08-20-2006, 10:50 PM
Went to the Uintas for a little backpacking and fishing action with my son and Brother in Law along the Island lake trail out of the Crystal lake trailhead.
Overall it was a good trip. The weather was good, and the fishing was o.k.
The main thing about the fishing in the backcountry right now is that on many lakes the fishing is often best during the middle of the day during the terrestrial "hatch". The problem is that they often become very selective at times. like on a couple of lakes where they ONLY wanted a brown winged ant and nothing else even though the lake was boiling with rises. Most of the time though a black beetle worked great. There were still the evening midge hatches that brought the fish up but the best action was from 12-6 p.m. when the updraft winds bring in the terrestrials.
One of the highlights was catching a Grayling at Marjorie. I only caught one but had many missed strikes probably due to the fact that their mouths were too small for my size 14 Elk Hair Caddis. By the way, I was fishing two flies with a small Midge dry as a trailer and they hit the Caddis every time.
As a side note....
Many people say that you can only catch fish in the Uintas on a dark fly smaller that size 16. That's a great general rule but I don't think the fish know it well because a size 14 or 12 or even 10 Caddis or Trude can be dynamite at times, especially when there are Army moths or the Caddis known as Traveling Sedges around. Fishing them with a slow but steady strip can bring explosive strikes.
The other noteworthy observation was that there were a ton of people out this last weekend. There were people in every nook and cranny up there and the parking lot looked like a small city when we left.
On the good side, the bugs weren't bad at all.
FM
[signature]
Overall it was a good trip. The weather was good, and the fishing was o.k.
The main thing about the fishing in the backcountry right now is that on many lakes the fishing is often best during the middle of the day during the terrestrial "hatch". The problem is that they often become very selective at times. like on a couple of lakes where they ONLY wanted a brown winged ant and nothing else even though the lake was boiling with rises. Most of the time though a black beetle worked great. There were still the evening midge hatches that brought the fish up but the best action was from 12-6 p.m. when the updraft winds bring in the terrestrials.
One of the highlights was catching a Grayling at Marjorie. I only caught one but had many missed strikes probably due to the fact that their mouths were too small for my size 14 Elk Hair Caddis. By the way, I was fishing two flies with a small Midge dry as a trailer and they hit the Caddis every time.
As a side note....
Many people say that you can only catch fish in the Uintas on a dark fly smaller that size 16. That's a great general rule but I don't think the fish know it well because a size 14 or 12 or even 10 Caddis or Trude can be dynamite at times, especially when there are Army moths or the Caddis known as Traveling Sedges around. Fishing them with a slow but steady strip can bring explosive strikes.
The other noteworthy observation was that there were a ton of people out this last weekend. There were people in every nook and cranny up there and the parking lot looked like a small city when we left.
On the good side, the bugs weren't bad at all.
FM
[signature]