Day one of our fishing trip took us into the Monte Cristo area on Highway 39. As the days shorten we actually took time to sleep in and got on the road at 6 am from my place. Shifty was driving this trip. He had been to this area multiple times but with his snowmobile in tow, he had never been there without snow on the ground and never been to the lakes we hit this trip. Likewise, I had never been to the lakes we hit on this leg of the trip. Driving north to Ogden we exited and got some breakfast and back on the road to our first lake. Driving up through Ogden canyon and passing Pineview Reservoir Shifty was all about stopping and fishing it, but it wasn’t part of the itinerary. Driving through Huntsville Shifty pointed out many of the old haunts he would stop at when snowmobiling, one in particular that I will return to was Chris’ Café, he said it was a good burger joint. We continued up the road into the Monte Cristo area and seen flocks of turkeys along the road. As we came to our corner to go to our first lake we passed a few hunters getting ready for the muzzleloader.
Causey Reservoir, a wishbone shaped lake with steep cliffs on both banks and completely surrounding the lake. We had never been here and didn’t know what to expect but this was a shock to see how steep the banks were. The lake, like all lakes in Utah, was down a significant amount. Easily 100 feet below high mark it made getting to the lake interesting and challenging. We drove up the north leg of the wishbone and seen a couple fishing the bank and figured there was a trail we could navigate to get to the shore of the lake. We spoke with them briefly to see what they were catching and using. We also asked what fish were found in the lake, rainbow and tiger trout, kokanee salmon is what he told us. We moved down bank as far as we could from them not to disturb them or their waters. We started fishing lures form the bank of Causey a first for Shifty and I. I started with a crawfish pattern and quickly switched over to a kastmaster, the water was too shallow for the crawfish. We figured the deep part of the water we were in was 15 ft. We fished this leg of the lake for a couple hours. I caught a nice Tiger trout on an orange nickel kastmaster, but that was it. No other hits, so we moved to the dam.
At the dam we found workers on the spillway caulking it and making repairs. We parked on the east end of the dam and made our way to the water. This lake is a recreation lake and allows no motorized boats of any type. As we fished we had kayakers and paddle boarders hike down the steep dam incline and launch. We fished here until noon and got nothing. We had fish follow our lures and had brill all around us, but couldn’t get the right combination. We called it and hiked back up the bank to the truck and left for our next destination.
Getting back on Highway 39 things started looking familiar to Shifty and he started pointing out areas that he rode when he was snowmobiling the Monte Cristo. We stopped at the summit and had lunch, well snacks, Shifty was looking for a burger shop, but we ate our snacks and got a couple pictures of the colors and snow we found.
On the road, we traveled down toward Woodruff and seen our next destination sign and it was one mile. We drove on and then figured out after a couple miles it meant turn here and one mile from there we would hit the dam…..lol. We turned around made the turn and drove to the dam. On arrival we notice one thing that we weren’t expecting a trail up the dam and no other access to the lake. We watched a fisher come down the trail with a limit of rainbow on a stick, that made us happy! However, the trail didn’t excite us. We talked with the fisher who told us what he used and how long he had been there. He had only been fishing for an hour and was headed home with a limit of hat he said were the larger four of the dozen or so that he had caught in that time frame. This excited us!
We hiked up the trail to find the lake again very low. The lake has two parts to it and the lower portion of the lake was bone dry and being used as a race track by the locals and their atv’s. We stopped at the top and took some pictures and started strategizing as to where to fish. We noticed two tubers in the water in the distance and seen fish rolling and jumping along the banks. We hiked down shale slope of the dam to the water edge and started fishing the colors the fisherman told us they were hitting on. I started with a number 2 Mepps red and white and Shifty put on a Jakes red with white dots. Before I could get in the water Shifty had two rainbow to the bank we knew it was going to be a great afternoon. I finally landed a nice rainbow on my mepps but nothing more. Shifty on the other hand was slaying them on the Jakes lure. He banked seven fish very quickly, moving up and down the stretch he was fishing. I on the other hand was struggling to find something they wanted. I threw daredevils and kastmasters all with the red/white pattern that was told to us but wasn’t nearly as successful as Shifty with his Jake’s. We fished until 4 pm. Shifty ended with a total of 12 fish all rainbows. I finished with 6 on the bank with one Tiger trout in the mix. What a great afternoon of fishing! We made the trek down the trail and loaded up.
On the road we made our way into Woodruff and turned south to Evanston. We stopped and picked up our Wyoming license for the second part of our trip. We stopped in at Sportsworld and looked around for a minute at their shop a very well equipped outdoors shop. We purchased our license for the next day and asked where to eat. They told us a couple places but the one that caught our attention was the Painted Lady Saloon. Good bar food is never a something to pass up. We drove back to the saloon and noticed right away that it had great curb appeal. We entered and was completely satisfied when the barista greeted us with, “Welcome come on in!” We sat at the bar and told her that we were told this was the place to eat. She gave us menus and we asked what was the best on the menu? She gave us a few choices. Shifty chose the fish and chips and I chose Drew’s (the Chef) Patty melt. The Patty melt was his own, piled high with pastrami, coleslaw, a good patty of beef, grilled onions, and pepper jack cheese topped off with thousand island with a large serving of fresh hand cut and beer battered onion rings! Shifty’s fish n chips were delicious as well served with coleslaw. Our drinks never emptied, Billy (the owner and barista) kept them full and was a good at conversation. A great meal!! The atmosphere was awesome and the service was better. I had to wash my hands after playing with fish, and the restroom was something to see, I will leave it at that. A must stop when in Evanston.
We hit the road for our final destination of the day Kemmerer. We made pulled in around 6:30 pm, drove through town to see what was available, not much. We did stop at a local feed and tack shop to buy Shifty a bucket, the cool thing was, they were closing and come out and asked if we going to come in and let us know they were closing. Unlike the city shops they let us come in and stayed open for us to get our needs. Great people and service at Bomgarrd’s. As we pull into the parking lot of the hotel we see an Antelope cleaning his horns on a tree next to the lot. We met a very pleasant receptionist at the Fossil Country Inn. We took a dip in the hot tub and pool that evening and watched Smokey and the Bandit before retiring for our next day’s adventures.
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