HB80 Update.......please help!

This can potentially affect all/any state(s) so it could benefit everyone to help out if you can

Subject: HB-80: URGENT Request - contact your reps and senatorsURGENT! Please read! As many of you know, a new bill has been introduced to the Utah legislation a few weeks ago by Rep Lorie Fowlke. The bill, HB-80, is a bill that we (TU), our hired lobbyist, and other groups and individuals have been working with Lorie on for the last 6 months. The bill is in response to last year's HB-187 debacle which tried to severely change our recreational right, access and use of Utah's streams and rivers. Lorie's bill is a compromise bill that actually strengthens and supports the current law when it comes to accessing and using streams and rivers that pass over private stream beds. The time is now to start contacting your representatives and senators and asking them as their constituents, to please support HB-80. Tell them that Rep. Fowlke has gone through the proper processes to ensure a compromised bill for all interested parties. Over the last 6 months she has had several open public comment sessions at the capitol, met with members of TU, the DWR, Utah Anglers Coalition, the Farm Bureau, private land owners, etc, in order to come up with a fair and compromised bill. Rep Fowlke has done her due diligence in writing this bill. As a Utah Trout Unlimited leadership group, we fully support HB-80 and hope that you will take our lead and contact your representatives asap. Our grassroots movement will be key in getting HB-80 passed. Unfortunately, as good as a bill as it may be, we're not guaranteed that this bill will pass throught the house without a fight. We do have opposition. The Farm Bureau has been aggressively trashing Rep Fowlke's bill the last 3 days, saying the bill does not go far enough. Rep McGiff and Ferry have been working on their own bill that is written to overturn the Canatser supreme court ruling. There is obvious opposition that we face and we need your help. Please take 5 minutes of your time and look up your representative's contact info. Send them an email or give them a call. Be professional and polite in your correspondence and let them know that their constituents feel that HB-80 is important. Here's a few links to help you find your reps and senators as well as links to HB-80.
http://www.facebook.com/l/e51c0;le.utah.gov/http://www.facebook.com/l/e51c0;le.utah.gov/~2010/htmdoc/hbillhtm/HB0080.htmhttp://www.facebook.com/l/e51c0;le.utah.gov/GIS/findDistrict.jsphttp://www.facebook.com/l/e51c0;le.utah.gov/Documents/09roster.pdf


Tally from this week....$1,420.00!! Great job so far everyone!!!!The $200 @ $50 was a great idea, let hope it keeps going!!http://www.utahonthefly.com/forums/showthread.php?p=251664#post251664Jay's Facebook page and photo offer also brought in more donations, thanks J!!Although it sounds like a ton of cash, its only a small chunk.We still need over $12,000.00!! and we have about 30 days to do this.Please contact everyone you know, post on blogs, forums and Facebook.... spread the word!!!! We have a very tough road ahead of us, we really need all the help we can get.

Colorado......Kids

Last saturday i drove over to colorado to pay a visit to my kids. i am here for the week and leave again come saturday. i was hoping to get in some fishing while i was here and was really hoping to hit grape creek but that didn't pan out so i stayed close and hit the arkansas while the kids were in school. all week the weather was in the 50's and according to the local fly shop midge and a few baetis dries were fishing well on top, with plenty of risers to be found. well i got up this morning with high hopes of chucking streamers and throwing some dries in the spring like weather. as my luck would have it a storm came in last night and i woke up to snow and freezing temps. ain't that a bitch.....never seems to fail. i did throw some streamers and did some nymphing but couldn't even muster up a hit. other then the geese and the ducks there didn't seem to be any life on/in the river. didn't even see any of the usually abundant crawdads. hopefully next time i come to visit i will get to do somemore fishing

Lamson Customer Service

Last friday i sent in my velocity hard alox with $20 and today, 7 days later, i got my reel back. they changed the drag and one other piece so now i just need to get it back on the water and make sure it is good to go. as far as the customer service goes i was satisfied

