Loop Trip with the Family

[LOAH]

My family and I took a trip to the Energy Loop on Sunday and had a pretty good time together. As usual with these family trips, my early awakening was for a late departure.

Once we were in the area, our first stop was a quick one at a little stream I like, but I was unable to get anything to bite there. Saw only one little cutt spook from the hole I was fishing and couldn't find any other signs of life on that stretch.

The creek was low and crystal clear, leaving only a few holes in areas that previously held many. I know where the fish went, but couldn't take my family there. Hopefully conditions are near the same in a couple of weeks, when I can throw on the waders and dedicate most of the day to the creek.

While I searched out the empty holes, my kids got to decompress from the road time.





Seeing how the creek wasn't cooperating, we took off and tried our luck at Cleveland Reservoir for a few hours. As soon as we made it to the dam, I picked up a 14 inch rainbow right in the wash of the inlet in that area.

Seeing a couple of other dark shadows moving around in the water, I hurried to get my fly back in the zone, but they had been spooked by the previous catch and wouldn't take anything I threw at them. Plenty of sniffs and rejections though.

Eventually, the minnow rod got some action and a healthy rainbow came to hand:



Another one just like it followed awhile later, in the same way.

My poor wife couldn't seem to get anything to bite, despite drifting her worm past a lot of feeding fish. My son James started to get bored with the lack of action and decided to hit the blanket while we fished on.



Despite the slow fishing, the turning of the seasons shone true with the surrounding aspens, giving us plenty of beauty to take in while time ticked on. It's a nice place to kill some time and take in the sun.



James' boredom soon gave way to protests and a desire to go back home, to which I repeatedly responded my intentions of catching more fish. That's when he told me that he wanted to catch one. Lately, he hasn't shown much on an interest, so this made me happy.

My minnow rod spat line one more time and the fish on the other end was swimming fast. My plan was to set the hook and then let James reel it in, but somehow I missed it, reeling in only the hook. At that point, we were all ready to try another spot so we went to Huntington to see if any tigers wanted to play.

The kids got to play in the sand of Huntington's exposed "tub ring" while Sonia and I tried our best to make something happen. After about 20 minutes, I finally got one to eat a minnow and called James over to fight it in.

His eyes lit up while the tiger thrashed about, especially once it got close to shore and he could see and feel it much better. Once he'd gotten it to shore, I scooped it up and showed him his prize, the fish of the day.



It was about 16 sturdy inches and gave him a good battle for a minute. It made me proud to watch him react to that.

After that, we fished awhile longer with no luck and chose to explore the section of Skyline Drive that cuts south from the summit of HWY 31. There was a lot of smoke in the air from fires to the north and south and we couldn't even see the Sanpete Valley floor from the steeply banked road.

There were plenty of hawks flying around and we even got to see two of them fighting over a mouse. That was cool. They were pretty close too.

I hadn't previously been on that section of Skyline and it was great to see what I've been missing. It's really gorgeous up there. The autumn colors are starting to show up, but there's still a week or two before it reaches its prime.

Once we reached the end of the improved gravel, we turned around and made our way back to the highway, where we bid farewell to the sun for the day.



Happy Fishing, Humans.

[accadacca]

Damn nice TR. Great looking feesh!

[ibenick]

Loah, please tell me you just have really, really tiny hands that make the fish look that big. You're always bringing in the monsters!

[LOAH]

No, my hands are pretty normal...a little wide, even.

Those aren't very big, considering where they were from, but I'm still happy to catch them though.

Just big enough to eat. Easy to pick through the annoying little spur bones above the ribs. Hate those!