Joe's Valley Area

[LOAH]

Saturday wasn't the greatest looking day to get out and fish, but compared to Sunday, I'm really glad I did. With the frozen months galloping toward us faster than ever, I thought I'd get out to Joe's Valley Reservoir for one last stab at the open water.

On the way down, I went up and over Fairview Canyon to get a feel for how those waters were doing and to shorten my drive by 20 minutes or so. Huntington Reservoir was capped with ice except for a couple of small areas that were still wet. Shore fishing was actually a possibility there, on the north end, but I didn't stop.

The same could be said for Cleveland Reservoir and there were a few stubborn hold-outs along the shoreline where the last open water remained. It was tempting to give it a shot, but I knew I'd become too distracted to finish my drive to the target water.

Electric Lake was totally open, although I would assume the north end is starting to freeze. Nobody was fishing, that I could see.

It was a tough deal, driving past all that water that I love to fish, but I was proud of my restraint. Then I let my guard down and couldn't help but burn 20 minutes on a stretch of Huntington Creek.







Look cold? It was!

Several small browns and a medium sized cutthroat chased a brown marabou jig, but I failed to get them in when they lightly nipped at the tail. No matter, it was a nice scenic stop anyway.

Okay, back on track! Joe's or bust!

Another distracting drive through a welcoming canyon finally placed me at the bend on the highway, near the dam arm at Joe's Valley Reservoir. A cold wind howled through me while I descended the very steep hillside to the shoreline rocks, where I've always had the fastest action.







History has taught me that the fish in JVR really like kastmasters in gold or copper, so I clipped on a gold and pulled in small splake immediately.



Not the most colorful of fish, but boy do they look neat on top!



Almost every cast brought bites or fish, mostly splake. It was incredibly fast action and brought balance to the miserably cold wind I had to endure. Although the fishing was great, the average size was only about 14 inches and the fish didn't have much weight to them. Their attitudes made up for that with aggressive strikes and good fights to my hand.

The splake were mostly along the shoreline and the cutts were usually in open water. The splake outnumbered my catches of cutthroat about 8:1, but I still caught 7 or 8 (do the math, yes that's a lot of fish for the day). A couple of small tiger trout also found my hook.





The largest fish of the day was a splake of about 16 inches and all were released this time. Having enough of the wind at the lake, I decided to use the remaining sunlight in the canyon below and the small browns in the creek were also quite active.



It's always a pleasure to find myself in this area and I've never had a bad day fishing Joe's or the creek. My ride home was re-routed through Price, since I barely made it over the summit of Fairview Canyon and it had stormed since.

Nice day to get out and I'm glad I didn't wait until Sunday.

Happy Fishing, Humans.

[ibenick]

Nice!

[JONBOYLEMON]

I'm shivering just looking at those pictures. Joes looks like a worthy destination.

MAN, that water looked COoooooooooLD!!!!!!!

[LOAH]

Yeah, Joe's is awesome. My largest fish out of there was only 17", but there are some monsters in there.

I've seen reports of 12lb splake being taken through the ice, plus plenty between 5-7lbs too.

I just haven't dialed in on them.

I imagine it would be a great place to take a boat, since it's so deep (150ish) and large in area.

The creek below is one of the most beautiful creeks I've ever fished.

[LOAH]

I'm really sorry, but fishing Joe's Valley this past weekend was a violation of the rules.

From the proc:

[I][B]Joes Valley Reservoir, Emery County
Limit 4 trout, only 1 trout may be over

[JONBOYLEMON]

So what purpose does this regulation serve?

[LOAH]

I guess the past has shown that people gather to snag the big splake that come in really close to shore, late in the year. No wonder I caught so many, so close to shore!

[accadacca]

Oops! Oh well. Great report!