2018 So Far

[LOAH]

The past two years may have started out slowly, but this year has been ridiculous. My first trip was to Strawberry Reservoir near the marina, where I worked hard to chip out many holes in the ice.

From that effort, only 4 fish were caught, but that's better than nothing. No slot busters.

A week later, I tried again with a couple of buddies. This time we fished the ladders and nobody caught anything except for the 4 fish I was able to land, all within the slot. Hoping for better action, we left to try our luck at Currant Creek Reservoir, where nobody caught anything. It was a rough day. Again, 4 fish is better than no fish.

Two weeks later, my cousin from Phoenix was in town, so the Aarons and I went to Fish Lake, where we were sure to have a good day on the ice.

Sure we were.

Well, the Aarons caught fish. They both had holes right by mine and we fished with basically the same stuff. They each caught quite a few as I watched. Only once was my gear touched by a fish and I whiffed on that hook set. Once again, Fish Lake gave me a dirty skunking. I'm starting to believe that someone put a curse on me in regard to Fish Lake. It seems as though I'm the only person that doesn't do well there.

Meh.

At least I got to spend some time with my buds and hang out in an area that I love. The "clouds" were starting to change color and it was time to go.



Feb 18:

My family and I tend to take a lot of trips to the desert together. We have our usual hangouts but also enjoy seeing new places, so we set off to an area I've wanted to visit for some time, Kodachrome Basin State Park.

Along the way, we enjoyed the drive along Highway 12, through Red Canyon.



It was a long drive for a day trip, but it was worth it, once we got to the park.



What a cool place! It's not the biggest area, but it's definitely unique and beautiful. For state park purposes, it's perfect.

Surrounded on 3 sides by the Escalante Grand Staircase National Monument, the landscape is red rock with tall stovepipe spires of various geologic makeup. Interesting, to say the least.



Being only a day trip, my family and I reserved only enough time for one good hike, so we chose the flagship hike of the park, the Panorama Trail.

Around 6 miles, round trip, it's a moderately easy stroll with little elevation change. The trail led us around the picturesque edges of two valleys to the west of the parking lot, which makes up the majority of the scenery within the park.

Everywhere the eye lands is rich with beauty, but there are certainly highlights, one being "Indian Cave", which is a thought provoking concave area along the eastern wall of the first valley.



The biggest, deepest grooved hand print totally dwarfed my hand.

Next stop was "Ballerina Spire". Not everyone agrees as to how these whitish colored spires were formed, but a popular theory is that they were ancient geysers that filled in with hard minerals over time, leaving the soft sandstone around them to erode away.

Other spires do seem out of place, geologically, among the strata surrounding them.



Continuing along the trail, a collection of spires in the NW corner of what I'll call Valley #1 is called the "Hat Shop". Likely due to the tops of many of the spires that are topped with a different type and color of rock, as though they were wearing a hat.



Onward still, the end of Valley #1 provides a side trail called "Secret Passage", which is just a quick loop that reveals some otherwise hidden splendor.





With shadows growing longer, we needed to pick up the pace on the last leg of our hike. Instead of following the wall of the valley (which has some neat side canyons), we took a spur across the valley that led us straight to "Cool Cave", which is really just the entrance to a slot canyon.



Entering "Cool Cave":



Near the end of the passage that is navigable without ropes.



Looking up to where the slot continues, about 15-20ft above the ground.



It's probably really neat in there and not many eyes get to see it. Perhaps someday I'll find another way in. Future trips are surely in order.

Thanks, Kodachrome! We'll be back.



March 3:

Hoping to float open water, Aaron and I drove down to check on Joe's Valley Reservoir. Once we made it to the dam, it was clear that only a small part of the lake was open at all, right by the dam.



The rest of the lake was still capped with a few inches of ice.



We actually went out and fished the ice for a couple of hours and had zero action, so we tried our luck at the open water, each catching one splake before heading down the canyon.

