Snow, A Brown Trout, And A Cutthroat

So If any of you guys follow me on Twitter (@Spencer_Durrant) you'll see that I've been talking about filming a video this weekend. Well, I got out with my good buddy Preston Lange on Saturday (he's an incredibly talented filmmaker, view his YouTube channel here) and he filmed all our fishing adventures for the day. Watch the video, and then read on for the fantastical tale of our grand quest.


To start, we got up at 5:30 and made the trek to Scofield, where an 18 pound tiger trout had been caught about a week and a half ago. I failed to bring any bait, though, and it was a whopping 18 degrees when we got there. Seriously cold morning, but a beautiful lake.

Even though Preston and I were freezing to death up there, I was determined to lure a wary tiger trout from the shallows to bite my Gulp! minnow. But I think the fish were as averse to the cold as we were, because I didn't get a single bite the entire time we were at Scofield. A few people up the bank from us were using chub meat, and having about as much success as me. So after the line froze in my pole for the umpteenth time, Preston and I decided to head to Price  for some food and plan our next move for fish. 

It really was cold up there, I promise! The water droplets on my line would freeze on the guides on my rod, and a few times, my line froze solid! A few more pics of Scofield: 

So after we'd stuffed our faces with some Subway at 10 in the morning (we'd both been up for five hours, so it really felt like lunchtime anyways) I made the call to head to Joe's Valley. After my success there a few weeks ago, and the fact that we desperately needed fish for our video, I thought Joe's sounded like a great destination. 

Well, as we were driving to Orangeville, I noticed that an enormous white bank of clouds was just sitting on the Manti-Lasalle mountain range, more than likely dumping serious snow. I was worried that Joe's might have finally iced up - but we got lucky! After a drive through Straight Canyon in a blizzard, we arrived back at the aquamarine waters of the secluded and beautiful Joe's Valley.

Preston took that shot with his camera he was filming with. That black dot in the middle? A duck that was just cruising around Joe's like it owned the place.

Well, after a few minutes at Joe's, I was rewarded with the most gorgeous Cutthroat trout of my life. Unfortunately, because we were filming and trying to get multiple shots of the Cutt, I wasn't able to get a picture of the Cutt. This still from the video is all I have to remember this beautiful fish by! 

At first glance in the water I thought that guy was a rainbow, but as soon as I got a good look at him, I saw the beautiful slashes under his jaw and the spotting pattern that definitively marked him as a Cutthroat. 

We spent a few more minutes on the reservoir before we decided to try Straight Canyon Creek. We were on a time restraint, so fishing had to be hurried. After a few more fish that weren't notable, we hiked back to my truck. The snow covered boulders made for dramatic landscape, and Preston was being very careful not to get his camera wet. 

We got down onto the creek, and I was blown away by how gorgeous it looked, all covered in snow. What an amazing place to fish! I'm lucky beyond words to live in such a gorgeous state. 

I had a few browns out of this creek, but this guy fought the hardest by far and was probably the prettiest fish I've caught out of this creek. He swallowed my entire Gulp! minnow too! 

All in all, it was an epic day. Even though the fishing was slow, being able to chase trout in the beautiful country was awesome. Also, it's been a while since I've fished in a blizzard, and the snow was actually a welcome addition to the day. 

On The Hunt For Cutts

My weekend was a bit hectic, to say the least. Between helping out my sick grandma, working a Jazz game Friday night (I'm a staff write for them this season), and the offer of lunch at Tucanos on Saturday, my fishing opportunities weren't exactly abundant. While my buddy Justin was able to hit the Provo for some nice browns, I went south in search of some cutthroat action. My first choice was to hit some small ponds that are proven to hold really nice cutts, up Spanish Fork Canyon. I've only hit this particular pond once before, and the weather was much nicer that time. I turned off highway 6 onto a dirt road, and almost immediately got stuck in some muddy ruts. After a lot of help from my buddy Trevor who was fishing with me, we got the truck unstuck, parked, and decided to hoof it the half-mile or so to the cutt ponds.

After bushwhacking through mucky, swampy terrain for about 20 minutes, we finally got to the pond - and it was almost completely iced over. We ended up fishing the shallow, eastern end that hadn't iced up (because that's where the sun hit the water) but we didn't catch a thing. Trevor had a fish on at one point, but it threw his jig and swam off. I didn't even get a nibble!

After messing around up there for a while, we made the trek back to the truck, and decided to try the confluence of Soldier Creek and Starvation Creek, where I've heard tale of big browns. Those browns didn't wanna play Sunday, though, so we left that spot empty handed.

