Hit a few central waters

[LOAH]

I had my sights set on Palisade and some of the nearby waters for a possible fishing loop, this weekend.

My wife said "NO FISHING" on Saturday, so I missed the good weather and got to drive through some really hairy conditions on I-15 yesterday (Sunday).

I started thinking about turning around in the Santaquin area when visibility was almost zero, but it cleared up by Nephi and the canyon was just fine.

After driving for just a couple of minutes, I saw what I thought was a big bonfire close to the road and thought to myself, "Poor bastards are gonna get snowed out in a little bit".

I got a little closer and realized that it wasn't a bonfire, but an Oldsmobile!!!

Check it out:





Video:



Pretty neat. I felt bad for the owner of the car, so I sat and watched it burn with him while we waited for the authorities to arrive. I could sympathize with the kid since my own first car died in a ball of flames, as well.

Several minutes later, the Highway Patrol showed up and I got out of their way and back en route.

When I got to Palisade, I pretty much had the place to myself. Inside the park, I flipped a blue fox around for a bit and decided I should try the dam.

I drove to the end of the road on the dam and tossed out a minnow to soak while I pumped up the tube and got my waders on.

The water looked inviting with its cool green glow, so I shoved off and kicked out to the fallen trees toward the center of this pic:



I wanted to work the trees for a bit and then kick out a little further since the hillside had a pretty good drop off around there. Only problem was that my waders sprung a leak and my right leg had started to fill with really cold water.

Kicking back made it worse, but eventually I made it back to shore, strategically dropping off a minnow beyond casting distance on my way back. I left the rod with the bale open and went to my car (about 30 feet away).

It's a good thing that I was alone over there, because I had to take all of my layers off under the waders and I surely would've blinded any onlookers. This white boy doesn't get a lot of sun in the winter time.

Luckily, I had peeled off my khakis prior to donning the waders and they were nice and dry for me. The long johns, sweat pants, and PJ bottoms that were my insulation were all soaked on the right leg.

So now I was slightly less insulated from the waist down and only had one sock on, but I could finally get back to fishing. Had I checked on my minnow rod while I was changing, I might have noticed the line getting pulled out into the water.

When I got over to it, I was a little worried about what was on the other end and whether or not my ultra light rod could handle it, let alone provide a solid hookset. Palisade is supposedly where the state record tiger trout came from, last year at over 10 lbs.

I set the hook and felt a good fight while I brought the fish in. It was a good distance out there (where I left it from the tube), so I couldn't accurately figure how big this fish was, but the ultra light was really bowed and my hopes were high.

It turned out to be a scrappy tiger trout that only measured 18.75 inches. Not too big, but a welcome sight, nonetheless.



The action after that was pretty slow, so I started lobbing out a Kastmaster and eventually got a couple of rainbows to take. They slammed it pretty hard too. Even fought harder than the tiger. I was pretty impressed, but figured I'd get more fish, so I let them both go.

After that, the bite was gone and nothing I threw seemed to work. I decided to try the nearby Nine Mile Reservoir.

At Nine Mile, I was able to bring in a lip-hooked rainbow within minutes of my arrival, so I released this one expecting plenty more to come.



It was actually about 15 inches, but that pic makes it look like a small planter. It was truly the fight of the day. Bent my Ugly Stik pretty well.

What a shame, no more fish. I wasted another hour there and packed it in for another place on my way home.

I got to the Painted Rocks state park at Yuba to find that the snow had beat me there. It wasn't too bad, but wind and snow tend to put a damper on things.

I tried a few things here and there, but couldn't get any bites. Bummer.

These pics kind of show what the weather was like:









So it was a pretty long day with minimal success, but I managed to catch some fish and keep one for the oven.

Oh, but I wasn't satisfied yet. On my way home, I took the Payson exit at the last second and hit Salem pond for about an hour. Nothing.

I saw plenty of surface activity, but they wouldn't even sniff what I was offering. I didn't try too hard since I was kind of beat from the day, but it would've been nice to hook up with at least a couple.

Oh well. Better weather next weekend.

Happy Fishing, Humans.

[Sombeech]

Umm, looks like it was started within the cab of the car.

How "non" disappointed was the kid?

[LOAH]

The kid was probably in his early 20's. He said he paid $100.00 for it, so no big loss there, but he was a paperboy and all his newspapers were in it.

He said the last thing he remembered before pulling over was lighting up a cigarette and then there was fire.

Yeah, fire. I didn't leave before making him endure some cheesy marshmallow / hotdog jokes.

[accadacca]

Oh nice. Looks like an interesting trip. Thanks for sharing.

[Reedus]

Did the car look like this:

I sold a 20 something year old kid this car for 100 bucks a while back.
Had 345k and still ran strong

[Reedus]

...

[LOAH]

Hahaha, nice. I don't think I took any pics of the guy or I'd show you.

He looked like he was in his younger twenties or so.

Maybe your old car went down in a ball of flames.