As usual, a few stops to fish the stream were warranted and appreciated.



The browns were chasing more than they were biting, but we each caught a few and enjoyed the scenery.





That gap held a mess of little browns.







The sights along the stream never disappoint.





I never leave this canyon without a .





March 10:

Aaron and I made our first float of 2018 at a lake I had only fished once before. Knowing some decent trout, bass, and perch were in the water, we hoped for the best and proceeded to fight the wind for a few hours.



My own luck was poor, missing only two bites throughout our stay. Aaron fared slightly better, catching two or three rainbows.

Hoping to catch at least something on the day, we left for a river, where I usually pull a few healthy browns in.

Aaron got right to work.



For some reason, I had a "string" of bad luck, as I broke off every jig I tied on. Three of those times were on big browns, which was really disappointing. I lost at least 60" of trout in three consecutive casts.

I've had better days.

March 17-18 - Moab:

Mid March was as late as my family could stand waiting this year to go camping in the desert. Even though the weather was potentially bad anywhere on that weekend, we chose to try our luck near Moab.

We scooped up Sonia's little brother (Ray) along the way and camped at a primitive site a few miles north of town. The little side canyon we were in was gorgeous and provided some light hiking as we explored it on day 1.



Plenty of slick rock to scramble around on.



Despite weather reports, we enjoyed perfect conditions on day 1.









So cool! We hoped the good weather would hold, at least enough to stay dry throughout the night and for a hike or two the next day.

At around 5am, Sonia woke me up to let me know it was raining. Nice.

Eventually, we got out of bed and scrambled through a pause in the rain to get our stuff packed. As we were getting the last of it into the truck, the sky starting falling again, only this time in the form of snow.

The road we'd taken to get where we were was okay, but I was concerned about a couple of steep spots and how they'd act when muddy.



Luckily the drive went well. We left just in time to see a small stream forming across the road, immediately after passing that spot.

We had a nice camp breakfast packed, but being so close to town in this weather, it was time for a treat. First stop, of course, was at Wicked Brew.

We thoroughly enjoyed our beverages. I've never been so glad to pay $6 for a coffee. I'll do it again.



After a quick breakfast in town, we set off to see some classic Moab landscape and hiked to Corona Arch. The 1.5ish mile hike was pretty easy for all of us, but packed with stunning vistas and cool formations, natural and otherwise.



Bowtie Arch is seen, just before getting to Corona:



Corona Arch:



Ooga Booga!



It was a fun hike. Corona Arch is pretty impressive. Luckily, we got to see it before someone defaced it recently in a childish "show of love" to his wife. Way to go, guy. Grrrrrr.



Beautiful place. We drove the Potash Road for quite a distance and enjoyed views of the Colorado River, the incredible red rock formations, and distant views of Canyonlands before setting our sights for home.

The weather had a lot to do with our early departure, but it was still amazing to get out there and do fun things without having to pay an arm and a leg. Thanks, Moab.

March 24:

Aaron and I took a long drive with our tubes to find ice on our intended lake. We used my small hatchet to bang out many holes in ice ranging from 4-8", mostly the latter.

It was rough work and we fished for a couple of hours without a bite. Eventually, we bagged that lake and went for a "Plan B" of sorts.

Forsyth Reservoir was still mostly capped, but a window of open water in the area surrounding the springs was open and the bite was on!





The fishing was good enough that I brought my family the next week. A very historic trip for us, everybody caught fish! I'd say the highlight was my little girl, who caught her very first fish without assistance.

Congrats, Debbie!



Tons of fun!

April 8:

Keeping the southern itch at bay, Aaron and I went down last weekend and checked on a few lakes in an area that is getting better and better.

The first lake wasn't very productive, but the one fish I did catch was solid.



Some exploration led me to a small pond that I've had my eye on for over a decade. No signs of fish, but examination of the pond leads me to believe that fish would likely do well in there. We shall see if that ends up happening...



