First time out in 8 years

[mandm1516]

Got out on a river for the first time in 8 years (first time posting here too--been lurking for a couple of weeks). Last time I fished was a month before my oldest daughter was born--it was an expensive trip to the Provo because I stumbled while wading, fell in, tore open my knee on a rock (stitches plus follow up antibiotics for infection), dunked my cell phone, ripped my waders and didn't catch a fish.

Kids/business/life took over and I haven't been back--but got the bug a couple of weeks ago, repaired my waders, and went to the Weber today. My goals were pretty low--try to relearn how to cast and don't fall in.

I fished below Wanship--got there late at around 10am and fished the top mostly to get practice casting again. I waded upstream while fishing and didn't see a sign of fish--couple of other guys I talked to said it was real slow for them too. since it was so slow I decided to call it quits and walked back to the car, but decided to throw a couple of hoppers into a pool right next to where I parked. Second cast to the other side hooked a fish but didn't land it. Had probably 6-7 more hits to hoppers and ant patterns but my reflexes need more work than my casting. Overall it felt great to get back on the river--and mission accomplished, I was setting the fly where I wanted it to by the end, and I didn't fall it (but came real close once).

Thanks for all the info on this forum--it really helped get the juices flowing again.

Mike
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[whatyausin]

The good news in all this is that you finally got out and enjoyed your time on the river. I fished near Coalville on Friday and caught two fish. One fat rainbow and a nice whitefish. The bow took a sowbug and the whitefish an Irish Spring. The water seems to be running a bit higher than two weeks ago and I had a difficult wading to the holes I like to fish. Hope your next outing is very soon.
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[flygoddess]

Welcome to the forum mandm1516. And welcome back to the fly fishing.
Jump in daily and keep us up on the progress!
I need to get up to the WEBER .....ARGH!
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[mandm1516]

Thanks everyone. I was surprised at how much water was still flowing on the Weber Saturday. I took the kids (7, 5 and 4) to the Unitas on Sunday hoping the weather would hold long enough to hike and fish a little bit. We hiked to Wall Lake and back to Trial--rained for about 10 minutes and then was perfect. Fished just off the dam at Trial for a couple of hours--this was their first time fishing so we just used salmon eggs --they all caught fish so that was cool.

I bought a 7' 3 wt fly rod about a week ago (all reborn hobbies require new gear right?) to test the waters of local small streams like Millcreek so I pulled it out and caught 7 on top--still missed a lot more so reflexes still need some work.

Going to stay at the Red Canyon Lodge by Flaming Gorge this weekend--never been there but looking forward to it.

Mike
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[kickingback]

Millcreek, oh man. How do you fish it flygoddess? I thought BCC was difficult (and FUN!) but that is really a technical creek. However, the look you get from people when wading in that small pond is totally worth it [laugh].

caught 7 on top--still missed a lot more so reflexes still need some work.

I know what you mean. I'm still learning to fly fish and I miss more hook ups because the bite is so suprising .

What pattern were you using?

Looking forward to your future reports.
Kickingback

[mandm1516]

Hey KickingBack, okay I'll admit that I suck at remembering names of flies. The weather at Trial Lake was cool, a little rainy and a little windy at times so there wasn't a lot of bugs flying around. I still wanted to fish on top mostly to practice my casting and because it's more fun.
I tied on a #18 fly that was basically peacock wrapped around the hook with a white feather hackle (okay, just looked it up--A Renegade). It worked really well both sitting still and slowly stripping it back to me. I had probably 3-4 hits to every fish I caught. They use deceptive tactics up there-- there were a ton of albino trout that you could see from a mile away. They would catch my attention so I'm watching them thinking they're going to hit my fly when the camouflaged rainbows would come out of nowhere, hit it and disappear. Fun stuff.

Mike
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[flygoddess]

I was going to recommend a Renagade....right on. You know it is a snail imitation?
Royal Wulff and Griffith Gnat are good also.
Try putting a dropper off them like a WD40 or an RS2 even a Zebra.
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[mandm1516]

Nice--thanks for the tips. I'm getting back on the water in baby steps. Never loved fishing under the surface (probably because I've never been very good at it), but droppers are next on my list to experiment with. I think they would have worked really well on Trial since the fish were hitting the renegade pretty aggressively when stripped slowly back to me.

FlyGoddess, if you read this post again, I went up Millcreek yesterday to look around (didn't fish). I found the pool you mentioned in another thread past the restaurant by the outhouse on the right. It was almost dark so I couldn't get a great look but it seems to be pretty deep. Do you get in the water or fish from the boardwalk?

Mike
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