Korkers Predator Boots...Kling-On Soles

I ordered a pair of these predators with the kling-on soles to have something other then my simms w/studded aquastealth soles. soemthing i could wear in a boat without gacking it all up. i have had korkers in the past and found them a lot lighter then my simms and weight was also a key factor in my decisions to buy another pair of korkers. i love my simms but wanted something different and had heard good things about the kling-on soles. these aslo come equipped with the boa lace system and it definately kicks ass, really simple to use. this is alsotheir first boot with a fixed sole, not interchangeable. my only knock on my previous korkers has been durability. they didn't seem nearly as durable as my simms but i am optimistic about these predators. i have only used them three times but have been extremely impressed with the soles. they are gripping really well, including in the snow, when usually i would slip. i have tested three river bottoms and have had no complaints as of yet. it's been a long time since i've had boots without cleats and don't feel i need them anymore. the real test for me now will be how long andhow much wear and tear they can withstand. only time will tell. all in all i am very impressed and i hope i continue to be impressed.

Another Garbage Day

Had MLK day off and didn't feel like a lengthy drive so i headed over a canyon. i walked the creek up to the dam and it was mostly walking. the flows have been dropped again just making the fishing to damn tough. today was a day, apparently, more for picture taking then fishing. there seems to be only a few select holes that are holding fish and they are mostly whitefish. i turned over a few rocks and snapped some shots. took a few scenery shots but got no pics of any fish. i caught one small cutt on a stonefly and that was it. the fishing sucked today, there is no other way to put it. i did have to stop in the road for 30-40 turkeys or so, that was cool to see. i did however enjoy taking different photos

The Green

Met up with pat and scott (RnF) in coalville at 4am so we could get to the river by 8. when we arrived there wasn't a soul around. the air was brisk but the wind was mellow. pat had read a report that most everything was working so i rigged up with a streamer on one rod and another rod was set up to swing soft hackles. it was a slow morning, actually a slow day, the fishing wasn't that good and the hatches were almost non-existant. we saw only a few risers and a few midges. a streamer didn't produce but swinging a small syl's midge and a standard soft hackle did. i was surprised that most of the fish caught were rainbows. nothing of size for any of us. scott did get one that was 'bout 17", but most fish were in the 14" range. the wind did eventually get roaring which made the day even colder. my patagonia waders did not have any leaks before the day started but during the course of the day i accrued to leaks in my left leg and one in my right. what a bunch of crap cause now both my waders have leaks. i will send these in instead of trying to fix them. we left the river about 5 and had dinner up at the lodge. pat for some reason bought dinner, i guess the person who catches the fewest fish buys. scott seemed like a cool dude and it was good to meet him.

Utah Recreational Water user Bill HB80.........

is released to the public. Thanks to chris, bryan and all the others for all they are doing to make shit happen. i know chris, especially has been putting in some major overtime for all of us waterway users. bryan sent this e-mail out the other day.



Representative Fowlke released the much anticipated Recreational water Bill today!!
The process of this Bill started right after the end of last years session. It involved input from all sides, the DWR and it included the public. This was an ongoing process that lasted though the late Fall. Although, not everyone got exactly what they wanted, all groups on both sides compromised and tried diligently to make this a win-win. Unfortunately, there is always one in the bunch....the FB will not be backing this. They are unwilling to compromise and were set on the language stating "wet-boot" rather than "ordinary high water mark".
HB 80 --> http://le.utah.gov/~2010/htmdoc/hbillhtm/HB0080.htm
PDF --> http://le.utah.gov/~2010/bills/hbillint/hb0080.pdf
Keep up the good work!
Bryan Gregson
www.utahwaterguardians.com
www.utahcutthroat.com