Another no-name pond was visited without any fish caught, though I observed a nice one that was dead, under some logs. Hopefully there were some survivors there. Nice cutthroat were in there last year.

Moving on, we checked another lake that can sometimes give up a few nice fish. Only a few small fish showed themselves that day, but a couple of hard bites were missed.



We made time to finish our day at another lake that usually yields high catch rates, as Aaron hadn't caught any fish on the day yet. Not only that, but I always like to check on lakes with potential for nice fish, like this one.

Happily surprised, the catch rates were good and the fish seemed to be bigger, on average, than in past years. The only fish biting were tiger trout, but we had fun catching them up to 18-19 inches in length, albeit a little on the skinny side.

Aaron even got into them after awhile. There have been far too many skunky trips since the onset of winter this past season, so it was good to have a strong day of catching.



Love these lakes.



As always, the ride home is , but usually full of beautiful scenery.



Side Note:

Many of you may remember a certain photo I took last fall, of a beautiful Bonneville Cutthroat in a net with crazy reflections on the water's surface.

Somehow, I got lucky enough to capture the reflections the way I did. I tried several times after and couldn't reproduce the neat effect.

This photo caught the eye of my artist friend, Travis Sylvester, who is a well-known and very talented colored pencil artist. He selected the photo for one of his amazing reproductions and I must say that it is really something special, what he's done.

I'm beyond excitement that he was able to wrap it up just in time to be able to display at the Wasatch Fly Fishing Expo, just last week. It's a new favorite of mine for sure (a little biased, maybe? LOL - Doesn't even matter).

Here's my photo:



And here's Travis' rendering of it.



To say he knocked it out of the park would be an understatement. I'm very honored to have played a part in yet another one of his fantastic works of fine art and can't express my gratitude enough that he chose to make my photo his best work yet.

Be sure to follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and even visit his website Travzart.com.

Another side note: Utah Water Log is finally on Instagram!

@utahwaterlog wasted no time in flooding the 'gram with a large backlog of images that highlight some great times of the past and the future is as bright as ever, so give a follow and stay tuned for plenty more to come.
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The fishing is just starting to really come around, so I hope to update you all again soon. Thanks for reading!

Happy Fishing, Humans.


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[Mooseman75]

Wow that is a very thought involved post and very fascinating. Thanks for sharing your adventures and especially love to see family involved.
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[k2muskie]

Very nice LOAH you rock and sharing yours and family adventures. Dang the kiddos are growing! Keep doing what you do enjoying. Thanks for posting. Nice to see real Utah adventures and having fun especially with family and friends !!! Thank you!
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[Kent]

Really nice. When I grow up I want to be like Loah.
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[Tarponjim]

Just first rate--as always. What did you call it? Rediculous!
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[Lonnie]

Man , I really enjoy your posts L
oa. Many are in the areas I grew up in,. But artificial knees and being legally Blind with no depth perception limits me to reading the adventures of others now. Thank you for sharing, You help me to relive lost memories of fishing and hiking those areas. Your stories bring a little joy to this old man.
Thank you
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[LOAH]

My pleasure! Thank you for reading.
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[LOAH]

[quote k2muskie]Dang the kiddos are growing! Keep doing what you do enjoying.[/quote]

They sure are! Thanks, K!
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[LOAH]

Thank you for reading.
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[LOAH]

Much thanks.
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[KOKANEE]

As usual I'm Speechless. Thanks for the wonderful post.
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[retch_sweeney]

We're gonna have to get James into some wipers and walleye soon, Loah!
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[LOAH]

Aw yeah!
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[LOAH]

Don't ever grow up![sly]
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[SkunkedAgain]

Glad to catch up with the springs adventures, they're always fun to read and better yet view... Thanks J
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[fish_fear_me2]

Fantastic pictures and narrative as always. I look forward to your posts just for the beautiful scenery if nothing else. Great Job!!!
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