Thursday morning was a blur at 4:30 am when I loaded up and headed for Shifty’s place and met him for our flyfishing trip into the southwest Uinta’s and Uinta Basin. We made our way to Heber and stopped to pick up breakfast before heading into the backcountry of this pristine area.
The road was rough and dusty to our first stop on this flyfishing day. We found a pull off and readied ourselves for the stream. Putting on waders and stringing our fly poles. We started off with elk hair caddis and royal wulff flies. I quickly changed to a mosquito after seeing fish feeding and seeing what they were eating. The change was the right move, I got hits immediately and couldn’t hook up one of them. Did I mention it had been a while since I worked my fly rod? I felt a little out of practice at this point and they stopped hitting it after a few more casts so I moved up stream to a beaver dam catch pool LOADED with fish. Again hit after hit no hook set, I was thinking to myself well you suck, but then I checked my hook and it was bent up into the body of the fly…..AHHHH! I fixed it and on the next cast a nice little Cutthroat trout came to visit my net. After that I caught three more beautiful Cutthroat trout, and then, the next cast one hit and my entire leader with the only true mosquito pattern I had was gone. I watched the nice sized trout hit it and then disappear into the depth of the catch pool. Shifty came up to the hole as I was re-tying my leader and fly and he took a couple shots at getting it to return but no luck. I tied on a gnat pattern with similar color and pattern and tossed it few times getting a couple swing byes but nothing. I moved up stream and Shifty stayed and played in the pool, he changed out to a nymph pattern and got a couple Cutthroat out of the pool.
Upstream I started working the gnat pattern and could see the fish feeding. I worked my way up the bank as stealthfully as I could, but still spooked a dozen or so fish in the crystal clear water we were fishing. I set my line a few times checking my range and backcast and then went for it. Moved up again spooking a few fish but what I was after was still feeding. In the shadows of the willows it was quite a sight to watch as they poked through the surface of the water and fed on tiny morsels of insect life. I cast once into the upstream and watched as my fly was engulfed by a feeding cutthroat. This was a nice sized fish for the stream we were fishing and I was happy to see them liking my offering. After releasing it I cast again and again watched it get taken by yet another cutt of the same size. Netting him I let out a, woot! To let Shifty know I was on them. Third cast, what do they say about the third, it’s a charm, this one turned out to be. I watched as the fly was slurped up by a fish and then the fight was on. Running 6x leader which is 3lb leader I was trying not to horse it by any means. I thought alright a nice fighter, it darted and dashed side to side, then with one big run, into the undercut it went. I thought great lost that one but kept it tight and pulled the fish clear only to have race full speed between my legs. Doing a pirouette on one foot and trying to keep the line tight throwing my hand high into the air only to put my line into the willow above me and get the line tangled, again I thought great lost it. I didn’t lose it though and had enough pull to keep the line taut and ripping the willow half apart and leaves and branches wrapped into the line I kept fighting the fish. She broke again, this time for a boulder and debris submerged behind me. I kept good tension on the line and worked her out of the hole she found. She swung upstream and tried to snap the line but it didn’t give. I coaxed her into the net and that is when I realized I had a beauty of a fish. Filling the net completely and extending beyond its handle, I gave a loud Woot! I called for Shifty to come and see the fish. A very nice female cutthroat. He filmed it for a minute as I unhooked her in the net. I reached down to hold her up for a good shot and she had one last thought and splashed me with her tail as she swam to the bottom of the stream and pinned herself under a boulder. It was a great fight and one I will remember. Definitely my fish of the summer!
I cast a few more times up stream and landed a couple more fish and then the leader broke on a hit and I decided to call it for the morning. On the way back to the truck we fished a bend right below the parking area and got nothing but I was still smiling from the battle of the nice cutthroat I landed.
We loaded and headed south into Hana, a small town in foothills of the Uinta range and had lunch at the Hana Café. A nice hometown café with good food and friendly service. We made our plans for the afternoon session of our day as we ate lunch. Afterwards we visited the mercantile across the street and seen walls full of deer! Very cool. We loaded and headed for our next destination. Strawberry River.
Going up the canyon toward Strawberry Pinnacles. I had forgotten how cool that canyon is. I haven’t ventured into it for years. The river was running crystal clear and fast in the narrow sections and quick in the wider sections. We went quite a way up the canyon before Shifty asked where we were stopping, I said that we had passed a number of good areas already and I just thought he wanted to see what was at the end of the road since he had never been there. He pulled over and turned around laughing. We stopped at Timber Canyon turnoff and started fishing the river in both directions. Shifty went upstream and I went down. I hiked about a mile downstream along the canyon wall and then made my way back to the river to fish it. I fished the stretch back to the bridge. Hitting every hole and ripple along the way without success of any kind. I swapped out flies a few times but got nothing not even a chase. When I got back to the bridge Shifty wasn’t there, I figured he was still fishing upstream. A minute or two later I heard him on the bridge and looked up to see him taking pics. He had been done for a while he said, but did get a fish in the first hole we saw, he had gotten out his spinning rod and used a jointed rapala to catch it. I made a few more cast up under the bridge and didn’t get a turn so we called it a day.
Today was a spectacular day! I caught the fish of the summer for myself, it took out the nice Smallmouth Bass I had gotten earlier in the summer. What made it was the fight and challenge of getting it in the net and it was nice sized for the stream we were fishing. Till next time “Keep It Bent!”
All photo's courtesy of "Shifty Outdoors"
Video will be posted this week watch for updates.
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