Lake Mary Fishing Report 5/31/12

So, yesterday I had the honor of fishing with a legend, Randy Browning.  I coaxed him into going up to Lake Mary which is about a mile hike from the base of Brighton Ski Resort.  We left our houses at like 5:15am in hopes to get there and be fishing before the fish even knew what had hit them for the day.  We hiked up on the designated trail (yeah right, it was tough to see so we roughed it a little) and got to the lake around 6:45am.  Here is a video from the hike up.  I got a new GoPro head mounted camera so I was testing it out.

  

It sure was a beautiful morning!

When we got there, I took a few pics of the scenery.  It was cool to be up there so early, it was quite peaceful.

After we rested a bit, we rigged our rods up and hit the water.  There was still some ice on the lake but you could tell it was just a matter of time before it all came off.  We started throwing purple and black wooly buggers to try and catch some brook trout.  We kept those on for about an hour without a bite.  Randy switched over to a brown beadhead scud and caught about a 12 in brookie.  I was a couple hundred yards away from him so I didn't get a close look at it but anyone who knows what a brook trout looks like, they are beautiful fish.  I switched flies and put a couple diff rigs on to find out what they were eating on and could not find any luck.  Randy and I both searched the shoreline under rocks to see if we could see what the fish were eating but we did not see much.  Our best guess is that the fish in that lake eat minnows and do not focus a lot of their energy on bugs.  Who knows though...maybe it was just an off day.

Here are some good  basic flies you can check out:


Here is another video of my trying my GoPro out...

We had a lot of fun but we ended up only catching the one brookie.  We only fished for a couple of hours though too so maybe we should have stayed longer?  We both had to get to work anyways but what a way to start out the day?  Later that afternoon I spoke with the DWR about the fishing regulations and tried to get the inside scoop with that lake.  I called the DWR Springville office and talked to the guy that stocks Lake Mary, he said that they put 5k brookies in there every year around July 1st.  When they stock them they are 3 in long and they just fly them in.  He said they have not stocked lake trout for over 40 yrs!  Anything goes up there, there are no regulations.  He also said he saw a 9lb lake trout come out of there last year when they surveyed it.  Still going to try and dig deeper to find out how to catch them.
Jimmy Sorenson
5/31/12

Enterprise (Upper Res) 5-28-12

       Well this year Memorial day fell on a Monday and since I didn't have work, my wife and I wanted to do something fun. My wife said why don't we go up to Pine Valley and do a dutch oven dinner and you can fish. When I heard fish, I didn't have to think twice about that plan. I called my parents up to see if they wanted to come with us, and called Ken and Emily. They all thought it was a great idea, especially my mom, she wanted to fish because she didn't get to last week up at otter creek. That morning my dad took my brothers and I golfing 18 holes and we decided that maybe Enterprise would be better and not as crowded as Pine Valley. We through in all our gear as soon as we were done and headed up to Enterprise around 2. We got there about 330 and set up our shade and got the dutch ovens going. The beach wasn't way pretty but the view across the lake was really pretty.

It was about 4:00, I knew it probably wasn't the ideal time of the day to fish, but I decided to throw in my line and test my luck, first I tried a black bugger on a fly pole, Ken came over a few min later and through in his 4 year old daughters pole for her. He had heard the Mexicans next to us were catching some on a green power bait, so that's what he put on.. I fished for a little bit with no luck when Shaylie caught a pretty nice Rainbow. It wasn't huge but it wasn't a planter fish either. 

I decided I had better grab my other pole and put on some green power bait ha ha. So when I was getting that all set up, my mom was headed out with her fly pole and a green bugger. She was trying to get the rhythm down again of casting with a fly rod, she kept at it for a long time, after about an hour or so of trying to get that down again, she hooked a fish. I think everyone on the shore line knew as soon as she got one cuz she was squealing like a 6 year old on her first roller coaster ride ha. She kept yelling, "I GOT ONE, I GOT ONE, I GOT ONE, I GOT ONE!" haha. it was more fun to watch her catch a fish than anything else the whole trip! The only bad part was that the blasted fish got off before she could get it in to the shore. It looked like it could've been a nice one from the bending of the pole though.

Casting away

"I GOT ONE, I GOT ONE, I GOT ONE"

Well by this time I didn't know what I should do. I left my line out while we ate to see if anything would bite it. I think my dad caught a little tiny tiny fish on it and threw it back. So after dinner I decided if my mom got a bite on the fly rod then I could probably catch one too, and it would be more fun catching one on a fly plus it was starting to get a little later so maybe the fish would start getting more active. I put on a green bugger and about 3 or 4 casts out I got a bite. I couldn't tell if it was big or not, it was putting up a good little fight. I got it in and realized that I had caught a little small mouth Bass. For such a small little fish it was still a lot of fun to catch, and I was happy I didn't get skunked haha. 