East of the Cascades

The other day my buddy john said that after a year or so he was ready to go fishing. 6:30 saturday morning came early. made the 3 hr. trek down the highway and when we arrived it was colder then a witches tit, but at least the wind wasn't blowing. we started a bit lower then normal to make sure we got a full days worth of fishing in. 3 or 4 bends up i was into my first 2 fish, the first i lost and while fighting the 2nd one and reeling in line my spool of my lamson velocity (hard alox) came off and dropped in the river. so the fish and the spool are heading downstream. i tried kicking my spool closer to shore but couldn't get it done in the current. so with me approaching a deep drop off quickly i had to reach down in the foot or so of freezing cold water to grab my spool. i put it in my pocket and had to strip the fish in. i would've been really bummed out if i lost the fish cause of my reel malfunction. this is the 4th time in a year that my spool has just randomly come off and today just like last week, with the cold temps., my drag gave out and my reel was free spooling. GARBAGE! i like this reel so i am going to send it in to lamson this week and see what they can do for me. john was having a frustrating time of it. he wasn't touching any fish and i could tell by his gestures that he was getting a bit annoyed. i had gotten into several fish and he just couldn't hook up, even with some of the same flies as i was using. we got to my favorite hole and i got into a vantage point to be able to spot for john. i was able to see adozen or so good looking fish milling around and john soon got tangleded up and had to re-rig so i grabbed my rod and gave it a whirl. a few casts later i had a nice 18"er in the net. while we were fishing there 4 other fly fisherman walked by. it looked like they were hoping to find MY hole unoccupied. first come first serve. i was bummed to see them cause i figured they would get to the next hole iwanted to fish before we did. we left that hole for some new water and new fish and was releaved to see those other guys walking back down so they never made it to the next hole i wanted to hit. we walked past a couple of duck hunters that were hidden in some brush, scared the shit out of me. up to the hole we went. this hole had produced some good fish the last couple of times i fished it. i could see them sitting on the bottom but no luck. i did hook one of them but had my flies busted off and john finally did manage a couple of fish but they were a bit on the smaller side for that river. he was still happy just to ge tthe shcnide off. there were somemore holes tohit but by this time our hands and feet were just to damn frozen to spend time in all the holes so we skipped a few and walked to just one more. while john was casting, my finger tips were so numb i had to stick them in my pants and cupmy balls to warm them babies up. it's amazing how well that works. as i was warming my hands up i saw a good fish sitting fairlyclose to shore so i suggested to john to target it. i spotted for john while he made some attempts at it. on what ended up be the home run cast i watched this fish move about 6 feet at his flies andas soon as i told john to set the hook, his indicator went down and the set was made. it ended up beeing johns biggest river fish on a fly rod at 21" even. a solid and beautiful buck. that fish made the day worth while for both of us. for john cause he hasn't had a whole lot of success and for me cause i was glad to see john finally get such a nice fish. today was also my maiden voyage for my new tires. i just got a pair of the new korkers predators with the kling on sole. i really like the boa system and the traction i had on the snow and in the water was great. did not slip once.

Bullet Head Salmon Fly

I don't know why i all of a sudden started thinking about the salmon fly hatch, but i did and now it has me starting to prepare for it. it might be cause i've never fished a salmon fly hatch.....who knows. i am not used to tying bullet heads and it shows but i was given some tips and will incorporate them as soon as i can. i will post the recipe tommorrow

East of Salt Lake

old homestead

lots of shelf ice

jet stream

sow's and prince's

pig sticker's and san juan's

endulged in some baetis

bronzed brown

mike's midge

Made my way east to check out the canyon. as was reorted to me a couple of weeks ago there is lots of shelf ice, but some open stretches could be found. i drove down the snow covered dirt road aways till i came acrossed a hole that had done well for me in the past. 1st cast brought a smaller brown (13"or so) to me. unfortunately nothing after that. with all the shelf ice and the nippy ass cold, since the sun hadn't reached inside the canyon yet, i bounced. i drove another 20 miles east getting pulled over in the process for 14mph over. got off with a warning, thank god. got back on the river by 10:30 and off at 2:30. the weather was nice, blue skies and absolutely no wind. the water had dropped some making the flows a little more desireable, at least to me. the usual honey holes did not offer up so much as a hooked fish, quite surprising. i did manage a few nice fish though so that made for an enjoyable day. these were the 1st fish of the year for me