Fishing Jordanelle with Jim

Friday, I picked Jim up at Harmon's at 5 am and we headed up Provo Canyon to our destination, Jordanelle Reservoir. Jim is a dear friend and mentor of mine. He is one of the finest men I know and I love calling him my friend. We retired out of Alpine School District together last year. He mentored me in many ways as an assistant principal and athletic director. Jim taught me what it meant to put the kids at the front of each decision made. So I was happy that we finally got to go out fishing together, he still works with the state and Orem PD and BYU Security as an officer, so his time is tied up. However, in a couple weeks we are going to Alaska to fish the Kenai River, a trip I have been trying to schedule in for years and it came together this year. Jim and 3 friends go every year for the past few years and he had an opening and I had the time to go!! Can't wait, but for the trip today I introduced Jim to Jordanelle a lake he had never fished.

We arrived at Jordanelle about 6:30 after a quick stop for bait and supplies in Heber. We were on the water before 7 and lines in. We had our first fish on in a few short minutes. The rainbow trout hit the rainbow pop gear tipped with a worm. We both had a pole out with the same pop gear and two other poles geared with Rapala's. The Rapala's were not very effective today. The pop gear, however, was productive. Jim's line was keeping us going for the morning we fished Keetley bay for a couple hours and then we moved to Rock Cliff and limited with rainbow trout by 9 am.

 

We decided after limiting out we would try for smallmouth bass and rigged our poles with crankbaits. Jim had a hit and fish on the second cast. We fished the inlet for about an hour and caught a few smallmouths. I managed to trick a little brown trout to bite my crankbait, that made the trifecta for us, with rainbow, brown trout, and smallmouth bass for the day. We moved to frog bay and fished the rest of the morning in the box canyon and caught a few more smallmouth. We ended the day around 1:00 pm and headed for the ramp. We loaded up and headed for home. We stopped in Heber and had lunch at Lola's Street truck which never disappoints.

I had a great day fishing with Jim and planning our trip to Alaska in a couple weeks. I learned more about him and enjoyed sharing stories. Can't wait!!!!