Nice Day with Family

[LOAH]

Since my past report, I've had a rare bout with a really nasty head cold (or something) that had me floored for a couple of days and just feeling too awful to go on any fishing trips ever since. Thankfully as of late, my body started cooperating enough that I felt good about a family trip to the south this weekend.

Knowing the crowds should be out in force due to the holiday, we thought that hitting a lesser known place would be best and we set our sights on Rex Reservoir. My wife and I have enjoyed our times there and thought it would be fun to introduce our newest family member to it, since she was still in the womb the last time around.

Upon arrival, we saw plenty of campers occupying most of the lakeside real estate, as expected. We still found a decent spot to pull into, where we wouldn't have to park on top of anyone.

The water level was beyond maximum, as many shoreline trees were now submerged and the outflow creek was raging. The water was soiled and brown with the high volume of runoff and we wondered if we would be able to get noticed by any of the fish.



The wild flowers are starting to bloom in the area.



My wife did her usual thing with the worm and a bubble and I did my usual thing, casting a Blue Fox all over the place. Neither of us had much luck for about an hour or so. Finally, I got two little rainbows to bite a black BF within about 15 minutes of each other. Both were tiny and released.





Those were the only fish caught at Rex, despite my use of many different lures for the next couple of hours. Eventually, a couple of trucks filled with people rolled into our area and we decided that we'd go elsewhere in search of better fishing and cleaner water.

A little while later, we arrived to the parking area for small lake that required a short hike through beautiful country. It was a relief to find only one other vehicle there and we quickly made our way to the water. As we strolled in, there were two guys fishing and one was in the middle of a catch. A good omen, we hoped.

We set up on an outcropping that had water on three sides and it wasn't long before the action began. My wife still had the worm/bubble rig and I used a brown and ginger marabou jig. My first cast got bumped, but I missed it. Second cast, bingo.



And another:



My wife's first cast produced within a minute or two. This was her first brookie, I believe.



The worms were working really well, but after having to keep another (hooked deeply), I was reluctant to keep her rigged.

Meanwhile, I was having my way with them on the jig, although missing many more bites than I was able to connect on. Still, plenty were brought in.



The jig worked so well that I wondered if other methods would see the same success. Despite the fast action on the jig, my Blue Fox didn't even get a second look. Switching to the fly rod, the action turned on again.



An olive cone headed sculpin pattern got bumped on nearly every cast, but it was really hard to get them hooked. Had I brought my tube down, the outcome may have been different. I tend to have a hard time getting hookups from shore with the sinking line, but keep trying anyway.

Back to the jigs, the onslaught continued and more brookies introduced themselves. None of the fish we caught were very large, but they were pretty and of edible size. This male was the biggest of the day for us:



One of my personal highlights for the day was when I convinced my wife to try her hand at tossing the marabou around instead of using a worm. She really surprised me and got one on her first cast, then another, and another...etc. Although her technique appeared to be flawed and unrefined, she managed to bring in fish after fish. No need to change what's working, right?

It was a great move to ditch Rex and check on the higher country. Nice place to be.







Earlier, I noticed a small pond that sat just down the hill from our lake. This warranted further investigation.





Unfortunately, this was just a shallow frog pond. Too bad.

Once we'd had our fill of fishing and started thinking about leaving, we saw a group of 19 people marching toward the lake and considered it our cue.



This is what walking back to the car should look like:



Talk about a fun day! The air at 9000 feet was fresh, the only sounds were those of Nature or those of people catching fish. The weather was perfect and what seemed to be a slow day in the sage brush was transformed into fast action in the aspens.

Happy Fishing, Humans.

[REDFOX]

Nice pics and write up. I just got a new flyrod that I am dying to try out. I spent the weekend doing yardwork.

[asdf]

great TR Loah

[uintahiker]

Nice TR. I liked the 5th picture. The shadow of the fish at the bottom is super cool.

[accadacca]

Yeah you got some great photos and did well. Yum.

[live2ride]

very cool weekend for you there and fantastic write-up. Makes me want to go fish in this great weather!