                                                              The old man throwing the line
                                             

My fish was so puny I could fit my whole hand around it

This was the first bass that I've ever caught, so it was pretty fun. After I caught this little guy I thought things were picking up so I was getting excited, I got a few bites but didn't getting anything else the rest of the time we were there. Ken didn't bring his waders cuz he didn't think he'd be able to fish with taking care of his two kids, but couldn't resist throwing in the old fly line. With how far he throws it, not having waders didn't really effect him too much, ha. He got one on his line for a sec but it got off too.  So overall for a quick afternoon getaway it was a fun little trip, we left about 7:30 or 8. Everybody that fished at least had a fish one for a min, so it was pretty successful for the few hours we were there.

Otter Creek Utah Fishing Report 5/26/2012

3lbs 3oz 18 inches

We drove up to Koosharem Ut Friday afternoon to attend a family reunion. As I'm sure you noticed it was a very windy rainy weekend. Part of the family reunion activities was a fishing competition Sat morning. Nate brought his boat little fishing boat up and we both threw our electric trolling motors in so that we had a backup. Nate also brought his battery along with mine. The last thing we wanted was to get blown down the lake and then have to hike back.

My daughter Shaylie had been asking me for two weeks when the fishing competition was she was really excited to go. We woke up at 6am and headed from Koosharem down to Otter Creek. Grandpa T. said we could pick up some worms at the store but when we arrived we realized it didn't open until 8am. So we decided to throw some flat fish on and start trolling around. About 15 mins after we got on the lake it started blowing at least 30mph.

As you can see the conditions were not ideal.





My dad ended up catching the first one which was just a little guy maybe 14-15 inches. Nate had one on but then got off before he could get it in. That was the first of three for Nate that he caught but could just never get in, he was pretty ticked off.

After that I caught a smaller one about like the first one my dad caught. By this time the wind was blowing us down the like and we were just letting the wind take us. About a mile down the lake on the west side I ended up getting one on. I was only out maybe 25 feet and as soon as I hooked it I caught a glimpse of it at the surface and I said, "oh I think that one is a nice one". When I got it in it was about 2 or 3 times as big and fat as the other ones we were catching.

It was really fat I couldn't even get my puny little hand around it :)

When I gutted it I found these two crawdad claws and this minnow in its stomach kind of cool.

Well it was blowing so bad now that we decided we better head back. It was starting to rain and we had only been fishing for about an hour. We had 4 fish at this point Nate had caught 2 by now but they had both got off.

We started heading back but the wind was blowing so bad that our two electric motors were barley moving us up the lake and we didn't know if we were going to make it. We ended up beaching the boat for about 10 mins to see if it would die down and try to figure out what we should do. We decided to stay close to the shore and just keep heading into the wind really slow. The waves ended up splashing over the bow and getting me all wet. My daughter Shaylie was a good sport and just wrapped in her blanket and took a nap.

Shaylie sleeping in the front

Earlier that morning cuddled up next to the heater.

I took this video that I thought you would like too. We were going about 1mph trying to get back up the lake. Jimmy knows what this is like haha. We had this same experience at Navajo lake one time.

We finally made it back to the south side of the lake near the dock and decided to keep trolling around for a few mins. Nate caught a really nice fish probably near the same size as the one I caught above but it got off right at the boat. We had a good time and Im thinking about heading back up there to do a little fly fishing.
Here are a few more pics.

rain coming

Nate bringing his mighty ship in.

Kolob Reservoir Fly Fishing Report 5/19/2012

Nice little 15 inch bow, pic doesn't do justice on how pretty it was :)

Well we woke up Sat morning from our campsite over near Blue Springs Reservoir, ate some breakfast and headed down the road to Kolob Reservoir to do a little fishing. The night before we got our butts handed to us and since the wind wasn't blowing we were optimistic that we were going to be able to do better.

We ended up parking on the damn at the south end of the lake and fishing on the damn and near the spillway along the shore line to the east. Last year Jimmy slayed it here with an egg pattern and could see all the fish spawning in the gravel beds near the spillway.

When we first showed up we all started using black and green buggers with no luck. So then we tried pheasant tails, zebra midge, trout beads, egg patterns, and some gnat looking flies with no luck. We threw everything we could think of with no luck. Everyone around us was having the same luck. Kolob Reservoir opened up to bate fishing this week so there were people using power-bait and spinners and minnows all with no luck.

