Fast Catching at Currant Creek

After a week off from fishing, due to a family trip, my buddy and I went back to Currant Creek Reservoir to see if we could keep the rods bent over.

We both ended up catching a lot of fish without keeping track. Fishing at the dam was pretty fast action and we caught plenty over there, but moving to the far side increased the bendo.



Eventually, we went up to the inlets, where the water is a bit murkier, but the one good hole where the water comes into the lake was ridiculously hot. Almost every cast, we had at least nibbles.

The fish weren't anything special this week in terms of size though. The largest for the day topped out at probably 17 inches (Holdsworth, cutt). Still fun to get out though!





As usual, a Blue Fox in gold was the hot lure and kept us busy. Minnows also got multiple hits (some felt very nice), but Holdsworth and I were both having trouble with hooksets this week. Weird.

We ended up with probably over 40 fish each.

After fishing, we took a drive to the Upper Currant Creek area and saw some cool wildlife, including a moose!



Nice day, too bad I've got a cold now and can't really enjoy this rainy Memorial Day.

Happy Fishing, Humans.

Strawberry Res, River, & Currant Creek Res

As did a lot of people on Saturday, my buddy and I went to Strawberry Reservoir to get some of the ice-off action everybody's been talking about. We arrived nice and early and parked at the dam.

There was a ton of open water near shorelines, but the ice (floating slush islands) still blocked a lot of access along the cliffs. With the water so high, navigating the cliffs required some hiking up the hillsides.



The fishing was pretty slow for both of us, unfortunately. All of my catches were smaller rainbows and a miss from a slot sized cutthroat near the shore.





A lot of bites came on a gulp minnow, a couple from a chrome Jake's, and one small rainbow was brave enough to grab a dead shiner.

Holdsworth missed a couple of bites on a minnow and eventually got a slot cutt to cooperate.



After several hours working the cliffs, we were getting pretty bored, plus the breeze picked up and blew ice into the areas we liked. It was time for the river.

There were plenty of other people with river water on the brain, evident by the amount of vehicles in the lot and at the gate. We figured that most of the people would be further downstream, but there were 3 people along the first stretch below the spill.

There was still plenty of space for everyone to fish and we only really wanted the spill area anyway, which was mostly available. We both threw the blue fox around and both only got one fish each: a small rainbow for me and a nice 17inch brown for Holdsworth.



It fought really hard for him, so that made his day.

My dink rainbow:



The wind really started gusting and some raindrops were falling, so we set off for our last stop of the day, Currant Creek Reservoir.

The creek itself is still running very high and flooding most low-lying areas near the stream bed. Any higher and it'll touch the road in one spot. We could've thrown spinners from the window, it was so close.

The lake was much lower than I've seen it, in preparation for the rest of the runoff, which is coming in strong and muddy from most directions. The piped-in Duschene is at a meager flow and running clear, but then it's quickly dirtied by the creek from Coal Mine Hollow, which joins it almost immediately.

Holdsworth was still able to catch a small cutthroat in the corridor going into the lake though. Several fish were rising in the dirty water, but ignored my offerings with the fly rod.

In search of clearer water to fish, we grabbed our gear and marched all the way around to "our spot" that we used to fish almost weekly, years ago. Even on the far side, halfway to the dam, we still didn't get into any clear water, but it wasn't muddy and brown anymore, just murky.

Far enough, we figured, and we finished off our slow day with some more slow fishing. Holdsworth got several fish to play with him, but never got any to hand. I got one small rainbow with the Blue Fox and then another on a nightcrawler.

My best fish for the day came on a chub minnow and actually put up a good fight. I thought it was a tiger until I saw the bright red cheek of a nice cutthroat.



It was a little over 18 inches and 2.5lbs.

We both missed several other opportunities before the winds picked up and chased us off. It was a good day to get out and we were glad we did.

Happy Fishing, Humans.

