One spectacular place was the just down river from the River Bridge on the Middle Provo River at sunrise streamer fishing.
Erin caught two nice 12-13" Browns that morning. One is featured below with an added special treat of a glimpse at, "The Boron".
Another spectacular location was the West Fork of the Duchesne River near Hanna, UT. At the dirt road that goes back to the river, we took the high fork, drove about 12 miles in and bush-whacked down to the river. Eric caught about 10 beautiful Colorado River Cutthroats from 6 to 10" and, true to form, Erin caught about six with two of them being 12-13" cuts all in about two hours. We were fishing hoppers both as dry flies and as drowned bugs. The river was stunningly beautiful.
We followed up the West Fork with a stop at the North Fork of the Duchesne River, also by Hanna, UT. It was equally as beautiful. The fishing was slow in the afternoon, but around 6 pm Eric caught the beautiful Brook Trout and a nice 10" Rainbow soft hackle fishing with a Partridge and Green. After somehow retrieving his fly from an overhead tree limb, Erin once again lands an amazing 12" Rainbow in the same spot where Eric was fishing. He is a big fish whisperer! Eric had some fun with him, and told him it was another Cutthroat since he already had his limit on cuts! His reaction was quite amusing!
Two other stops on this year's fishing trip were partial successes. One was Trial Lake along side Mirror Lake Highway. It was a scenic drive to get there. The lake would be a nice place to camp. The fishing was...interesting. We could see fish in the lake, but for nearly an hour we could not get them to take a lure. The fish would follow it in or watch it go by, but never take it. We realized these were less than stupid fish; they were stocked fish. What happened next is a matter of perspective. From Erin's perspective, Eric then stooped to an all-time low, and put on chartreuse, original scented PowerBait to catch pellet feed fish. From Eric's perspective, he relied on his skill as a fisherman, intel he gathered by reading fishing reports from, "Fisherman Bob catching fish on chartreuse, original scented PowerBait" and prowess to catch his and Erin's limit of Tiger Trout. The word "prowess" is used here, because even when Erin finally sunk to an all-time low and put on PowerBait, he missed the bite he had, and caught no fish! Please note at this point that 90% of all "fish stories" arise not out of an overdeveloped sense of size estimation, but as an enjoyable method of banter meant to bag on and needle one's fishing buddies!
The other partially successful stop was at the South Fork of the Ogden River up Highway 39. Erin & Eric started at the Magpie Campground. The river is accessible from this campground all the way up to roughly Camp Beaver Campground or perhaps Camp Red Cliff on the map below. Erin caught a nice Cutthroat within a few minutes of fishing. The rest of the day was poor fishing. There were a few hits on soft hackles, and Erin lost one fish. We could see fish in the river during the day, but the water was very clear and shallow. There was also the problem of heavy river traffic by campers and tubers all along the river. Finally, towards evening, Erin calls his shot at a deep, rocky hole, say, "Prepare to be amazed!" He then catches a 6" Brown on a some kind of a fly Eric had never seen before. Fitting, given the friendly banter of fishing buddies. The South Fork would be a good place to fish, just not when there are so many campers.
The true flop of the trip was the Ogden River itself. There was no known--by us or the DWR--public access to fish the river. Plus, it was very shallow, brush covered and heavily labeled with private property/no trespassing signs. On the upside, we did find a lovely hobo nest.
Finally, I posted below the top moments of this year's Annual Fishing Trip. While I typically don't like inside jokes, these are worth remembering, and they make for good stories for those who don't know the inside joke.
The top three "Mortensen Moments" on the this year's fishing trip:
1. "I think it is another cut" "NOOOOoooooooo!!!!! Hurry, let's put it in the car and go."
2. Mortensen scaling a mountain slope then stepping in and slipping on a giant mountain of cow dump. Response: "Sick"
3. "Prepare to be amazed"
Top Gourley moments.
1. "How do you manage to catch the biggest fish of the trip?" "I read a book on how to catch large fish."
2. "Prepare to be amazed!" "What! You have to be kidding me!"
3. "How do even manage to catch any fish? You don't follow the rules or proper techniques."
4. Powerbait? Enough said.
5. How did you manage to miss out on flag butt? Luuucky. I'm still struggling with that.
Make sure you ask Erin about the story behind--pun intended--number five! Classic!
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