Diamond Fork

[ProfessorChaos]

Anyone ever fish Diamond Fork River? Is it worth the trip and how wide/deep should I expect it to be?
[signature]

[LOAH]

It's worth fishing. The fish can be hard to trick sometimes, but other times the fishing can be really good.

The river is usually shallow enough to wade through in most spots.

The higher you go, the more cutthroat you'll run into. Lower = browns, mostly. Fun place, have a good time.
[signature]

[ProfessorChaos]

Awesome thanks for the info!
[signature]

[utahpunk]

I have fished Diamond Fork for years. It's one of my favorite places ever. There are some nice browns in the lower stretches, and I recall seeing some big cutts up closer to where it splits with 6th water.

I have had a lot of great trips below the campgrounds, as the area right around and in the campgrounds sees a fairly high amount of fishing pressure.

The stream itself is not wide by most standards (smaller than the Weeb or Provo), but there are areas where you will have to watch your footing when wading. Generally speaking its not too deep, and is easy enough to wade. I myself am 6'5" and have only really gotten up to about mid-thigh in the deepest areas. It does get deeper than that, but I don't wade in to those areas unless I am trying to retrieve a snagged spinner. During the hot summer months, the cool water feels really nice.

Best bet for fishing....for me anyway, has always been a Mepps #2 blade in plain silver or the red and white.

Good luck, enjoy, and let us know how things go.
[signature]

[ProfessorChaos]

I'm sorry if this is a dumb question, but I'm not very familiar with the area. Do you need 4 wheel drive to get up there right now?
[signature]

[utahpunk]

It's a paved road until you get up way past 6th water. You should be fine in the family sedan. There is a gate right at 6th water that may or may not be closed. I usually don't fish up that high until later in the year. Maybe someone else knows when/where they gate it off for the winter.
[signature]

[ProfessorChaos]

Cool, thank you. Yeah I have a car that isn't even kind of conducive to this part of my lifestyle- Lincoln MKZ. Not the best for fishing and hunting. I don't know why the hell I ever sold my jeep.
Thanks for the info, I'm thinking of heading towards the river around 2-3 this afternoon.
[signature]

[riverdog]

There is a gate at 3 Forks. It usually isn't open for another month. Depends partly on amount of snow left higher up and sometimes just when they get around to it even if clear. There are gates further up about another 5 miles both straight and to your right to Ray's Valley and First through Sixth Waters. They have never been open in the past 10 years this early and there is certainly a bunch of snow left anyway.
[signature]

[ProfessorChaos]

Well the verdict is in and I'm pretty impressed by Diamond Fork. Caught several browns and 2 DINKY cutts.
I will include some pictures. Also, I caught another silver brown trout. Is this common? I'd never caught one until this year. I caught the first one ice fishing at Rockport and the second one today.
And apparently I forgot how to work the camera on my phone so I'm sorry if some of the pics look upside down...
[signature]

[utahpunk]

Nice work! Those are the typical Diamond Browns. Looks like a Rapala was the lure of choice. I need to get down that direction soon. My dad has been asking me to start thinking about doing a fishing trip soon. He will be happy to know that Diamond Fork is producing.

As far as the silver brown....if it's what I think it is, its simply a brown that is not as vibrantly colored as others. I always thought it was genetic or related to the diet of that particular fish. I have caught a few of those silver browns in both Diamond Fork and up at Thistle over the years.
[signature]

[senkonate]

Nice!

How far up did you go?
[signature]

[ProfessorChaos]

Yeah about the silver color - I emailed the dwr guy when I caught the first one this year and he claimed it was a combination of environment, diet, and time of year. He says that they can lose their color quite easily during the winter...
As far as how far up I went, I hit just about every hole I could see from the road all the way until the gate blocked further travel. There was a parking lot and what appeared to be a trail head at that point. Sorry I'm just not familiar with the names of areas up there.
Also I saw easily 100 head of dear on and right by the road on the way out. I'm sure this is no surprise to the folks who travel there often, but just a heads up
[signature]

[LOAH]

Alright! Looks like you got some nice looking browns. Thick and healthy.