Big Tiger Trout

Ah, what a relief it is to finally see some real spring weather! After what seems like eons of foul-weather weekends, my family and I exploited a beautiful Saturday and took a long drive in search of some lunker tiger trout.

We picked up our friend, Holdsworth, some minnows, and traveled north. Along the route, we stopped at a rest area in Echo Canyon, where we've always enjoyed taking a breather and playing with the squirrels.


They'll come right up and take food from an open hand, so the kids really love that.

After our break, we continued our journey to the north and eventually made it to our destination. This lake has historically been a tough one to fish, leaving me skunked and scratching my head more than once. All the same, it has also given up some great fish, so it's worth checking out a couple of times per year.

As is the norm with family trips, we arrived much later than we should have and the notorious canyon bellows were already pumping up a wicked breeze. This particular lake has a narrow window of calm conditions in the early mornings and then it's wind-in-your-face for the rest of the day. It makes casting a weightless dead minnow very difficult and you can forget even attempting to use a fly rod.



Despite the gusts, we got busy with the usual tiger techniques and it became clear that the fishing was going to be rough. The first hour ticked by without any sign of life, but a well placed shiner eventually found its way into the kype of a thickly-shouldered male of 18 inches.


It was great to break the monotony and it gave the kids something to be excited about. Their patience is typically on the verge of tantrum status when the fishing is slow, so a good catch is a major morale booster.

A short while later, from the same spot, another minnow found a mouth and I handed the rod to my 5 year old son so he could get a feel for an angry tiger. He was very happy to reel in a 17 inch female.


The next fish, again from that magic spot, was a real pig and it gave me a very nice battle, making strong runs and then going vertical with head shaking aerial displays. It was very entertaining to bring in this 22.5" beast.


It weighed 3 lbs, 1 oz.


So in a relatively short amount of time, I'd managed to bring in 3 nice fish (counting the one I hooked for my son), but nobody else had so much as a bump so far. Sure, I was glad to catch fish, but it was hard to watch my wife and friend get the skunk while I cashed in.

My wife informed me that it was "her turn", so I took a break from fishing, got some lunch ready for the kids, and kept them entertained for about an hour.

After my break, the skunk was still hanging around the rest of my party, so I started casting various lures. Kastmasters were good for cutting through the wind, so I shuffled through several colors of those. In the end, it was my favorite gold that got slammed on a slow retrieve.

Right away, I could tell that this fish was another big one. My companions looked on with bitter-sweet enthusiasm as my rod remained doubled over and my reel moaned in protest of the powerful runs the fish was taking at will. Once the valiant battle subsided, I gazed proudly at my new personal best (in terms of length) tiger trout of 25 inches!




That really put the cherry on my sundae and a smile on my face! At 25", it only weighed 4 lbs, 1 oz, but it was still a great catch.

So it was a great day for me, but my poor wife and friend got the shaft. They were glad to be out in the nice weather, day-tripping to far away places though.

Happy Fishing, Humans.

Scofield Reservoir - Open Water

My buddy and I thought we'd check out the ice-off action at Scofield, rather than busting the gas tank this week. It had been awhile since either of us had fished it, but we knew what to expect: lots of tiny fish.

Well we wouldn't be disappointed in that respect. We arrived early and stayed until about 6:00pm, catching a large number of tiny fish, as expected.









We each probably caught over 40 fish, but they were all pretty small. They bit a wide variety of our offerings from spinners, spoons, jigs, worms, and minnows. Unfortunately, the minnows didn't yield any trophies, but I was able to catch my biggest fish of the day twice with them!



About an hour later, I caught the same one, again hooked in the mouth and released!



It wasn't until I got home and reviewed the day's photos that I realized I had caught the same fish twice. Kind of neat, I thought, since that doesn't happen very often.

Here's Holdsworth's catch of the day:



Once we'd had enough, we checked out the river below the dam and I caught one small rainbow. We didn't stay long. The river is nice and clear at the dam and the flow is modest.





Happy Fishing, Humans.