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.

Lees Ferry Fishing Report 5/1/12

Jim Mendenhall, St George, UT

 

 

Lees Ferry Fishing Report
By: Terry Gunn
May 1, 2012
Recent Fish rating
Upriver: 7 to 8.5
Walk-In: 7 to 8.5
Spin-Fishing: 4 to 6
Key: 1 = Go fish somewhere else 10 = Rent a helicopter and get here now!
Today’s Weather: Sunny, Low 60 High 87
The spring weather has been near perfect with very few windy days.
Crowd Rating
Upriver: 2-3 No Crowds during the week & 4.5 on the weekends
Walk In: 1 Nobody here during the week & 4 to 6 on the weekends
Key: 1 = Sleep late and fish where you want. 10 = Very crowded, get up early
Fly Fishing Up-River.
What a difference a week can make! The bugs finally decided it was time to hatch and the midges and blackflies are making up for lost time. Over the past several days we have been seeing epic hatches throughout most of the river and the fish are moving out of the deeper water into the shallows to enjoy the feast. I spent today in the riffles and it was amazing how many fish were feeding on emerging midges below the surface. One way that you can always tell that the fish are feeding heavy is that they do not spook away from you. When the fish are feeding hard they will stay put and almost ignore the wading angler. I usually don’t like to talk numbers but the client I had today was a really good stick and we both agreed that he probably stuck 75 fish, 6 fish I measured at more than 18”, the largest was >20” and all the rest were in great shape and nice fish. I would guess that 25% of the fish were on dry flies and the rest were on nymphs. This was the best fishing day for me of the season and I think that it is a trend and I expect May to be great. I cannot begin to guarantee you that you will have a day like this here but I can assure you that it is more likely that you will have better fishing in the coming weeks than in this past March or April.  I have also seen more spawning fish the last few days than were around last month. Go figure…it is late but it looks like a few fish decided to spawn after all.