Congratulations.
[signature]

[riverdog]

That was the gate and parking lot at 3 Forks. Lots of deer and elk. The bald eagles come back each evening and roost in the big cottonwoods along the river as well. They usually take off for Canada and Alaska in another couple weeks. Quite a few turkeys, mtn lions plus an occasional black bear up there.The wolf pack that was spotted in Utah last winter and spring hung out about 4 miles above the locked gate into Ray's valley and another 4 miles up the Strawberry Ridge. Their foot prints took up about 4 times the area of my 50-60 lb dogs. Hope they moved along or I might start carrying a firearm fishing for the first time. Don't want my dogs to end up being a wolfie snack. The rattlers don't show up for another month on warm days. Probable more of a threat to dogs than the wolves. That area is crazy with wildlife.
[signature]

[ProfessorChaos]

I knew I heard turkeys! Also, I saw what appeared to be cat tracks- and big. I wasn't really off the beaten path so I just assumed it was misidentification on my part... but now I'm not so sure. Haha! And yeah I know/hope I'll never need it, but there's always a firearm with me when I'm out in the woods or whatever. You just never know. I'm more concerned with the crazy people than I am with a predator. I always here stories about someone getting robbed or much worse in these remote parking lots. You can bet if that happens to me there will be immediate justice. I really hope that never happens though.
[signature]

[riverdog]

My dogs pointed out a mountain lion not 100 yards up the trail from that parking lot by the locked gate a couple years ago in May. Crazy that people let their little kids run up the trail to the hot pots out of sight in there. The following week hunters nabbed that lion. Pretty sure we'd run into that same lion for years a couple miles upstream but the snowpack pushed the deer and hence the lion down. I've had spring days when I've run into 2 mtn lions 5 or more miles apart up there. Dogs always growl at them unless they're too close the dogs will charge them briefly. They don't pursue but sit back and watch the cat flee. Lot of fun for the dogs but wolves are another story.
[signature]

[utahpunk]

I have fished that area for years and have only ever seen deer, raccoon prints, a bald eagle/hawks, and a few elk. I have yet to see a mountain lion, bear, wolf, or turkey. I don't doubt they are there, I just haven't seen them. The closest I have ever come to a carnivore in that area, was a red tail fox, late in the fall a few years back.

Snakes....only ever spotted the occasional garter snake. Never encountered any rattlers, except for once over at Thistle.

Maybe I am just lucky enough not have ever had any issues. But I am also not a hunter, so I don't know what to look for.
[signature]

[doggonefishin]

RE"Snakes....only ever spotted the occasional garter snake. Never encountered any rattlers, except for once over at Thistle. "

The rattler hatch comes on at about 11:00 AM.

Lots of turkeys just above the campground areas.

Rumor is the woofs have moved on and the word from the DWR was that they were "hybrids". (I guess one died of lead poisoning and was tested)
[signature]

[riverdog]

Unless there's snow on the ground and you see the prints or you have dogs to point out the mountain lions you're not likely to see them. They're watching you unseen. The 2 Fridays in a row in May that we saw the lion 100 yds from the parking lot ( dead the second time) plenty of people had gone up and down the 5th Water hot pot trail unaware the lion was above watching them. The hunters ask me if I saw one of their hounds that was missing because they had seen someone fishing below and assumed it was me. That day I had just arrived after it was shot and I doubt the fishermen had a clue there was a lion above- at least until he heard the hounds giving chase.
If haven't seen the wolves but have ran into tracks several times last year. Here's a discussion from last year
http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gfo...ost=727294
My 4th attachment shows a 3 by 4 inch print consistent with a wolf. I saw a news report showing DWR personel in a spot that I recognized as being about 4 miles above the 3 Forks gate. They were calling wolves in an area where wolves had responded to calls before. Strangely enough the wolves didn't walk onto the open road next to their truck to the area DWR had played the wolf recordings[crazy].
[signature]

[riverdog]

Thanks for the info as I really hate to have to worry about the dogs and carrying a firearm to fish. If they're gone I'm not going to worry about it. I've only come face to face with a wolf once in Alaska and my dogs weren't with me so no big deal. Probable within 30 yds. It quickly ran off and only 2 of us in the group even saw it.
[signature]