Trip Report The Cutthroat Stream

First, a quick lunch break update:

The white bass have been aggressive to strike, although I'm not seeing them in the numbers I'm used to in some spots. Other "usual" white bass spots are as strong as ever.

The browns are still biting, but I've lost some jigs to them lately. In my irrigation box, something BIG took me for a ride into the tunnel and pulled some serious drag before breaking me off last week. It fought like a brown and carp aren't usually in that spot, that I've seen. Who knows?

Speaking of carp, they've been pretty aggressive too. I've caught quite a few that moved their bulk to grab my jigs. One fatty broke me off. Probably 30" or so. Should have landed that one.

Here's 6.5lbs of crayfish food (bad angle, probably about 25"):

http://i1266.photobucket.com/albums/...sCastle014.jpg

And a small one from Friday's lunch break:

http://i1266.photobucket.com/albums/...z/DSCN1707.jpg

It's always nice to have those creeks close to work to keep me going throughout the week.

Saturday

The forecast called for rain in most places and it seemed only right to get rained on in a place I love, rather than watch through the window at home. One of my favorite places to get rained on is on the Wasatch Plateau.

On the way up the canyon, a quick stop on the creek gave me a couple of missed swipes and a small cutthroat.

http://i1266.photobucket.com/albums/...z/DSCN1708.jpg

Even though I had a destination in mind to explore, I couldn't pass up my favorite cutt stream. My first stop was a bit surprising, only yielding one fish, where I normally catch many. This fish wasn't large, but beautifully marked and showed promise for the future. I'll probably see it again.

http://i1266.photobucket.com/albums/...z/DSCN1711.jpg

Moving around a bit, the fish started to show up in the beaver ponds. They weren't as quick to take the Blue Fox as usual, but I still made out pretty well with it. The "average" sized cutthroat came out to play.

http://i1266.photobucket.com/albums/...z/DSCN1713.jpg

Switching to a black marabou jig provided faster action and that worked out pretty well. Quite a few were caught and released without a photo, but most were the average size.

http://i1266.photobucket.com/albums/...z/DSCN1714.jpg

http://i1266.photobucket.com/albums/...z/DSCN1715.jpg

At one beaver pond, I got a really crooked one. It swam and fought differently than the others, with its twisted deformity.

http://i1266.photobucket.com/albums/...z/DSCN1716.jpg

Crazy. It also showed signs of escaping a predator, with a fin ripped up and the other gill plate was also torn. Those wounds looked pretty fresh, but I didn't get any shots of them.

http://i1266.photobucket.com/albums/...z/DSCN1717.jpg

The jig was perfect for the sections with thick brush overhanging. A drop next to those almost always produced a quick reaction from the lurking fish.

Much to my dismay, this was the last photo I was able to get before my camera's battery exhausted.

http://i1266.photobucket.com/albums/...z/DSCN1719.jpg

Naturally, once the camera was dead, my catches became more impressive. Go figure!

My largest fish of the day was in my hand when I found out about the battery. It was at least 23 inches and hard to hold with one hand. It was released, but two other big ones were kept.

The stream doesn't get a lot of pressure, surprisingly, and I believe that keeping a couple of fish from time to time has helped increase the size of my average catch over the years.

The photo below was taken after those fish sat in the cooler for a long time, so it's kind of sad to remember them like this. The small one was 20" and the other was 22".

http://i1266.photobucket.com/albums/.../IMGP8203A.jpg

Though the camera was no longer part of the trip, there was still plenty more fishing to come. The creek was still good to me on my way back to the truck and I caught many more from the same holes I had just fished.

So I had already fit a full day's worth of fishing into a couple of hours, but my main destination was still calling. The point was to go and explore some ponds that looked great from the map. Off to Potter's Ponds, I went.

Potter's Ponds is a very popular put-and-take fishing spot for the area, but just down the hill are about 30 small ponds, all within a mile radius.

During good water years, some of these ponds hold fish that grow quickly in the fertile water. Whether they were put there by people or got into them some other way, I don't know. All I do know is that I've caught some solid 18 & 19 inch rainbows from a couple of them.

My quest for the day was to investigate the others. It was a lot of traipsing around the hillside, but many ponds were visited and placed in the "no fish" (no water) category. Bummer.

One highlight was visiting the creek in Potter's Canyon though. There's actually a good amount of water in the creek and it holds wild cutthroat. The ones I saw weren't anything like those I caught earlier, but they were still a lot of fun on the fly rod.

It was a fun day! The rain was only spotty and it actually felt nice when the showers came. Add to that, it kept a lot of people off the mountain, so the peace and quiet was rewarding.

Sorry for the camera fail. I gambled and lost on that one. I've been kicking myself for not recharging it before the trip.

Happy Fishing, Humans.