TyeDye's BIG Adventure!

Utah Fishing Reports & Discussion Utah Fishing General
1

My twin and I went to the Tushar Mtn. Range in Beaver Utah for our annual week long backcountry ski trip. This time we added fishing to the agenda and extended our stay! As we were leaving Fish Tech on Thursday 2 blocks before the freeway the car died. After a short trip to Checker Auto we were on the road!

LITTLE RES. - We arrived at Beaver Canyon to get our camp set up right along the shore of Little Res. as we heard there are big browns in there. No less than 5 mins in we see a giant one cruising the shore! Screw setting up camp, we busted out the fishin rods! I saw thousands of minnows but I forgot my trap. Oh well they liked flies too. My twin caught 1 tiger trout and 1 rainbow trout. I caught 1 mini tiger trout and 10 minnows while using flies. My twin used a gold jakes and a worm bobber combo. While we set up the tent we found out that we forgot 2 of the 4 poles! Whoops! Then we saw that the camera lens was a bit damaged. We decided to check out the ski sites when more trouble arose. The car was smoking under the hood! Headed to NAPA in town where I was refused service due to my looks. Headed to Flying J and got some power steering fluid as it was low.

Evil’s Tiger Trout

We saw some Tushar Deer on the way into town

Upper Beaver River hydro dam #3 - We each lost a fish on this pretty section. Snag city though for both the fly guy and the spin rod guy! Then back at camp I broke my twins fly rod. OUCH!!!
Upper Beaver River Hydro Dam #3

DAY 2

In the morning we headed to AJ Automotive in town where they were more than friendly. They even gave us their cell number in case issues arose and offered to drive us where needed for our vacation! Outstanding people! We decided to hit City Creek Peak and see if Puffer Lake was ice off time. The peak was far but worthy. Great views and turns were had! We headed back into town where I spotted Adam Eakle at the Sinclair. We chatted and went our separate ways. That night we fished right from camp at Little Res. and had one interested fish in the minnows we dunked out there.

The City Creek Peak Trailhead

Skinning up to City Creek Peak

Me at the summit of City Creek Peak

Me skiing City Creek Peak

Little Reservoir from our camp

Day 3
Woke up early and hit Mt. Holly! Best mountain of the trip. After we had some time to kill so we hit a pizza place and discussed where to fish.

Me skinning up to Mount Holly

Me standing at the summit of Mount Holly

Me skiing down Mount Holly


Me returning to the car at the Trailhead with Mount Holly in the background

Merchant Valley Dam - My twin caught 7 rainbows and I caught 3 all on a worm/bobber combo. I tried fly fishing the river but got the skunk. The fishing was good until the beavers started to tail slap our bobbers.

A Beaver on the Beaver River

A Rainbow Trout that Evil Released

One of Evil’s Rainbow Trout

Day 4

Minersville - Headed to the lake around noon where an old man approached me. He gave me the secret fly of the day (zebra midge) and gave me a few lessons on new knots and techniques to catch some fish. Within minutes it was fish on! Sure enough the other fly anglers would ask what I was using and I get as far as the word “zebra” before they’d say “the old man right?” What a guy he was for getting us all on fish! I caught 7 rainbows before my fly was destroyed and my twin got 3 rainbows. He was using a pumpkin pepper jig baitless and a Rainbow Trout CD 9 Rapala. By afternoon we decided to check out below the dam.

Minersville Reservoir

Fighting a Rainbow Trout on a Fly Rod

A FAT Rainbow Trout next to the fly rod and reel

Below the Dam - My twin nailed a rainbow 1st cast (17.5) incher. He caught 2 bows on a Rainbow Trout CD 7 Rapala and even managed a 13 inch Smallmouth Bass. I caught 4 bows using my olive jumbo ju ju midge. In fact I caught my largest fish on the fly to date… a 19.5 inch rainbow!

Evil’s 17.5in Rainbow Trout

Evil’s 13in SMB

My biggest fish to date on the fly rod…a 19.5 inch Rainbow Trout

Me catching a Rainbow Trout on the fly rod with a Rainbow in the distance

Day 5

We hit Lake Peak and checked on Puffer Lake. Still wasn’t ice out yet. Arrived back to camp to see that my tent met up with a barbed wire fence and the floor of the tent was shredded.

