The fishing hasn't been too great during the dog days of summer, like usual, but the past few weeks have really been packed with adventure.
To start, my friend Aaron extended his stay in Utah for a second week while my cousin Aaron came up from Arizona. My family and I really enjoyed having them around and we took a lot of local hiking trips and some more distant journeys as well.
One of the local hikes I took with the guys was to Springdell Falls in Provo Canyon. It's a waterfall I have some dear memories of from my childhood and later in life as well.
We burned about an hour there, just relaxing and hiding from the brutal sun.
From there, we went a little farther for a scenic overlook.
That was a great day and it was really nice for the three of us to get back to scrambling around Provo Canyon like we used to.
We also did a guys'-day-out fishing trip to Currant Creek Reservoir a couple of weeks ago. We hiked all the way around to the big rock outcropping and a bit more to get past the weeds.
I was able to nab a mid-sized cutthroat on the fly at the inlet to start us off.
Soon to follow was Holdsworth with a cutt of his own.
Before we got focused on fishing, we took a detour to check out the big rock more closely.
Once we got past the weeds, the fishing commenced. A really big tiger followed my jig in to shore and actually swiped at it, but missed. It was the largest fish I'd ever seen in Currant Creek and it compelled me to stick it out in that area for the rest of my stay.
A decent tiger came in shortly afterward.
Then my cousin picked up a rainbow on a Blue Fox.
I caught my smallest fish on the fly when a shiner nipped at my chironomid.
The fishing was really slow and we spent many hours trying for only a few fish. The hike was great though and the sunset was pretty nice too.
Another cutthroat from the inlet on the way back and that was it.
Sadly, I just couldn't get my visitors into the great fish that I've been seeing this year. That must just be too much to ask in consideration of all the fun we had anyway.
Cousin Aaron could only stay for a couple of days, but Holdsworth stuck around a little longer. This prompted us to take a spontaneous family day trip to Goblin Valley with just enough time to hike to the overlook and catch the sunset.
We're nuts. 400+ miles, starting in the afternoon.
Worth every minute on the road.
The kids LOVED it!
We're so lucky to live in a place where such dramatic landscape extremes exist.
Holdsworth left a couple of days later. We were so glad to have both Aarons while they were here.
My family and I then went to a walleye fishery for a change of pace. Since the trout fishing had been slowing down with all the recent heat, we figured that trying for bass and walleye would be fun.
We were wrong. I lost the only fish I had on and Sonia also got skunked.
Stopping somewhere else on the way home seemed necessary, so we pulled over and my family let me try for a few cutts and tigers while they waited.
A decent tiger trout came to hand too.
It wasn't until we were just about to leave that I took my boy to a spot on the shoreline that I had seen some large fish hanging around last year. He witnessed me hook and fight a very nice tiger all the way up to shore before it broke off and made its way back to the deep.
What a shame.
That was last week and I have been thinking about it since. Yesterday, I went back on a solo trip with my pontoon, vowing to get better results this time.
That, and to actually use the pontoon that I won over 3 years ago.
It was a suitable maiden voyage for the old prize, though I did it without fins. Those were lost a couple of months ago.
Rowing was interesting to get the hang of, but it worked. The wind was pushing me around though and that was quite the bother. After a couple of fish in the weeds, I made the hard push to get back to my put-in and ditch the float.
From the weeds:
A few smaller cutts came in on occasion, but my reason for being there was to pull in a big tiger. It took awhile, but after patiently bouncing a black marabou off the bottom in the steep areas, a big one finally rolled on my jig.
It stretched out to 24 inches. Nice fish. That's what I was looking for.
The next one was a bit smaller, but very brilliantly colored.
Continuing to walk the shoreline, I found a very messy pocket of weeds with some open patches throughout. Delicately casting into the open spots for one or two hops before getting tangled actually provided a lot of action.
Several times I noticed significant amounts of water being parted as feeding fish gave chase.
Finally, I got one to commit. What a porky little cutthroat!
It was really hard to hang onto for a photo.
After that, one more came in before I decided to call it a day.
It was great to get out and feel a heavy fish on the line again.
Happy Fishing, Humans.
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