke free from the local venues and went to Strawberry Reservoir, where it was very cold and breezy.  

The fishing was alright, but not super fast.  A few mid-sized rainbows were brought to hand, some 19" cutthroat (in the slot), and a 19" bow.

Did I mention it was cold?  Check out the crazy icicles that formed on my hub.  That's something I may never see again.

This week, my buddy Keoni and I decided that we were overdue for a good trip in search of big fish.  Tiger trout would be the main attraction and at this time of year, the colors on the males would surely be rich.

We arrived at dawn after driving through near white-out conditions in the mountains.  That was a little bit nerve-racking, but we made it.

As we pulled up, the surface was alive with ripples over the shallow flats and we got busy with our fly rods, pulling in small cutthroat.  

Many came to hand, but all were quite small.  My bug of choice was a tan killer caddis and Keoni was using chironomids, which I later switched to.

Abandoning the flats to hunt down some tiger trout, we split up and spent a couple of hours working on the frustrating beasts.  They were mostly hugging the shoreline and playing hard to get.

These tigers see quite a bit of pressure, so they can be difficult to trick into biting.  Many presentations were followed, but ultimately rejected and I finally scored on a black marabou jig.

Though I found a whole mess of really nice tigers where I normally do, that was the only one willing to bite.  Quite a few more cutts were pulled in on the fly rod though, some on the jigs too.

Keoni was into his own mess of tigers, but quite far from me.  He actually got a few on a pheasant tail nymph, one of which was pretty impressive.

After we met back up, we walked around to the other side of the lake and searched for some other brutes.  There were several really nice ones that we could see, but they were not interested in biting anything.

Back to the flats we went and took advantage of the willing cutts again, catching plenty more with ease.

A lucky cast in the right spot at the right time brought me another good male tiger on patrol.  He had quite the hunch back.

Keoni was getting pretty frustrated with some of the larger cutthroat that he could see, but would only sniff his bug and swim away.  Hordes of small cutts were all over him, but he kept trying and finally got a better one.

Still wanting some more tiger action, I went back to my sweet spot to see if the lock jaw had passed.  It was a good move and I pulled in three chunky honeys in about 10 minutes.  Wow!

 

It was just what I needed and it capped off the day nicely.  

We departed at dusk and had an even scarier drive home than our way up.  A big storm had moved in and left us creeping through many miles at only 25mph.  

With both of us worn out from the day, it was rough getting through the snowy nightmare.  The drive was complete with gas tankers stuck in the middle of the road and what seemed like a drunk driver leading the caravan, several cars ahead of us.  

We were glad to get back to dry asphalt and eventually back to our families.

Happy Fishing, Humans.