At the trailhead with Lake Peak in the far background

Me skinning up to Lake Peak

Me at the summit of Lake Peak

Me skiing Lake Peak

Luckily there was a patch of snow all the way back to the car

Me skinning back to the car before the thunderstorms rolled in

Me at the edge of Puffer Lake near the car

After a big mountain there is nothing like the spoils of battle from the day before

Day 6

Minersville - We hit it again but I had to try and match that fly the best I could. I caught 1, 18.5 inch rainbow before we decided to bail as the wind was bad.

Me holding a 18.5 inch Rainbow Trout I got on the fly rod

While Evil was walking the shore he almost stepped on this snake

Below the dam - Too early in the afternoon and we got skunked for an hour.

Lower Beaver River - One of the highlights of the trip!!! Browns were everywhere! Every cast yielded a brown trout bite. What a treat! I caught 18 browns and 1 rainbow and my twin got 1 tiger trout and 9 browns. Thats 29 fish total. I was using a silver blue fox in size #1 and my twin was using a silver blade, grey body, and black fur in size 1/8th Roostertail. I got 3 bites to every 1 fish landed.

The Brown Trouts


Evil’s Tiger Trout

Me and one of my Brown Trout

My biggest Brown of the day

What a GREAT river

Below the dam - Hit it again for an hour. My twin landed 2 rainbows (1 at 19.5 inches the other at 17.5 inches) with a CD 7 Rainbow Trout Rapala and I got 4 rainbows on the fly rod using a olive jumbo ju ju midge.

Evil’s 17.5 inch Rainbow Trout

Evil’s 19.5 inch Rainbow Trout

The sunset below the dam

Day 7

Looked at the tushars and the snow was dismal and the weather looked even worse. The funds ran out so we hit the bank and turned in our coins. Just enough of those to get to Fish Lake.

Fish Lake - Arrived at noon to see just a few anglers. We NAILED THEM!!! I got 50 fish (3 splake and 47 rainbows) and my twin got 40 rainbows. 90 fish total! We stayed until 5pm. We used a blue fox silver in size #1 and Rebel crawdads in brown, yellow and orange colors. The fish eventually got smart and we had to use the variety of spinners to get a couple fish here and there. Even got a few on the oh so famous Tube Dude Marabous! Of interest the Rapala collection was ignored. The ice is 80% off the lake. I did get my largest splake yet at 18.25 inches long. What a great way to end a great trip!

Me and one of my MANY Rainbow Trout

One of Evil’s 16 inch milting Rainbow Trout

My FAT 18.25 inch Splake

Evil and his 17 inch Rainbow Trout

Fish Lake at the end of the day

2

That was epic! You hooked on something with a rainbow in the background,that gave me chills :slight_smile:I like that..Twin,at least you didn’t forget the lime and salt to go along with the feast.

boy you guys can eat! O’ I finally saw your twin!Awesome guys,I respect you no matter what others say about you.

3

Sounds like an excellent trip! Great report too. As far as NAPA refusing to serve you that is some BS, a national chain should know better these days. If i was you I’d email there national headquarters and i bet you get a gift certificate or something of the sort as an apology. Any ways gotta love those days where you get a fish on every cast though.

4

Wow! Great write-up of a great trip. Thanks for posting.

5

Sounds like an excellent trip! Great report too. As far as NAPA refusing to serve you that is some BS, a national chain should know better these days. If i was you I’d email there national headquarters and i bet you get a gift certificate or something of the sort as an apology. Any ways gotta love those days where you get a fish on every cast though.

I just might do that. It was a small utah town and well the residents either loved the hair or hated it and you could easily tell which.

The last few days we stayed at the KOA and the husband and wife hosts there were OUTSTANDING folks. They saw us tossing out our old tent and gave us a new one for free.

Same could be said for the AJ automotive place and and the Wells Fargo bank that counted out my coins to get to Fish Lake/home.

6

Way to go, guys! The Beaver Canyon is a nice area that will be hit with hordes of locals this summer. Where did you fish at Fish Lake? Cast into the weed bed? ( You may have supplied that and I just missed it.)
Frustrating folks down there, huh? I, too, would report it to at least the NAPA regional manager. The cool people were good to you, also; that’s comforting, you “long, haired, freaky people.” Be sure to mention them to their superiors. Good and bad need to be reported. It doesn’t take long to call or e-mail and you feel like a better person. "No good (or bad) deed goes unrewarded (or unpunished.) And the old guy and you two each made new friends, to boot. “Acts of random kindness.”

Lastly, don’t forget, you can never have to many sayings in one of these posts.

