Adults Only

[riverdog]

Hit the Uintas very late in the afternoon. Mirror Lake Highway has melted only to right above the turnoff for Murdoch Basin so might be a couple weeks before anyone can access any of the lakes without a snowmobile. Did get some stream fishing in down below despite the high water. Without mention where exactly I fished I mountain biked about 10 miles checking out lots of spots. While most of the Upper Provo is a raging torrent I was surprised how much fishable water there was such as tributaries, beaver dams, side channels and other calmer holes. The highlight of the trip actually came while biking. As I was going down a trail with my dog she suddenly jumped out of the way, barked and ran away from something. Something had it's rear in some brush on the edge of the trail. I think she actually bumped it with her nose. Wind was behind and to our side so she never smelled it. I saw something scramble through the brush the size of a raccoon. Then I made out 2 bear cubs climbing a pine tree with it's mother standing up on it's rear legs next to the tree. Mom was totally unconcerned as I biked by not more than 15 feet away. My dog actually loves to chase off bears normally so I sped up and called her so she wouldn't bother them. Certainly wasn't going to try to get a picture that close up. It was the only spot to get a clear view through the trees. I was only about 5 feet directly behind my dog. It would have certainly startled me if I had been in front and brushed the cub while going about 15 mph.
Any way back to fishing I got an hour of descent fishing in before a light rain (no thunder) started up and shut things off. Didn't even get a strike for the last 30 minutes so decided to call it a day. Caught a handful of stunted brookies and 3 nice cutts. The biggest cutt went 21 inches. Not the best picture as I took it with one hand as I was releasing it with my other hand. I wasn't able to see the viewfinder as I took it.
Back to the title, I labeled it adults only because the Upper Provo is a dangerous torrent. Don't even think about taking kids or anyone that isn't an experienced and strong wader with good judgement near it.
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[tkidder]

Wasn't it last year you were getting into rattle snakes? [shocked] Good to hear the bears are friendly![]

Thanks for the report
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[riverdog]

Hey I haven't run into a rattlesnake for 9 days[shocked] now. I'll take my chance with the bears any day. At least my dog usually chases them off. This was only the second time my dog ran from anything. The first was about 3 or 4 years ago about a half mile from this spot. We were fishing when I heard what sounded like an elephant stampeding. Looking up all of a sudden I saw a moose breaking through the willows on the elevated river bank. The dog and I were walking on gravel bed and the moose landed about 5 feet in front of where we would have been. Of course we turned around and hightailed it out of there as it jumped down. Funny thing was right after that I reflexly cast into the hole the moose ran through as I walked back up. I caught a stunted brookie out of it.
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[tkidder]

Some people have all the fun! Done any bushwacking this year?
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[riverdog]

Just bushwhacked down in Washington County a week and a half ago. My favorite small stream down there was some rainbows back in it thanks to higher flows until recently and Nevada stocking upstream last year. Think up further north still too much water to make it worth the effort.
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[flygoddess]

Great story, and very nice trout. All I manage out of that creek is 2"ers[]

Very well written, and give that dog a bone.
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[riverdog]

They key is to throw the big stuff so that all those annoying little brookies have trouble hooking themselves. I caught all the brookies on a size 10 fly. Wasn't big enough obviously, so I switch over to a size 8 and got the cutts after that. If you using anything smaller than that it isn't worth fishing as you have to stop and unhook the dinks almost every cast.
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[humpy]

cool stories. Sounds like a blast. can't wait to get camping and exploring myself. I've been hitting the lakes around, with limited success.
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