Fork of Diamonds

Utah Fishing Reports & Discussion Utah Fishing General
1

Today I found myself craving the thickness of a brown trout. So I made my way up to Diamond Fork. I have such a love/hate relationship with this river. Sometimes it’s like fishing in a hatchery, when others it is like fishing in a fish desert. I hoped lady Diamond would deal me a good hand today.

I arrived and fished hard for a good hour with nothing [frown] It’s hard when perfect looking holes don’t produce. Especially when they are one right after another. Eh oh well I couldn’t be too upset, the scenery and weather were perfect. I found myself so engaged with fishing and scenery that I forgot to take a couple pictures…bummer

Finally I felt something grab my spinner. “This is it” I thought…FISH ON…or so I thought. It was a pretty decent brown, but during the fight he came up, rolled, and spit my blue fox right back at me… :angry: Hours passed with no other sign of life so I moved down to where DF meets Soldier Creek ( or Spanish Fork River…whatever it is)

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It was more tough fishing, but I was determined to at least get something in hand before I called it a day. Hole after hole, run after run…desert. Finally I came across a deep slow moving hole. I tied on a new Gitzit spinner that I found at Sportsmans…not my go-to, but I’ve used everything else today. Bingo!

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Not the heftiest thing I’ve caught out of here, but I at least killed the skunk.

I continued to fish upriver, but it was more of the same. This had been a tough day on the water. No easy fish here :laughing: I decided to call it a day. As I was walking back to the car, I decided to try the same hole where I caught the fish.

First cast was a hard hit. Now I can’t be 100 percent certain, but I think I caught the same fish twice…I don’t think I’ve ever done that before. Maybe it wasn’t the same fish, but they were super similar.

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I gambled with Lady Diamond and she made me pay. She doesn’t give up her fish easily, but she was kind enough to give me some tugs [;)]

Life is short, live it well

2

You’ve described perfectly how that river fishes. Makes me feel good that I’m not the only one that gets teased by that stretch. I’ve probably been skunked there more than any other stream, but when it’s good it’s awesome.

3

:sunglasses:Hit the river last Friday and netted about 14-15 fish, all browns and 1 rainbow. I was fly fishing though so I think fish often prefer natural food supply imitation. I used to spinner fish and in my experience a black and gold Panther Martin has no equal on ANY river. Give it a try next time if your still tossing hardware.

4

With it being January, you might want to try something slower and right on the bottom. Back when I mostly used spinning gear for trout, I did well this time of year fishing little 2" curly tail grubs in pumpkin pepper. Also marabou jigs in black, brown or olive were effective as well. Try crawling one of these along the bottom in the pools. You could also try fishing a nymph on your spinning rod by using some small split shot. Just let it bounce along the bottom with the current. They didn’t exist back before I went purely fly fishing for trout, but I would bet a 2.5" or 3" Gulp minnow on a small jig head would be killer as well.

5

14-15 there in the winter is pretty good. Any hints for us that get a dose of humility with that river this time of year fly fishing? If not thanks for the post it gives me motivation to keep trying anyway.