The shore was riddled with the skins of literally millions or even billions of little skins of some kind of gnat or mayfly hatch or something. I wish I were better and knowing the different kinds of hatches. One of the guys said that that a couple of days earlier when this hatch was taking place that the fish were almost boiling on top of the water eating like crazy. We were thinking that fish were just really full and had maybe gorged themselves on this hatch that had taken place a day or two earlier.

The other frustrating thing is that we could see the fish cruising the shore line back and forth all over in the rocks and gravel beds by the spillway and were throwing everything we could at them with no luck. We could see the fish and they would always just follow our fly and then turn away at the last second turning their noise up at what were trying to give them.

It was Niels first time fly fishing so Nate and I felt bad that he didn't catch anything and get to experience catching a fish on the fly. So Niels had stopped fishing with my Dad and Nate and I were still just trying to catch those stupid fish that we could see right in front of us like 6 feet away. I switch to a brown and black bugger for one last try and threw it out I started to strip it in and then Nate was like come look at all these fish so I stopped stripping and started walking up the shore line to where he was. While I was walking to him I felt my line start to grab, I thought it was the bottom but low and behold it was a fish. The only one any of us actually caught the whole weekend. I was happy and of course my Dad grabbed his rod and said you got anymore of those brown ones? and started fishing again for a few mins ha.

I also talked to my Friend Kenny who was fishing on the other side of the lake that caught a nice little cut about 17 inches. He caught it on a dry fly that looked similar to the hatch that had just taken place. But that is all he caught too. So fishing was really slow. Too many bugs, a full moon, wind, and the Fish Gods were all stacked against us, oh well can't complain about being out on the mountain and throwing some flies!

Kolob Reservoir Fishing Report 5/18/2012

Hendrickson Boys gearing up for some Fun!

This weekend was our wards fathers and sons outing which was conveniently held at Blue Springs Reservoir about 3 miles south of Kolob Reservoir. I felt luck because we were able to make it work out so that my Dad and 2 brothers were all able to go. I can't remember the last time we all had the opportunity to go camping and fishing with just the boys. Nate and I had been up to Kolob a couple of weeks ago and caught about 8 fish in a couple of hours and so we were really excited to get up there and start fishing.

We arrived at blue springs around 6pm set up our tent, ate some Kentucky fried, and then headed down the road to Kolob Reservoir. The temp was about 48 degrees when we pulled up and it was blowing like an Oklahoma twister in spring. We decided to make the best of it and fished for about 2 hours which with 4 guys fishing equals 8 hours of fishing with nothing. It was blowing so hard it was really hard to cast and it was also freaking cold. My left hand got so numb I could barley feel anything I guess I need some gloves. We pretty much through black and green buggers at them with no success.

Once it got dark we headed back to our camp and since it was right next to Blue Springs Reservoir, which is a private lake and it had all but pretty much stopped blowing we drove down to the boat ramp and decided to throw a couple flies in just to try it out. My Dad stayed in the truck and said as soon as you guys start catching them I will come help you. Well Nate got out and started casting trying his luck. On about the 3rd cast Fish ON! from what I saw it looked like a really nice fish but before he could land it, it got off. Well my Dad jumped out of the truck like he was getting ready to run the St George Marathon and started fishing thinking that we were all going to end the night catching some fish.

We fished for another 30 or 45 mins with nothing. I got a bite but that was it. So we ended the night at about 10:30pm and went to bed. Fishing was slow!

Joe's Valley Ut Fishing Report

I wanted to create a post and give a shout out to my cousin Bart Sorenson for the Tiger Muskie that he helped gill net at Joe's Valley Reservoir.  Those are some pretty nice fish Bart!  Makes me wanna get up to Joe's Valley and catch one, could you imagine the fight?  What if you caught one of those on your ice fishing pole?  Sheesh!  As always...supporting and representing the Carbon DinoCrackers, atta boy Bart
- Jimmy Sorenson

Weber River Utah Fishing Report 5/4/12

Well what can I say, last Friday May 4th, 2012 I decided to buzz up to my honey hole on the Weber river.  I didn't have a ton of time to fish so I was reluctant to go but boy was I glad I went!  There was a mad midge hatch going on, they were flying around everywhere!  I had been up there a week before that and they had started hatching but definitely not like they were on Friday.  I started fishing around 4:30 and fished for about 45 minutes and had not had a bite.  So, I decided to switch flies a bunch of times until I found the right one.  A couple minutes later I landed my first brown seen below.  I foul hooked him so he felt a lot bigger than he actually was. 

