Hey guys, wanted to see if anyone had a chance to fish Diamond Fork after the fires last year. I was up there yesterday to check things out, and wondered if the fishing suffered from the fire.
Thanks!
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Maybe it was just me and not knowing the river well enough, but I never had any luck on Diamond Fork. Nothing but the occasional dink. But I have heard people talk about the river like its a great fishery. Always was
by that river.
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[quote richyd4u]Maybe it was just me and not knowing the river well enough, but I never had any luck on Diamond Fork. Nothing but the occasional dink. But I have heard people talk about the river like its a great fishery. Always was
by that river.[/quote]
Diamond fork for me has always been feast or famine. I've never caught anything huge but I've seen some large fish up there. I don't know if they're just finicky but some days are constant action and others are absolutely nothing. I've never had that kind of issue with the SF river through the valley.
I don't know how the fire is going to affect the fishing, but I'm assuming that there will be a whole lot more debris and muck than usual during the runoff and it will probably change the character of the the river for quite a while.
Matt
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I have only fished Diamond Fork a couple times and it hasn't been for a number of years, but the times I fished it were nothing short of impressive--lots of 18-22 inch footballs. But, we had to hike into a fairly remote part of the stream and avoid rattlesnakes (we saw at least 4 that first time I fished it). I haven't been back largely because I have been told that section isn't the same...
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Wormandbobber, I think you got lost. You don’t need to hike more than a couple minutes to access any stretch of Diamond Fork and rattlesnakes aren’t super common. Where the football shaped fish rainbows? Did you notice fresh mountain lion tracks leading up steep brushy sections of the
Canyon? Sounds like you hit one of the numbered Waters- which are tributaries. My record rattlesnake count is 8 on 1 outing in there. That’s more than all my combined trips on Diamond Fork (probably around a hundred trips). The mountain lions are always up above watching but you have to cover at least 4 miles to encounter more than 1 adult. A decade or more ago DWR did some electroshock sampling on 5th Water above all the hot springs. They came up with a 10 lb Brown. But I’m sure that was a total fluke[
].Now pull out a good map so you don’t make the mistake of wandering up into a mountain lion and rattlesnake infested puny little stream again [shocked].
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Ok, you got me. It wasn't actually Diamond Fork it was Sixth Water below the Strawberry Tunnel. This stretch of water was really really good probably because the water piped into the canyon was a lot like a spring creek that didn't freeze up in the winter. I have no idea what that section of stream is like now, but think it is probably not close to what it used to be. We fished it largely because my brother was working with the DWR out of the central region and Sixth Water was one of the places they were keeping some tabs on. If I remember right, we were catching rainbows, cutts, and browns and it seemed like every fish was big and there were lots of them. We hiked downstream towards Diamond Fork from a dirt road where the stream's origination--the pipes--could be accessed and then fished back upstream.
I hate snakes...I must have seen at least 10 that day but thankfully only 4 were rattlesnakes. No sign of lions that I was aware of.
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They closed off access at Strawberry tunnel probably because the old concrete structure that forms that big pool is decaying. The fact that some brilliant ATVer peeled out on a corner of loose gravel above the stream and sent his ATV plunging 60 ft into the steep walled canyon and stream below didn’t help. I don’t think he went over himself as only Police and Forrest Rangers were up there that day. I didn’t see any flesh and blood on the rocky edges or demolished atv. Also no ambulances showed up. Stupid but he was probably lucky. Far worse today- many more snakes, burnt to the ground and teaming with lions lurking above. If you can think of anything else to scare people off please add it in. Funny how some people are so afraid of rattlesnakes. I was talking to a guy about 67 a month ago. He was fishing with some supposed famous fly fishermen that I never heard of on a ranch of Ted Turner’s in New Mexico. He found himself almost on top of a big old rattler and turned away. The snake went to strike but the fangs hit the bottom of his boot. I never worry about them as I doubt I’ll get envenomated through my waders. I just make sure I see where my hands are going if bushwhacking. I do worry about my dogs a bit. The first time I encountered a rattler with my dogs I was hiking upto Rays Valley Rd after fishing. My lab mix, Molly was hiking parallel to me about 30 yds away. I looked over and there was a big rattler right next to her. I instinctively called her name. She then jump over it and the snake headed back down the slope we were coming up. Never made that mistake again of calling the dog with snakes between us. Both of my dogs did instinctively leave all snakes alone. Once I was bushwhacking in a big steep wash I encountered a huge rattlesnake up there. I had to climb out of the steep ravine and go around. My dogs knew the route are were ahead of me to go cool of in the stream. I imagine they both went climbed out and went around as well. Anyways rattlesnakes aren’t generally as deadly as the myth. If you get bit you just have to cancel your fishing and hike out and go to an Emergency Department. Deaths in the US are quite rare other than people who are intoxicated and they or their friends think rattlesnakes make a good pets.
Now those lions are pretty reliable there. Molly would give a growl ever time she smelt one up above to remind them whodidn’t have a pack for protection. On 6 th Water we only once had a lion come down after me and the dogs had a snack of smoke salmon- which was pretty routine for us. Molly returned upstream a bit where she had already been before the snack. She smelt the lion approaching. She barked, stumped her paws and charged into the edge were the Forrest started on the steep hillside.
She knew that was all she needed to do to chase off a scaredy-cat and abruptly stopped. We continue to have our snack below that spot where we most commonly encountered the lion. It had a big square rock, I called the kitchen table and I kept a stick there for Molly to retrieve in the big pool below. I started calling that lion Molly’s pet kitty because she had trained it to understand we were going to have our snack there and no cats were invited.
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