Getting down the canyon, we were losing daylight. So I decided to make one last detour to Diamond Fork, in the hopes of getting into some browns. We parked the truck, hiked to the river, and I picked up this guy after about three casts.

I was surprised at how skinny this guy was for his length, but he still gave me plenty of fight. I caught two of his other buddies before I had to go home. 

The scenery was absolutely gorgeous, too. 

Even though the fishing was slow, getting out and fishing is what this trip was really about. I need to fish. It relaxes me, helps me forget the stupid worries of life, and I always come home in a better mood than when I left. I'm going to give Fish Lake, Koosharem, or Johnson a look next week. Stay tuned for that report! 

Joe's Valley Adventure

I was kicking around the idea of returning to the lake where I caught those huge tigers the last couple of weeks, but after two weeks of wrestling tiger trout in, I wanted a change of pace. So I got a hold of my buddy Justin (look at his write up of this trip on his site!) and we decided to take a trip out to Joe's Valley reservoir and get into some of the hot fall splake action.

On the way there, we drove through Straight Canyon, and had to stop and fish that creek right there. I didn't get pictures of the fish that I caught (just two small browns) but I snapped this one of Justin holding a nice brown for that stretch of water.

This stream is incredible. We hit it on the way to Joe's Valley and on the way home. The scenery here is absolutely breathtaking. 

Anyways, the main attraction of this trip was to get into some splake. After the recent DWR gill net survey turned up splake in the 5-7 pound class, I was excited to possibly hook into some more decent fish. When Justin and I finally got ourselves away from the fun browns in Straight Canyon Creek, we ended up looking out over the entire reservoir from the dam. 

We had the entire aquamarine lake to ourselves. Seeing the surface of Joe's completely smooth didn't last very long, though. The wind picked up almost as soon as we got down to the shore, but not before we were able to nail a couple of nice splake. We were fishing with Gulp minnows and honestly, we had a fish just about every cast. The first spot I tried gave me a steady stream of splake that were feisty and pretty. 

Once the wind picked up, I moved into a corner of the reservoir and kept nailing little splake, all in the 10-13 inch range. While I was over here, I was in the middle of putting a new minnow on my jig head when I heard a huge splash. I looked up just in time to see a huge red tail fin disappear back into the water. Knowing that Joe's has a very healthy population of tiger muskie, and knowing that their tails get red at times, I'm pretty confident in saying I saw a very large tiger muskie today. It could have been a massive splake, though. But I wanna believe it was a tiger muskie! 

I kept fishing that spot for a while, and the only fish of note was this pale cutt. First cutt I've ever caught from Joe's! 

After that cutt, we caught a few more splake before deciding to head home. On the way, we stopped in Straight Canyon Creek again, but couldn't pull a fish out of any of the holes. It was weird, because all the holes were gorgeous. 

Anyways, on the way home, we got sidetracked yet again and Justin decided to show me a great little hidey-hole of his that's full of cutts. We got in there right as the sun was setting (I was wearing tennis shoes and had to splash through ankle deep muck for these fish!) and threw out some more Gulp minnows. First cast, this little guy came to hand. 

Justin caught another one of similar size, and I had a few more bites, but nothing else came out of that little pond. So, after a full day of fishing, we decided to finally head home. Between the two of us, we probably caught anywhere between 40-50 fish. We were too busy unhooking splake after splake taht keeping count kind of lost its importance! 

Anyways, next weekend I'm looking at tackling the Berry. Stay tuned for that report! 

Tigers, Cutts, and my new personal record trout - Oh my!

I said in my last post that I was returning to the lake where I missed a trophy-sized tiger trout this weekend. Well, I kept good on that promise everyone! I decided to take my dad with me, and we got up before the sun (and the fish too, I might add) and made the 2 hour drive once again to the lake that's quickly become my new favorite fishing hole.

It was COLD - snow on the ground, cold. But, the pull of big fish was inescapable, as it usually is. I also was using a new fishing rod this week for the first time - a 6'6" Ugly Stik GX2 light action rod. I have to say, for a replacement for my old Ugly Stik SPL1170 medium action rod, this new GX2 was wonderful. I highly recommend it to anyone. Oh, and it's only $40, so that helps.

I walked around the lake to my favorite spot, a sharp drop off of about 20 feet, filled with weeds and such, and tied on a jig. Maybe five minutes into fishing, I pulled out this beauty!

