Joe's Valley Area

[LOAH]

My family and I decided to take a gas buster trip this week and Joe's was our primary target. With the weather getting nicer lately, I also wanted to have a look at the E-Loop lakes to check their status.

At the summit of Fairview Canyon, there's still plenty of snow; probably 4 feet covering most of the ground. Fairview Lakes were hard to distinguish from the surrounding snow-covered land and the roadside posts were still buried up to the orange flagpoles in places.



Huntington is still completely capped with no sign of wet spots, as expected. Cleveland was basically the same, with the only open water at the inlets, but only a few square feet, inches deep. The dam at Electric looked like this:



Bummer. It was a long shot, hoping for the slightest bit of fishable water, but it wasn't meant to be this time.

We stopped at a spot on the FLIES ONLY section of Huntington Creek and I scared off many a fish with a purple woolybugger. After switching to a tiny chironomid, my results were still the same, although I saw one take interest for a moment before turning away. It was still nice to give it a try. Gorgeous water in the upper reaches.

Fighting off the many urges to pull over, we made it down the canyon to find a small group of elk in a field:



(Some may find a bit of irony in that pic.)

Continuing forth, we enjoyed the scenery of Straight Canyon fiendishly anticipating the giant splake that awaited us.





Had to stop and check our picnic spot though. We planned on eating lunch there, later.





Our first glimpse of the lake led us to believe that we'd arrived to good conditions. There didn't appear to be much wind and the sun was shining brightly. Being the large valley that it is though, the conditions were much windier by the marina, where we had intended on fishing. Quite a difference.

The casting was tough, but we stuck it out for a little while. About an hour and a half later, we still hadn't felt any bites and decided to try the opposite side, where the wind wouldn't be such a factor. It was a good decision.





It's funny how a short drive to the other side can do that.

My first cast (minnow) lip-hooked a standard issue splake that was released after a snap of its maze.



Another bite came on a minnow shortly after the first, but apparently the hook never set. My minnow (a big one) was nearly bitten in half when I reeled it in.

My past trips to Joe's had often provided plenty of fish when I threw kastmasters, so I switched to that and quickly picked up another splake, slightly rounder than the first. It was also released.

My poor wife still hadn't had any action yet and I only pulled in two for the day's efforts. We thought it would be fun to explore some of the valley's other attractions. Knowing that we'd likely have to turn around because of snow drifts, we pressed on just to see the land.

We proceeded to take every route in each cardinal direction from Joe's over the next hour or so, just to see what they looked like. Hwy 29 was fine at first, but turned to mud and snow drifts in the usual spots. Knowing these drifts far too well, I wasn't surprised one bit and remembered my trips from '08, when it took until mid June for the roads to open up.







Miller Flat Road is gated only minutes up the road, as expected, but we saw plenty of deer at the campground when turning around.

Eventually we ended up back at the picnic spot in Straight Canyon, where we ate lunch and I picked on some little browns for awhile.





There's usually a fish in each hole that looks like it should have one, but I've never caught anything longer than a foot. Just being next to this water is worth the trip alone, as far as I'm concerned.



After we had our fill of that spot, we stopped further downstream in an area that has gotten pretty popular, judging by the number of cars parked along the road. The gigantic boulders draw the crowds, but none of those people seemed to be fishing, so I went down and picked up a small brown on my first cast:



Cool place.



Another swiped, but missed and that was all I was willing to stand around for while the crowd looked on. My family was also watching from the car and I didn't want to keep them waiting long.

A few more impulse-stops were in order for Huntington Creek while turned our direction toward home. Near the same area we'd seen a few elk before, many more had gathered for the easy greens:



A short distance up the canyon, I noticed a feeder creek that needed closer inspection. No fish, but it was worth the stop.


Several more stops were made along the creek’s many worthy pools and a few more browns came to hand, none of them very large.













Below the forks where the FLIES ONLY section starts, the trusty Blue Fox was sure to grab a taker or at least a strike wherever it seemed like a fish would be. Further up, I had to stop and try to get some action on the fly, but was unable to make the best of the strikes I missed. This would be a great place for me to hone my shoddy techniques.



After decorating a tree with my fly, it was time to move on. We stopped to check how the day’s warmth had affected the ice at E-Lake and it was still completely iced, although several slushy clear spots were noticed within boulder-tossing range. It was tempting to scramble down for a try at a beautiful cutthroat, but I found it best not to test the patience of my family, who had been very good all day about letting me fish the impulse stops. Next week might provide enough water along the dam to drop a line, if the warmer temps continue.

Our only other stop was at the summit, where we could see noticeable effects brought on by the heat of the day. Earlier, Fairview Lakes were totally covered in snow and hard to find, but throughout the day, the snow had mostly melted away from the ice. Pretty neat.

As a family, we marveled on while another spectacular sunset played out before us. It was a beautiful end to a beautiful day.





Happy Fishing, Humans.


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[SBW]

As always, great post! You just traveled some of my favorite places in the state of Utah.
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[PBH]

nice report. Did you happen to see a Nomad 5th wheel drive by?

We spent a few nights at Joe's, and decided to fight a head-wind on the drive back to Cedar City...
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[chickscanfish2]

Thanks for the update! I've been wondering if there were any signs of ice off at either Electric or Huntington. I'm getting a little bit anxious to catch some nice Electric cutt's!
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[lavaman]

Mr. LOAH!! Always a pleasure.

We were down near there this weekend as well, but a little further south (Millsite Res. in Ferron). The wind about blew us off water, so we didn't get to fish for long. Those canyons are sure neat country.

Great pics!
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[HookJaw_Brimhall]

That little creek that runs out of Joe's has some nice browns in it. Switch from that spinner to a big rapala and you will see what that little stream has to offer.
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[tlspyder13]

Thanks for the reports and pictures. I too have been wondering if there was any fishable water by the dam at Electric Lake.
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[MKP]

Well, I see that many folks enjoy my home waters. We just ask that you respect them. []
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[Lonnie]

I grew up in that country and It's still my favorite part of the state. I hate to admit it but I fished those waters as a little boy with my grand dad before joes valley existed, before the huntington power plant was there, before e-lake ,and before pavement was beyond the huntington rodeo grounds. fished seeley creek and lowery water under what is now joes valley, fished some great holes on huntington river under what is now e-lake. I wish I could go back and do it all again.
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[LOAH]

Sorry, PBH. I don't recall seeing your Nomad.

...My eyes were wandering around too much to pay attention to the road.[]

Hope you did well though.
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