Fishing Deer Creek with Parker

We finally got to get out on the lake again. I miss fishing with my boys! Parker and I fished Deer Creek a couple weeks ago and we had a blast. The morning was awesome with a little chop on the water. There were skiers already on the lake when launched which was crazy for a Friday morning. We launched and headed for our historical lanes and set lines.

Parker set his downrigger with two lines one at 30 and the other at 20 feet. I set my lead line at 30 feet and a light line shallow. We fished our lanes for most of the morning but didn't produce a fish. We decided to go to a backup lane in Rainbow bay and that's when things got busy. Parker had his downrigger set and the fish were hungry. My lines were not producing anything so I stowed the lead line and used the upper clip on the downrigger and finally got a fish hooked up.

We fished until the wakes so bad that we couldn't stand up in the boat. The wind and wakeboarders had the water tore up. We finished with 4 nice sized rainbow trout.

The fish ended up in tinfoil and seasoned for a great meal!

Fishing Strawberry with Cousins!

 

A couple of weeks ago my cousins wanted to hit the Berry. I explained that the fishing was slow but they still wanted to get out. So I picked up Joe in Orem and we met up with the rest of them at Strawberry. We launched at Renegade and fished the meadows and the narrows.

We launched around 3:30 pm and started trolling once we reached 40 feet in depth and trolled the entire area. We started off with spoons, rapalas, and blades. We used lead-core line and light line setups for different depth options. We had a few watchers as we passed by.

Like I said it was really slow. The summer doldrums are here for a couple more weeks and then the water will start to turn over and the fishing will pick up until ice season. We did manage a few cutthroat and a couple rainbows. No Kokanee, but I'm not set up for kokanee with downriggers and all.

We had a great evening at the lake. Had an adventurous ride back to the dock....lol. We loaded at sunset.

Trail 121 and Fly Fishing

A couple weeks ago I decided to break out the fly rod and do a trail ride in an area I hadn't been to in a long time. The trail is in the Wasatch back and not too far from home. I took the Mule on this trip to give it a well-needed workout on the trail. I didn't get an early start and really didn't know how the trail or the stream was going to be. The last time I was up there it was washed out from winter run-off. I headed up the canyon and was on the trail by 10:00am.

At the trailhead the road was smooth but as I progressed up the canyon it got more rocky. This trail is in the easy category and most vehicles can navigate it without a problem. Good driving and choice of lines missing the larger of the rocks a car can make it. There are a few stream crossings but nothing too deep.

I arrived at the spot I was looking for and parked. It was a widened area of the road and there are beaver ponds next to it. I set up camp and had lunch, it was about 11:30. It took a little time to get to the spot, with filming and taking pictures along the way. Had lunch in the quiet canyon and listening to nature. After lunch, I got my 3 wt. fly rod set up and put on my hip waders.

The beaver ponds were very murky and filled in quite a bit from the last time I was there. I couldn't see any fish and moved around quickly trying to get better angles and more line out. It has been a couple seasons since I cast flies and it showed. The backcast and the forward cast was ugly, to say the least. My fly was slamming into the water, if there were fish in the ponds I know I spooked them quickly. Knowing this though I was watching intently and didn't see anything move. I kept moving downstream and found some moving, cleaner water, but still no fish. I fished for about an hour and decided to call it a day.

No fish were caught, but it had been a great trail ride and a good place to have lunch. The fly rod will be used more often, I forgot how much fun it really is to cast. Hopefully, catch a few fish as well.

Family Trail Ride

We made our annual trek to Park City for the Salmans' Gathering. We have started a tradition that I hope lasts for a very long time. We gather up all the boys and their families and spend the weekend in Park City and have fun. This year due to the circumstances we went earlier than anticipated but it was good because it landed on Dad's birthday and we celebrated with him in my thoughts. We stayed Thursday thru Sunday and had a blast, for the most part.

Friday we went to Park City Mountain and rode the Alpine Slide and Coaster and the kids loved it. That evening we had pizza and played games. The kids played at the pool after the day on the mountain. Saturday we rented UTV's from Uinta Recreation and went on a trail ride. We met up with Adam and his crew early and prepared for a morning of adventure.

After the office work was completed we followed them over to the staging area and listened to the directions and map instructions for our trails. We loaded up five UTV's with or crew and made our way to the trailhead. We rode the trail from Soldier Hollow up and over to Cascade Springs. A mild trail with a few water crossings. We stayed on the main trail for the most part only venturing off a little bit on a side trail only to have it loop back on itself.

We rode trails 1 and 3 also known as Cummings Parkway. The trail ride was for four hours and we thought we were going to have more than enough time to play around but the trail is deceiving and by the time we reached our last stop point we had to move quickly to get back to the staging area. The last stop was at a small water crossing. Rogan made the best of it a couple of times. We all got a little dusty and some wished they had rented goggles, we will remember to bring them next time.

We made it back right at noon and packed ourselves into the cars dusty and all and headed to Chick's Cafe and had a wonderful lunch.