19 inches, 2.5 pounds! For the first catch of the day, I was pretty happy. Little did I know that the fish in the picture above was going to be the smallest fish I'd catch all day long. Yes, that's right! But before we move on, take a look at the mandible on this tiger! 

I LOVE catching Tiger's with hooked jaws like that!

Anyways, I kept popping my jig through the weeds, but to no avail. So I decided to switch to my always trusty J-7 Rapala and see what would bite that. Maybe three or four casts into using that, this hog came to hand. 

22 inches long, and 3 pounds! It was a great fish, and a great fight! 

After that, my dad started finally having some luck - but not with Tiger's. He was fishing the same area as me, using the same lure (well, almost - he had a brown trout patterned Rapala while I was using a rainbow) and he kept pulling in some nice Colorado River Cutthroat. 

My dad was frustrated, though - I was pulling in 20 inch tiger trout while he was stuck with the 15-17 inch Cutts. So he asked me to "give his pole the magic tough." In other words, he wanted me to take one cast with his pole and hopefully give him some big-fish karma. 

Well, I didn't disappoint. 

I took the pole, threw the Rapala out, let it sink for a few seconds,  then began reeling it in. About 10 feet from shore, WHAM. A huge bite, the biggest of the day. The drag starts screaming, then the fish broke the surface. I got a glimpse of a yellow belly streaked with orange before the fish dived back under the water and continued fighting. 

I pulled the beast into shore, not knowing how big it was yet, and it came fully into view about 5 feet from the bank. I started hollering, and so did my dad. This was by far the biggest fish of the day. 

But he wasn't done! No, the big tiger gave one last bid for freedom, taking back off into deeper water, then jumping clean out of the lake about 10 feet offshore. After another 5 minutes, I finally wrestled it in and got it to hold still for a picture. 

This hog tipped the scales at 5 pounds, and 23 inches! It's my new personal record for trout in both weight and length. And it's by far one of the prettiest fish I've ever hooked in my life. 

Here's a few more pictures of it: 

The pattern on this Tiger was incredible - its brook trout parentage showed through strongly. I've never seen a Tiger with the blue brookie dots like this. It was incredible to see! I'm lucky to have caught such a beautiful fish. 

My dad finished up the day with another Cutt and Tiger. 

This Tiger was a classic example of how some of these mutants don't every grow right. But hey, it was 21 inches and 2 pounds, so it was still a good fight! 

All in all, it was one of the best fishing trips I've ever been on. 

Here's to happy fishing! 

Tigers and Cutts Galore!

I took a trip last Saturday to an awesome lake in the back of beyond that's chock full of cutthroat and tiger trout. We're talking decent sized fish, too. Most of what I caught was in the 17-22 inch range. I'm not going to mention the name of the lake I was on out of respect for my buddy that told me about it (you can read his excellent fishing blog here). This is also why I'm not posting any pictures of the lake that I took, either. And, I like to keep my lakes with really big fish in em a bit of a secret.

Moving on - I got up at 4:30 Saturday morning and made the 2 hour drive with my buddy Trevor. We stocked up on coffee and sausage McMuffins and had a blast driving through scenic Utah in the predawn hours. After a long drive, we jumped out of my truck into the chilly 30-degree weather, got our poles ready, and immediately set to fishing.

I started fishing on the western end of this particular lake, pulling a Jake's lure through some deeper water. A trick I've found with the Jake's, by the way - if you vary your reel speed, depth of retrieval, and jig it a bit when you're pulling it in, that'll help the more wary fish (i.e., big ones) bite it. I fished for probably about a half hour with no bites, and by then the sun was starting to peek over the mountains. So I moved to the other side of the lake where the sun was hitting the water, hoping I'd have some luck over there.

Along the way, Trevor pulled in this nice 17 inch Colorado River Cutthroat from the stream that feeds this lake.

After that fish was caught, the action started to pick up. I pulled in this little guy for my first fish of the day. I caught it on a J-7 Rapala. Trust me, I was as surprised as you are! 

I was switching between some Jake's lures (different colors, than the standard red and gold) and some Rapalas. I tried out a new brook trout-patterned coundtown Rapala, and wasn't too impressed. The J-7, however, was definitely worth the money. I was also using Berkley's Fireline for the first time, and I loved it. Smoothest casting I've ever found on 10lb. line. 

Anyways, the next couple of hours saw fish like this pretty frequently: 

That last picture did horrible justice to that Cutt (not to mention my stupid finger getting in the way of the lens). That Cutt was by far the prettiest Cutt I caught all day.

