It had been over 4 months since I last made it out, and finally the weather was warm and dry on my day off. I decided to see how The Blacksmith Fork was fishing. I tried some areas I haven't really fished, maybe I should have gone to my old standby stretches. I ended up with 8 browns[inline "brown small.JPG"] 2 whitefish [inline "whitey 3 small.JPG"][inline "whitey small.JPG"]one small cutthroat[inline "cutt small.JPG"] and missed or lost a few more.
Most of the fish took Copper John's, green and black being the most productive. I did fish a dry dropper in some of the pocket water and shallower runs and scored a brown on a Turk's. I also had one slowly rise up and grab the dry and then shake it like a dog. Somehow I missed him, but it was cool to see.
The browns were very acrobatic, and the whitefish were just being weird. I kept running into pods of them in very shallow, fast, clean bottomed stretches. There were some bwos coming off sporadically, and I did see a few risers. Overall it just felt good to be out in the warm sun enjoying nature again. To top it all off, on the way back to the car I ran into this critter: [inline "moose small.JPG"][inline "moose 2 small.JPG"]
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Nice day on the water! That looks like just about the right of stream for a fun day of wading. Are you starting to get some runoff in the streams now?
Hopefully the weather will continue to improve, and we will get lots of better days going now. The wind has been my biggest deterrent to getting out.
The moose is cool, but seems a little too close for comfort, unless you have a good telephoto lens!
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It is a nice little stream. I don't usually catch as many good sized fish as on The Logan, but it's not right on a highway either so it's more peaceful. The summer can be a pain because people pack every area with their trailers and leave them there all summer. It can be hard to find a spot to fish then. I mostly fish it spring and fall as a result. This time of year, if you find the right run you can have a ball catching 18-20" whitefish. I know they're not glamorous, but after a long winter they're pretty fun on my 3/4 wt.
As the day went on the water got more and more off color, but it was still fairly clear.
It looks like we'll have a lot of little storms coming by, but it's supposed to stay pretty warm. Thank goodness. I'm done with winter.
I was a little nervous about the moose, though that second picture shows how far away I was, I did use a telephoto on the close pic. I actually just got that camera in February and finally got the chance to try it out. I'm rather pleased.
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just punch the moose in the face, im sure it will all work out
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I'd hate to do that to the poor moose [sly]
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Nice pics man!
I love fishing blacksmith's, and I totally echo you on the campers. When you're wading through, they stare at you luke you're walking through THEIR backyard! And the tubers can get kind of shatter the serenity in a hurry.
one of my favorite places to fish a hopper!
josh
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I know, that always bugs me when they act that way. Isn't there a limit to how long you're allowed to camp in one spot? I think I'm going to do some exploring this summer to try and find some quieter trout streams in the area. Glad you like the pics, I'm anxious to get out and take some more if the weather will behave.
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Ever hit that creek coming out of porcupine? Its quiet with a lot of good undercuts and holes with some healthy browns. Haven't been there for.a.couple years, butif you hit it early it can be a lot of fun. Later in the season the water level drops from the farms taking it for irrigation.
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I've been meaning to give it a try, but I always end up passing on it because there isn't much water open to the public. Maybe I'll have to give it a try the next time I have a week day off with decent weather.
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Its one of those places where a stimulator on top with a like a pheasant tail bead head dropper will pull fish after fish from the holes all day.
if tue day is right, of course[
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Sounds good to me, that's pretty much my go to method for fishing streams around here. I think that will be next on my list of places to go.
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Is the blacksmith still a blue ribbon fishery?
Also i heard once that it was a little over populated and lots of the fish were stunted, has anyone heard that before or is it just he said she said bull crap.
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I think it's still considered a Blue Ribbon Fishery, but I would definitely agree that there are a lot of smaller fish in there. From what I've been told, it used to be very good, with many large fish back in the 80s, but people pretty much ruined it. It's still a nice little stream, but I wouldn't personally consider it anything remarkable.
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i caught my first fish there around the houses at hardware ranch. I grew up fishin around there and just love it. It brings back so many childhood memorys everytime i am in that canyon. [
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That's kind of like Hobble Creek and Diamond Fork down in Utah County for me. That's where I learned to fly fish. I haven't been there for several years, maybe I'll have to give them a try again this summer after school is done.
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I've always had a lot of fun at hobble creek. Nothing of any size, but they're hungry and purdy! Hobble creek is always one that's a whole lot easier to fish after a good spring flood. It sure gets.choked up with dead wood. And, its pretty much only good for a dry fly since most of it is so shallow.
Diamondfork was a hell of a lot more fun before they poisoned it. They took a perfectly good creek with decent browns and poisoned it to stock it with natives.
I fished it once since then, and everything was still under 10." They are probably getting bigger now, but nothing with shoulders.
Don't get me wrong, I love cutts, they just don't put up a good fight compared to a bow or a brown.
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There was a time when not far upstream from the Hobble Creek catch basin there were some log jams where you could nail good 16-20" browns at dusk. Then one day I went there and there were empty worm containers and fish guts all over and very few fish. Now it's all developed with the river trail and I'm sure it gets hammered.
Diamond Fork used to be rather fantastic. I had several 100+ days there with browns up to 22" as well as some big cutts and cuttbows. Early June up around the Sheep's Creek turnoff was amazing with golden stones, drakes and cicada all out.
My other favorite stream down there, Lower Fish Creek, was apparently drawn down and a lot of the fish were killed off. It was incredible as well. It makes me feel better that they did all that after I moved away, but it's still pretty
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fish creek still holds some suprises. i spooked a rather large brown when on of the dirt cliffs i was crawling on fell into the river with me on it
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That would have been quite the site [laugh] I'm glad to hear there are still some monsters in there. I never got any over say 5lbs, but I saw some browns that I thought were carp at first. Some of those summer nights, when the caddis were coming off in clouds, I seriously thought there was somebody throwing boulders into the river. Turns out they were just monster trout jumping. Maybe I'll have to make the trip down there someday and give it a look myself.
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Black smith fork is my altime faverite spot to fish caught my first fish on a fly pole good browns up there the love to catch them. here is a pic
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