Posts Tagged ‘fly’

Panguitch Lake Campout

by Dave Johnson

June 8 2009

This past week I went to our annual family campout at Panguitch Lake, Ut. We left Wednesday morning and set up camp and waited for everyone else. On Thursday Statton and I rode Bunker Creek Trail and we both crashed. For me the Fishing was Terrible and that may be an overstatement.

Panguitch Creek

On Thursday I was fishing the meadow East of White Bridge Campground and I had fish come to the surface about 15 times to eat my strike indicator. After the 15th time I was starting to lose my cool so I decided to play dirty to. I changed my fly to a little green ball that was made to look like an egg. I casted that out there and let it drag so it would come to the surface. Sure enough a fish grabbed my strike indicator and right after that one grabbed my fly. I literally pulled the fish on shore by setting the hook. Once I had looked at him I realized why, I just caught a Rainbow Trout about the size of my index finger.

Panguitch Creek

In the 5 days I spent at Panguitch I caught two Rainbows, a Brown Trout, almost ran into a deer on my Mountain bike, crashed on my mountain bike at 30 mph, and froze my ass off which made for a hell of a trip.

Panguitch Creek top meadow Panguitch Lake Dixie National Forest

Fly Fishing Santa Clara River.

by Dave Johnson

March 18 2009

I went up with my friend Statton and his dad early today to Baker Res. Just south of Central, Utah. The main river in and out of Baker Res. is the Santa Clara River. After Statton and I got tired of fishing the dam with no luck we decided to head down to where the river flows out of the dam. At the start it was really shallow and could clearly see there was no fish in it.

We had to hike about a mile downstream to get to some pools that had fish in it. The trout in this area spook really easy. It’s nearly impossible not to spook them just because the sun was on the wrong side. The bush and trees close in real fast and is hard to get in to cast a fly. I lost one fly and got hung up on branches countless times. We did all that for nothing because all three of us got skunked.

The next time I make it up there I’m going to try to fish it where the Santa Clara comes into Baker Res.

Fly fishing Leeds Creek

by Dave Johnson

March 1 2009

It was a great day to do some fishing. My friend and I went fishing at Leeds Creek. We got to one spot a few miles from the bridge. We got out to look at the creek a few hundred feet down. From the top it looks impossible to hike down let alone fish. So we said what the hell might as well try it. It was a very intense hike down. We remained watchful for snakes, cacti, and very loose rocks. When we finally made it to the bottom we pretty much had to crawl to the river, because of how thick the brush is by the river.

It really didn’t look like there was any fish in the area just because of how shallow and clear it was. When I casted in I tried the best I could to get my fly under the overhanging trees where it was deeper, but the water moves so fast that by the time my fly would sink it would be back in the shallow part in front of me. This would normally result in the fly getting stuck on the rocks.

I was using an old chewed up red BH Brassie that I made. I repeated this casting for a while and again it felt like my fly got stuck under the rocks so again I lifted up and the line took off. This is where my adrenalin kick in the only thing that was on my mind was hurry and land this fish before you lose him. When I got him in it was a gorges little Bonneville Cutthroat Trout With orange under its head.

Unfortunately I couldn’t get a picture of my first one because my phone was tucked away in my pack. But the second one I got was half the size of my first one. (in the picture above)

I was also using the Willy J. Exodus pack in the picture and did great for a day pack that needs to get into tight spots. so I’ll be posting a good review about that later.  By the time we got done we had hiked 200ft upstream. I caught two Trout and Statton caught one. If you want a real challenge and want to catch some natives. Then you have got to try Leeds Creek.

First monster fish of the year.

by Dave Johnson

February 2 2009
6lbrainbowbig.jpg

I wen’t fishing at the Lower Tawa Pond today, and cought this big rainbow. It’s kind of hard to judge scale in the photo, but  it was about 18″ 6 lbs.  This is how it happend. I showed up and just made a nice long cast out.  Joe, a friend of mine showed up just seconds after I did,  so I stood there  talking to him not paying any attention to my foam strike indicator.  Finally when I  did look back I couldn’t find it so I yanked on it thinking it was just a normal 1/2 to 1 pounder and that is when I saw it come right up to the surface.  I finaly caught a monster fish that i’ve been wanting for.  it took me a few minutes to land him  so I had Joe help hold the rod while I went down to grab him.  That is when I noticed I hooked him in the top of the mouth with my small size 18 BH Dark Green Brassie (homemade).

Okuma SLV 45 Reel

by Dave Johnson

January 26 2009

I’ve had the Okuma SLV 45 Reel for a little over two weeks now, and for the price I couldn’t imagine anything better. The Okuma SLV is constructed with a die cast Aluminum frame and spool and a 1-way roller bearing. This makes for a very light yet very strong reel. The one way bearing is my favorite part of this reel. It takes no effort to reel in the line also sparing you that annoying clicking sound that you get with some older reels. Going the other way provides an awesome adjustable drag system that can be fine tuned with just a twist of the knob. This happens to come in handy when you snag that monster fish and need to change the drag in a second.

Even with the large arbor design there is still some memory that remains on the end of my 5WT WF line but stays straight for the most part. After about 20 minutes my line is nice and straight again.

Now I know what you’re thinking, “only one way drag system?? What about us lefties.” Not to worry Okuma has provide instruction with your reel that tell you how to reverse the roller bearing. The instructions are simple to read and fallow, but plan on getting a little messy.

Pros

  • Aluminum
  • 1-way roller bearing
  • Large arbor spool
  • Strong Sturdy drag system

Cons

  • Extra spools cost about $35.00
  • Prone to scratches and scuffs

I would give the Okuma SLV 45 a 4 out of 5 SilverCG dudes, and for the grand price of $60 bucks from Sportsman’s Warehouse I couldn’t ask for anything better.

If you have any questions or comments please let me know and all get back you ASAP.

Fish On!
Dave Johnson.