Well, I'd come to the lake for a big fish, Cutt or Tiger, and I was frustrated that I was only pulling in 17-22 inch fish. Immediately after this fish, though, I got my shot at a big one.

I was pulling a Jake's in at a moderate clip when I felt that unmistakable bite. I set the hook, and felt the satisfying head shake of a fish that's securely hooked. Then, my drag started screaming; literally, I've never had my drag pulled out this fast in my life. Assuming I'd hooked into another 22 inch Cutt, I tightened the drag a bit and just the fish play around on the end of my line for a bit, waiting for my chance to fight it into shore. 

Well, despite tightening the drag, it kept screaming. I tightened it again, and finally was able to gain some ground on the fish. It was then that I realized I had a true monster on the end of my line. For another five minutes, it was back and forth, between me pulling the fish in a bit, and him taking my line back out into the lake. Finally, I had him about 20 feet offshore, and his head broke the surface for the first time. 

As soon as I saw it's head crest the water, my heart stopped. That was by far the biggest trout I'd ever seen on the end of my line. Trying to calm myself down, I kept fighting the big boy in. He got within 10 feet of shore and started making a lot of noise, splashing water everywhere. I finally got a glimpse of the whole fish - a HUGE tiger trout! Considering that I had 10lb. line on, and my pole was bent nearly in half, I'm assuming this particular guy was a pretty beefy fish. 

But, as I got this fish into the shallows, he quit fighting. He just sat there, floating in about 3 inches of water, only his belly covered in water. The fish was easily anywhere from 25-32 inches, and I'd guess anywhere between 6-12 pounds, based on how hard he fought me and how fat he was. 

As I was trying to think through how exactly I was going to get this hog out of the water and onto land for measuring and pictures, he gave one last shake of his head, tossed my hook, and swam off into the depths. I sat there on the side of that lake, just absolutely shattered. That tiger was by far the largest fish I've ever hooked into, and I don't even have pictures of him! 

After I got myself back together composure-wise, I tied on some yellow marabou jigs and started playing around in the weeds about 10 feet offshore. A few nice tigers came to hand. 

After that last tiger, the action slowed down, and we decided to call it a day. I'm heading back to that lake tomorrow though, to chase that big one! Hopefully I'll have pictures to post soon. 

Thousand Lake Mountain Trip

I'd needed to get away badly these last few weeks, and I was searching for a place to fish that was remote but not under a lot of snow. Luckily, after talking with a good friend of mine, I settled on fishing what's accessible on Thousand Lake Mountain right now.

So Friday afternoon, I loaded up my gear and made the 3.5 hour drive into this beautiful country.

I was lucky to get in with good weather. I pitched my tent, gathered some firewood, cooked dinner, then immediately began fishing. After messing around with some Marabou jigs and different baits, I tied on the ever-trusty Jake's lure. Sure enough, my first cast resulted in a fish!

Not exactly the size of fish I was after, but a fish is a fish nonetheless, and I was happy to hook this one. Even though he was small, I got a lot of fight out of him. In fact, every fish I pulled in Friday night fought like a trophy sized trout! 

I kept catching these beefy rainbow trout all night long. Every Cutt I pulled in was proportioned just about what you'd expect for 8-11 inch trout. However, these Bows all had huge bulging bellies! This is a good sign, as it means  this lake is full of food and supports a good stable population of trout through the winter months. 

A lot of the Bows I pulled in were just beautifully colored. 

As the night progressed, I kept catching fish all in this same range. I knew that some bigger ones existed, it was only a matter of finding out exactly where. 

After I caught 20 fish, I lost count for the night. Right as the sun dipped below the mountains to the west, I managed to wrangle in this beauty of a Cutthroat. 

Absolutely gorgeous coloration! The odd thing about this catch, though, was how it took it. I was pulling the Jake's in along the shoreline, no more than 10 feet out. My lure can't have been more than 7 feet from shore when I saw a big dark shape following it. I slowed up for a second, gave my Jake's a little action, and the Cutt nailed it! Immediately, my drag started whining and this guy took off into deeper water. After a few minutes, I tuckered him out and landed him. I had to take multiple pictures, because I couldn't believe how pretty he was!

After that catch, I fished for a little while longer until dark, only catching smaller fish as before. The next morning, I made a short hike into another lake near where I was camped. 

On my first cast, I pulled in this nice Tiger. 

Easily, the best fishing of the trip! I fished that lake for another hour without a single bite, then decided it was time to get heading home. I took a few shots of the breathtaking views on my way out.

All in all, this trip was great, and exactly what I needed to get ready for fishing Boulder as soon as the roads are open!