I moved upstream to a hole that we usually do really well at but did not see any activity so I moved upstream a little bit to a hole where I knew I would get some bites.  I started fishing it and had a few bites that I missed but on one particular cast I had 3 bites and i missed all three bites!  Frustrating!  I think it might have been a smaller fish in the whole because the next cast is when I landed the toad.  He must have been jealous of that smaller fish trying to get some dinner and decided to take it before the little one even tried again.  I though I hooked onto a log when I first felt him on the line.  He did not go crazy like some fish do so I also thought that he may have been a whitefish (because we sometimes catch them in various holes we fish).  I did not realize how big he really was until he rolled on the top of the water and let me tell you what, that is when my heart started pumping.  I knew it was going to be one of the bigger fish that I have caught on my fly rod.  Being the moron that I am I forgot to bring a net which made the fight even more interesting.  I had to basically work him until he was tired enough that I could pull him onto the rocks of the shore.  This fight lasted about 10 min and included a couple of attempts on his part to run downstream into some rapids.  Here is a picture of this beautiful fish.  It almost looks like he swallowed a minnow and he is still digesting it because of the little bump under his front fin.

Here he is up in the rocks next to my pole.  I wish someone could have been there to help me take pics, the pics from my phone do not do it justice.  I did the best I could to measure him up on my rod and when I got back to my gear I measured my rod with a tape measure and figured that he was close to 21 inches long and I am guessing he was anywhere from 4-5 lbs. 




Here he is as I was releasing him.  After I let go I tried to grab him again but his massive body was no match for my hand so I was not able to grab him again.  Why did I try and grab for him again?  I dunno, I guess I did not want to see him go so soon but I know he needed to get back in the water and breathe.

 

Here is a picture of the midge that I was fishing with.  Look close, you can tell how much the hook bent after I caught him!  I could not believe it, I had to bend it back after I let him, pretty crazy!

 

I ended up losing that fly anyways a couple of casts later so I had to try and find another midge that looked close to it.  I picked the closest thing I could and put it on and moved upstream some more to try my luck in some of the slower pockets up ahead.  The slower pockets were checked full of territorial browns as I caught 3 in back to back to back casts.  Crazy thing is, most of them were foul hooked again which leads me to believe that they must have had a personal vendetta against the fly that I was putting into their territory.

I headed back to my truck because it was getting late by then and I came across a hole that I had noticed was hopping with tons of surface activity.  So, I decided to put on a dry fly midge pattern.  I put on some Frog's Fanny to make it stay on top and it was awesome to see those fish fight after the fly once it hit the water.  I caught 3 little 10 inchers on that dry fly.

Then, after I put my fly rod away, I though, I want to try something...So I got my ice fishing pole out (i brought it with me in case I wanted to throw some spinners out) and I put on a Rapala.  I threw it in right where all those fish were feeding and on about the 3rd cast is when I landed this fish.  I also foul hooked him in the fin because i think he was trying to swat it out of the feeding grounds. 

It was a great day of fishing!  I was glad I went, definitely worth my time!  :)
-Jimmy Sorenson May 4th 2012

Kolob Reservoir Ut Fishing Report 5/4/2012

Nate and I headed up to Kolob Friday evening. Arrived around 5:30-6pm and fished until 9:30. Nate caught 3 and I caught 4. We each had 2 other fish on that got off and also some bites. We were using black buggers all night. I caught my 4 fish between 8:30 and 9:30. The only crappy thing is that it was windy.

First fish of the night Nates

Nice bow in the spawn

Almost 16 inches :)

I think this was a planter 2 of the ones I caught were like this.

This was a fun little trip up to Kolob, we got there about 5 or 530 or so, and started fishing but it was pretty windy and we weren't getting any bites after about an hour we decided to move to a spot that was less windy over by the dam. It was less windy but no luck. I decided to eat a snack real quick and when Ken joined me I was finishing and told him I was going to hurry and catch one while he was eating haha, sure enough within the the next 2 min I had one on my line, it felt like a big one, it made it's debute to the surface jumping out of the water so I could see it's massive body glistening in the sun, right when I got it about 5 feet from the shore it broke my fly completely off. Well it sure got our attention and Ken immediatly grabbed his pole and ran for the shore.
About 5 more minutes when by when I landed the spawning beauty that you can see above. It was really pretty with it's purple and pink colors. It was about 7 and then we didn't catch another one until about 8 or so. I had another bite and landed another bow. It was a little slow, at least for ken (haha) we decided to move back over to where we were before, it was still windy and getting dark. I landed another small trout and then when it was completely dark and there was no visibility of the indicator, the heavens opened and ken started slayin it like he was fightin a dragon. One right after another, he kept pulling them in. 
All in all it was a fun trip, we both caught some nice fish and I was able to try my new pole out.