Rematch

[LOAH]

I just can't seem to get enough of the Central Utah region lately with the pretty lakes and gorgeous scenery. Last week, I tried to get to a couple of places but either found locked gates or hiked to the wrong lake.

This week I wanted a "rematch", so to speak, so that I could get into the places that I was curious about.

I pulled up to the same locked gate this week and decided that I would hike in anyway. Armed with a flyrod and a light spinning combo, I set off.

Now my memory of the satellite view from Google Earth could only get me so far and I made the mistake of turning off the main road for what I though was the trail to my lake.

It wasn't, but it proved to be a valuable mistake as I stumbled upon a crystal clear, shallow spring pond.





It didn't look very fishy since it was so shallow, but upon closer inspection, it was teeming with brookies. They were small, but vibrantly colored and they made my mistake worthwhile. Here are a few:









I stayed and had my way with the feisty little brookies for awhile, but eventually head back to the main road to complete my hike.

Making it to my lake, I was greeted with a pleasant view:



I could see plenty of holdovers swimming the shallows and learned what they wanted after getting the cold shoulder with my Blue Fox.





They didn't want anything but that olive leech. I caught quite a few before losing it on a bad back cast. I switched to a BH olive bugger and had some success, but not like the leech gave me.

I had fun there, but there were more places to visit and it was time to get going. I'd already developed a bad sunburn on my forearms and needed to get those covered up.

On the hike back, I stopped for a quick shot of a bumblebee, busy at work:



I made it back to my car and ate some lunch and then stopped at a nearby lake for a few casts:





Fun stuff. I caught a few fish there and took off for another destination. I needed to get to the lake I meant to hike to last week.

After making my way to the trailhead, I set off to find the lake that I missed last time. It was good to finally make it.



I was hoping for bigger fish since this lake gets substantially less fishing pressure than the other lakes in the area, but I found about the same average size as most of the others. No biggie, it was still a nice excuse to stretch the legs.



A CO startled me about 15 minutes after my arrival. He stated that he loves it when he sees vehicles parked at the trail head since it gives him a reason to take the pretty hike. I was surprised that he wasn't nervous about my sidearm, but he was a good guy and we sat and chat about all things fishing for a little while before he left me to get back to it.

I kept the tiger that I worm hooked and hiked back to my car after losing a few more flies to a greedy pine tree.

I thought I'd fish the lake that I parked at to see if I could get something a little bigger for the table and ended up catching and releasing a lot of dinks, but made out with a 14 inch albino.



Sorry, forgot to take a pic of the albino.

Kind of sad that 14 inches was the fish of the day, but I'll take that in exchange for all the scenery and clean mountain air to breathe.





I knew I'd be in trouble for staying out so late. I didn't get home until about 11:00.

It was another splendid fishing trip full of catching, hiking, and Nature's splendor. The fishing was noticeably slower than last week, but I still had plenty of success and got to the spots I missed last time. I hope everyone else had good trips too.

Happy Fishing, Humans.

[Sombeech]

ah man, I love that area. Nice pics.