Fish Brain Fly Fishing Blog: January Hay Day!

Chris and I were siked to get on the river last Sunday! We had spent the last week tying countless flies and were extremely eager to get out and give these new patterns a go. In addition to tying dozens new trout candy, we knew that the warmer weather conditions were going to translate into more active fish. Lets just say that our new hand tied flies and weather predictions paid off.

Chris scooped me up around 10 and we hit the road, still unsure about where we wanted to fish. As we started to head east up I-80, it started to rain heavily and we began to second guess our thoughts on how excellent the fishing and weather were going to be. Chris was unprepared with only a fleece, so we decided to stop and try to pick up a couple of cheap ponchos in the event the rain would fall heavily. After unsuccessfully scouring the local Wal Mart for 20 minutes, we said to hell with it and climbed back in the truck and headed toward the river. 30 minutes later we arrived and found partly cloudy skies with very little rain falling. We were stoked and knew the fish would be hungry, especially for the new flies we had both spent hours tying. Usually I am the first one ready, since big papa Giles likes to take his sweet time getting all rigged up and ready to wet his line. I scrambled to finish dressing myself and ran down the path to catch up. We both slipped into the water and started the process of determining where we thought the fish were holding. Chris threw the first few casts (as usual) and within a couple of moments, he was hooked up on a nice brownie.

Chris with his first brownie of the day

Not a bad hook up, only a couple casts in

As soon as Chris hooked up on the special trout candy we had formulated, we had a pretty strong feeling that this was going to be a very productive day on the river. The bugs were looking good, weather was ideal and we were there right at the perfect time. We worked the hole for a few more minutes, both landing several good fish. We were amped to be out on the water together, laughing and enjoying the beautiful Utah scenery, wildlife and the hungry fish! We started working our way up river landing a couple of fish here and there, but didn't come across any ripples that were particularly appealing. As we continues to walk, we spotted a few huge deer and then noticed a run of water that looked absolutely ideal. This is where the real fun began! It is important to keep in mind that often times these great looking stretches of water hold only a few fish. Little did we know, but we were about to stumble on a hole that yielded more fish than I have ever seen. Take a look at a few of the photos we were able to snap while pulling out fish after fish.

Chris with a nice healthy brown

Cheese!

Same fish down the hatch

Tight line all day long!


Check out the shoulders on this thing (not Chris)

Letting him take some line...

And reaping the reward

Chris says "Another One? Hell"

Beautiful spots

I could literally post photo after photo, as we continues to pull larger numbers of good sized fish out of this "honey hole". It was pretty incredible, and in fact, I think we stepped back for a few minutes and just laughed at the amount of quality fish we were landing. We both knew that this day was going to go down as one of the best days we have had, but had no idea that there was still more in store. Chris stated "well, we got what we came for" and we then decided to start heading back to the car. As we were walking back down stream, we could help but laugh and talk about how great of a day we had just had. It was truly a memorable experience.

As we approached the car and the hole that we first started to fish, we decided to give it one last go before dressing down and getting back home for our "Sunday dinners". Chris threw a couple casts and landed another good sized fish. He threw another cast and landed an even better fish. As I stood on the shore watching him continue to catch fish after fish, I could no longer resist. I wet my line for a few final floats through a perfect ripple and after three cats without a yield I said to myself "this is the last one". I long ranged one way up stream to give it a good float through the whole run. Then WHAM........ My indicator was aggressively yanked under water and I immediately knew that I had either hooked a big boy. As the fish started running down stream and talking a lot of fly line, I screamed for Chris to get down stream and give me a hand (he carries the net, hahaha). I fought the fish for several minutes, letting him take line, then bringing him in closer, take line, bringing him back; the battle went on and on. Eventually the fish wore out and Chris was able to skillfully net him. I was a bit up stream and was unable to see the fish as he was landed by Chris, but the shout Chris let out and the look on his face let me know that I had just caught a beauty. I personally dont think the photos do it justice, as the usually never do, but here is the big guy that I landed. The best part about the story is that we were headed to the car and were in not for Chris, I never would have thrown another cast. What a hell of a day! Here I am back at home tying flies, drooling over the next time I can get out on the water and catch this beauty one more time!