Daughter and I hit Diamond Fork for a couple hours on Friday and over half the day yesterday. Campground was crowded, scouts and such, so we just kept driving. Weather was beautiful, probably in the 70s both days. Friday the water was more mud colored, but on Saturday the color had changed a little bit--still pretty stained but not that red mud. I think it rained a bit overnight.
Anyway Friday we caught a couple of decent browns and Saturday I caught 4 SNIT browns and daughter caught quite a nice cutthroat.
So much for the rotenone treatment. In the time we've been fishing Diamond Fork we've each caught at total of one cutt, and everything else has been browns. Which I don't mind, we love eating trout of any species, but it seems like browns outcompete the cutts there by quite a bit.
Anyone know why?
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Because they are hands down a better fish than the cutts - heartier, more adaptable, more awesomer.
if the browns originate from germany, the cutts must come from france, because they just roll over and give up instead of fighting.
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just kidding! Kind of! But not really!
Way to score dude.
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lol Josh [
] Both of them are pretty yummy. We're trying to do our part to aid the native cutthroat fishery there by removing some of those browns. [angelic]
Tight lines to ya.
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RE"So much for the rotenone treatment. In the time we've been fishing Diamond Fork we've each caught at total of one cutt, and everything else has been browns. Which I don't mind, we love eating trout of any species, but it seems like browns outcompete the cutts there by quite a bit."
Diamond fork was only treated in the upper reaches. Based on your pictures, you were fishing in an area that was never treated and still has an abundance of browns. But, as you found out, some nice cutts show up in the lower reaches as well. Nice report.
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There is a fish barrier a few hundred yards above 3 Forks. The treatment and barrier was meant to keep it just Cutts above the barrier. I heard of one brown caught above it but I've never seen one. They have made the barrier a bit higher since then. Below the barrier it has always been predominately browns with maybe 10% cutts. There are rare sterile rainbow as well. Right now the bows are either 3 or more pounds or about 8-10 inches but nothing in between. If you want to catch cutts go between 3 Forks and the fish barrier as some have moved up getting ready to spawn. If you go above the fish barrier you need to go up many miles as those fish have also moved up getting ready to spawn and there isn't much to find right above it . Not sure if the gate above 3 Forks is open. It wasn't when I last fished it a couple weeks ago.
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The gate was still shut, so we didn't go up as far as Three Forks this time, but we have in the past. Looks like they treated from Three Forks upstream with the rotenone.
http://www.utahfishinginfo.com/news/2006...ndfork.php Guess even being washed downstream it didn't bother the browns too much. But then again, it was almost 6 years ago.
I'm becoming pretty fond of some of our local streams here. Too bad I won't be in the state much longer. [
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Thanks for that info, riverdog. That sure makes more sense with the browns. I've pulled some decent (14-15") browns out of there recently but looks like I need to go farther up to get cutts. I don't care either way though as long as the fish are biting [cool]
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I guess we were posting a reply at the same time. That cutt looks like a Bonneville Cutt to me. Before they stocked it with Bonnies in the upper reaches I could never identify the type of cutt I caught within that whole drainage. I did some research and found out they were a mix of several species- so I call them mutt cutts. Still a lot of mutt cutts in there. The barrier is also to keep them out of the upper reaches of Diamond Fork where the Bonnies are.
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RE" Guess even being washed downstream it didn't bother the browns too much."
What they did was is set up stations below the barrier that released a chemical called potassium permanganate that neutralized the rotenone as it came downstream. It was a pretty cool setup. The fish in the lower reaches were unaffected the entire time and fishing has been usual DF even right after the treatment.
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Yeah, you are probably right about the mutt cutts. What I do like though about DF is that it seems to me that more cutts in general are showing up in the lower reaches, where I usually go for after-work quickie trips. I have wondered if this is because they are being flushed out of 3 forks or for some other reason.
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That is cool, for sure. Thanks for sharing. I had no idea.
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I love Diamond Fork. It is one of my favorite spots to fish. There are some big browns in the lower reaches, and up near 3 forks you do get in to the cutts (even before the chemicals were put in).
MY dad and I are planning a trip down there in a few weeks to get our spring fishing on. Hopefully the water clears up a little, but with spring runoff getting ready to start...it may actually be turbid anywhere we go.
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I'm a little worried about the runoff this year, actually...it doesn't seem like there is much, or will be much. But it didn't seem to hurt the fishing any that there was a lot of staining in the water [
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Good luck to you and your dad! Let us know how you do.
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There isn't all that much snow left in the upper reaches of that drainage. I went up to 7000 ft 2 weeks ago and it was less snow than I encounter most years in mid April. Last year was a fluke and won't worry too much this year. On DF 18 inches of visibility can be good enough for great fishing in my experience.
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Ha too funny! German browns . . . I guess you gotta have those trout with "Freedom Fries", no?