Going for the Gold

[EvilTyeDyeTwin]

It has been a yearly theme to get more species off the bucket list. Some spieces take years (like the Walleye and Artic Grayling), and this one, the Golden Trout was the agenda today. Hooked up with Bscardi early this morning. We were out of SLC by 6am. On the way up we told him the place of attack...Echo Lake.

Thankfully this guy has a serious 4x4 car....because that road is like a river bed, completely covered in huge boulders, tight spaces, and obsticals that would make my car stop dead in its tracks! After 7 miles of the "bumpiest road on earth" we arrived at our destination.




Of course the morning hatch was well under way. So TDT and I rigged up the fly rods and sure enough I landed 2 Brook Trout on a mosquito pattern. Then the hatch stopped...and the bugs came flying in!


We moved around the lake in search of the "golden" ticket we had traveled all this way for. While moving around I saw some fish rising so I waded out to a half sunken raft for some casting room. While observing my watery surroundings I found one....about 5 to 6 inches long just cruising along. Excited I threw my dry fly at him.....only to watch him run in fear!

So after many spending more wasted minutes than I would like to admit to, we moved to the inlet were TDT picked up a few Brookies on the Zebra Midge.


Me I kept the mosquito pattern on and got some more dry fly action from the brooks. We eventually met up with Bscardi who was slaying a brookie pond. I threw out my dry fly of choice and BAM...got 3 fish in 3 casts on the fly.


TDT ended up teaching that fly and bubble user Bscardi the ways of the fly rod while I knocked them dead on drys. After slaying the pond we hiked back to the car, and started the lovely drive back out. The clouds were very dramatic upon exiting the Murdock Basin.


Bscardi and I ended up catching 14 Brook Trout each, and TDT only got 3. While driving through Kamas......defeated in our goal of catching a golden......we stopped at Dicks Drive In. We got some burgers and reminesed about some of our favorite forum members


Back in SLC near my house, Bscardi started the transformation right in front of our eyes....he wanted to hit Fish Tech and get a fly rod, reel, line, leader, tippet, and flies! So $100 dollars later we got back in the car...and of course Bscardi said, "I want to go play with my new toy". So we took him to the Willow Pond where we knew that just about anyone could get some Bluegill. Sure enough he got some! Almost all were very small, with a few "Mantua Mediums" in the mix. Of course since it was his 1st fish on the fly rod, as well as his 1st bluegill....I was required to take a picture.

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[joethafoe]

Dang man the view of that lake is freaking gorgoeus!
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[TroutBumDave]

Nothing like popping your cherry on a 3" blue gill... [laugh]

Might as well hit the next extreme and get a 10lb carp and totally blow your mind. Shoot me a PM if you're interested.
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[Flyfishinglover]

Looks like you guys had some fun and later today and this weekend I'm Gona be looking for the Brookies to slay on the river and hope lily pads are out to slay some tiger trout for first time and my camping spot .

Warning you might see tons of dinky Brookies from the river that I caught lol.
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[JLG78]

Most excellent adventure fellas! You guy are awesome. Im so exited you really taking to the fly rod.
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[riverdog]

Believe it or not the road into Murdock Basin is in the best shape by far this year compared to anytime in the 12 years I've been going. My Subaru gets fairly easily from pavement in less than a half hour now. It can take some effort to acquire the golden touch. I tried over 2 years at least 5-6 times before getting my first one last year. Not sure if you read this link I posted in another post.
http://www.flyfisherman.com/2011/07/27/the-winds/ Really helpful to me picking up a handful of the little guys so far this year. Read the section on high country tactics. Hopefully that will make it more likely to catch one of them without all the trial and error it took me initially. I've had first hand reports of people catching goldens in 4 lakes and 2 streams in Murdock Basin so don't be afraid to explore other places up there.
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[TyeDyeTwins]

Thanks for the information.
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[Jazzperch1]

sweet brookies man, but no golden[] usually when you guys set out for a new species its done but i guess the goldens are more elusive, cause ive tried before with no luck either. nice pics of the scenery.
good report




tightlines
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[EvilTyeDyeTwin]

The time it takes depends on the species....the Grayling and Walleye took about a year. The Wiper took all summer. The Brookie took a season or two. The Northern Pike took months of research and thanks to some very helpful members (talking about you Tube Dude) the fish was finally scratched off the bucket list.

The only fish that was scratched off 1st try was the Kokanee Salmon, the Tiger Trout and the Tiger Muskie.

Those goldens are elusive and picky!

Each fish species typically requires a new way to fish for them....that adds to the fun of chasing them down! TDT and I love to learn new tactics, techniques and places to fish!
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[Jazzperch1]

ya i still need me a muskie or a pike, since ive never fished for em, also a wiper and a grayling. oh and the dang burbot i couldnt get last summer at the gorge.[mad] goldens are so cool lookin too.

tightlines
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[flygoddess]

[quote TroutBumDave]Nothing like popping your cherry on a 3" blue gill... [laugh]

Might as well hit the next extreme and get a 10lb carp and totally blow your mind. Shoot me a PM if you're interested.[/quote]


Man! are you seriously going there?
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[TroutBumDave]

I bet he could get one at UL - it's not really that hard. Besides, I've got a hunnt hole there where they sip caddis all day long. And if not, I just picked up a compound bow and some cheap arrows that will certainly do the trick.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Wish I could roll the odometer on my old body back a few years and join you guys on the trails. I used to cover a lot of miles in the Sierras of California and there were places the goldens were so thick they were stunted and a nuisance. A 10" brookie was a prize in some lakes. But in other lakes there were goldens up to 3#. Lovely.[/#0000ff]
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[Jazzperch1]

wow 3# goldens, your makin me drool TD.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]There were a couple of small deep lakes with no natural spawning that were occasionally planted by air. Survivors grew to larger sizes than in lakes where they overpopulated.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I once caught a 19" golden that was absolutely beautiful. Took some pics and wrapped the fish in a space blanket and snow to pack out...for the taxidermist. Heard some noise that night and shined the light on my pack. A marten (weasel family) had my fish in its mouth and boogied away from my camp. I was wrapped up in my sleeping bag and had no chance to follow and find the fish.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]But at least I had the pictures. Right? Wrong. It was a new camera and the 12 rolls of film I shot on that trip all turned out white. The shutter was frozen in the open position. But they did offer to replace the film.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Caught MANY goldens over 12" along several of the better streams. Anything over 10" is a trophy. But in that country you don't need to catch fish to be rewarded. The beauty everywhere hurts your eyes.[/#0000ff]
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[Jazzperch1]

hey all that matters is that you know you caught and has it in your hands. cool stuff man.



tightlines
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[a_bow_nut]

Have you guy thought about going up to the Wind River Mountains?

There are some huge goldens up that way.
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[Jazzperch1]

where is that? NVM i looked it up on google. some nice pics of fish out of there, and WY isnt too far. cool stuff
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[brookieguy1]

I hate to sound negative, but I don't feel you realize the sensitivity of this area you outed. There are probably less than 2-300 goldens in the state of Utah, and you may live to regret this indecent exposure.
There are a few people that have known about this rare resource for quite some time, and have been nice enough to show some pics but wise enough to leave out locations. Just sayin'
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[BigBuck3333]

are u just totaly out of your mind.these two yo yo work there buts of for the fish they get and give great reports that are fun to read.plus they have great pictures,ther isent many peapole on here that work as hard as these guys for fish and they love every minute of it.i dont think there will be a rush tommrow to get to echo lake,by the way it sounds its pretty hard to get to.[:p][:p]
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