7

I was at the Twin Creeks area of Fish Lake. Sorry I forgot to add that part. We really wanted to hit puffer lake either ice off or ice fishing but that was just not to be this time. 3 Creeks res was ice free but the road wasn’t open. Acess to Kents is not possible as there is still ice and snow on the road.

8

WOW, how can this old fart compete with this??? Good on you guys.:slight_smile:

9

Speechless!

10

Nice LOVE the splaker…

TRH

11

That’s awesome! That whole area is one of my favorite places in the world. Anderson Meadow is where I learned how to fly fish. We spent a week there almost every summer in scouts. I figured out what a leech was up at puffers when they still had the cabin rentals there. The brookies in there were very large and loved fresh leeches and wolly buggers both.

My older brother was cured of fishing on puffers that same trip. He bought a really nice browning 7’ med-light spinning rod on my advice. First cast, the top section of the rod goes flying with the lure. No biggie; just reel it in. Then the spinner snags and he breaks the line in anger. Hasn’t fished once since then.

There were some very large cutthroats in one of the ponds by the cabins @ puffers. They hung out under the chunks of floating moss.

Minersville res was another destination, but I haven’t been back since they changed the regs on it. Gotta do that soon.

All in all, I think you two have way too much time on your hands. [sly]

Matt

12

Great stuff fellas. Very enjoyable read & great pics. Makes me miss Utah something fierce!! :sunglasses:

13

Fantastic trip guys! You really set the bar on how to report on a trip, excellent pics and details! It’ll be tough for me to meet that bar with walleye reports but I’ll give it a shot.
Looking forawrd to m,eeting you on the water one of these days. My favorite location during the summer is Starvation! Look me up some time and I’ll take you out with me for my fanantical walleye pursuit.

14

Fantastic trip guys! You really set the bar on how to report on a trip, excellent pics and details! It’ll be tough for me to meet that bar with walleye reports but I’ll give it a shot.
Looking forawrd to m,eeting you on the water one of these days. My favorite location during the summer is Starvation! Look me up some time and I’ll take you out with me for my fanantical walleye pursuit.

Beating my backcountry ice fishin adventures may be hard but do-able.

So eyes eh? I am game dude! PM sent.

15

Cool pics and post. 47 fish in one trip, how in the world do you keep track of every one, when i have a day like that i lose track after about 10, but of course usually after number 10 you must have a fish clicker i need to get on of those! Your hair is truly amazing it makes a bald dude like me truly jealous!! Beautiful fish and pics of the scenery.

16

Cool pics and post. 47 fish in one trip, how in the world do you keep track of every one, when i have a day like that i lose track after about 10, but of course usually after number 10 you must have a fish clicker i need to get on of those! Your hair is truly amazing it makes a bald dude like me truly jealous!! Beautiful fish and pics of the scenery.

156 fish to be exact. I count the number over and over in my head. Great memory. Besides as tiwns the comnpetition is very high! The earliest of the week totals was simple to just count the fish pics later. The totals got better though and we just didn’t take a pic of every fish by the end.

I am trying to beat 100 fish in a day, the best I have done was 69 at Strawberry back in March or so. I aways count, even been called a “numbers angler” on these forums.

17

That looked like an amazing trip. Gota be stocked for summer season XD. 2 trips to bear lake means watch out carps, mud catfish, perches, and mountain whitefish for eric is gona be there with tons of nummy worms and the secrete spot XD.

18

Ya 100 fish in a day would be pretty stellar, ive done it a few times on some jumbo perch, but not even close on any other species, i have had a couple 40ish fish days this spring of bass and walleye combined, it sure does spoil a guy im not gonna know what to do now that they stopped spawning. - guess ill have to go after the crappie, wipers and cats, maybe throw in a trolling adventure for some slimers if i get to desperate, trout can be fun to catch at times too i guess.

19

That looked like an amazing trip. Gota be stocked for summer season XD. 2 trips to bear lake means watch out carps, mud catfish, perches, and mountain whitefish for eric is gona be there with tons of nummy worms and the secrete spot XD.

No lakers or cutty’s huh? Bummer those are the real beasts of that awesome fishery! Bear Lake has a special spot in my heart. I was really hoping that the lake would have frozen up this year for some lake trout ice fishing.[frown]

Perch? Shows how much I know about the place. I never knew they were in there.

20

Ya I have never caught any type of trout ever at bear lake. Even last year was the first time I ever. Sight a fish at bear lake when I went there at least 6 times in my life or more. Ya I only caught one perch there before and it was like 8 in. So stocked for fishing this year hope my stop will be good this year.