Sixthwater Trip

I was sitting at home Saturday morning after an amazing date (thanks Kari!) the night before, wondering where I should head out fishing. I checked fishing reports from a few different places, keeping in mind I'd be heading to Scofield on Sunday anyways. After checking out Vernon Reservoir, a few lakes up Fairview Canyon, and Strawberry (the ice needs to come off!), I settled on heading up to the top of Diamond Fork Canyon, to fish for Cutts in the beaver ponds.

Well, as I was driving up Diamond Fork Canyon, I remembered a favorite spot of mine just about a mile east - Sixthwater Creek. Now, quite a few people fish Sixthwater near and around Ray's Valley Bridge, but very few venture to the spots where I do - in fact, I haven't ever seen another living soul on the particular stretch of river I've fished today.

So on a whim, I decided to make the hour long trek up the face of a mountain and down the back side, into the valley that Sixthwater runs in.

I was hiking/bushwhacking my way up this steep slope for a good hour. The scenery and views were worth it, though. Oh, and so were the fish!

After finally getting up and over, I pulled out my trusty Ford Spoon, tied it on, and threw it into a choice spot. And then WHAM! Something whaled on my lure within seconds of it hitting the current, but I was just a second too late in setting the hook, and I got my favorite and most reliable spoon snagged. Even worse, the snag was so bad I had to cut the line and lose the lure.

I tied on another spoon, this one red and white striped, and cast again into the same hole. I saw the white belly of a fish roll on the lure, but the current tossed the lure out of the reach of the fish's mouth. I decided I'd hit that hole again on my way back and walked up the river, searching for more holes.

This is a gorgeous river.

I switched lures again, and ended up using a size four Panther Martin. Nearly every cast, I was catching fish. The problem was, the fish were too big to land without a net! I'd wrestle these huge Browns into relatively calm water, but there was no way to get them up on the bank without a net. So they'd just flop off and swim away. 

Finally, though, I managed to hook one and land him. 

17.5 inches, 2.5 pounds! An absolute whale of a fish for this river. It was a great day, and the hike was worth every minute of it for these fish. 

The Creek, IN THE SNOW

So, the weather was great and peachy until a few days ago, when Utah got the usual early spring snowstorm. After dumping about 4 inches at my house, as well as dumping on my fishing plans that day, the storm moved on and some warmer weather came in today that enabled me to get up and fish the creek again, this time in about a half foot of snow!

I couldn't believe how much snow was still up there, after the two days of warmer weather we've seen. I thought my truck was going to get stuck at one point, but I kept pressing on to a favorite spot of mine.

No one, not even any animals, had been down into this hole. The snow was clear and untouched. So, I threw on my secret weapon for this creek, tossed the line up into the current, and WHAM! Not even 10 seconds after the line hit the water, I was pulling in a fish.

I know, it's small. But it's pretty! All the fish from this hole today were more beautiful than the last, it seemed. And every single cast, I successfully pulled in a fish. I even pulled in a few in the 7-9 inch range, which is bordering on a beast for this creek. 

This was by far the most beautiful fish I caught all day. The nice, thick red stripe down the middle and the little boxes, all coupled with a beautiful rainbow splash on the gillplate. Wow, just an incredible fish. 

That fish took a little coaxing to get him to swim off, but after a few minutes he splashed away, back into the deeper waters. 

Believe it or not, this fish isn't even the smallest I've caught from here - although it's very close! Even at this tiny size, this guy whaled on the line and managed to put some spring into my brand new ultra lite Ugly Stik (by far the best fishing pole on the market, IMO).

He really was tiny!

By this point,unhooking so many fish and getting my hands in that frigid water was starting to take its toll. I decided I'd catch one more fish, and then call it a day. I'd been fishing for about 45 minutes now, and had literally caught a fish on every cast. Then, I pulled in this surprise. 

My treble hook had hooked through the loop of a leader line that was sticking out of the mouth of this little fish! I felt bad that he was swimming around with a hook so far down his throat, but there was no way for me to remove it. So, I cut the leader line as short as I could and threw him back. 

Deciding that was enough, I hiked back up to my truck. I got this very cool picture of ice on the river as I was leaving.

All in all, after a rough day, this was exactly what I needed - to hear my reel sing and feel my pole shake.

If your hands don't smell like trout after a day of fishing, you're doing it wrong.