A Day Well Spent

I think this was probably my last uinta trip for the year. me and scott got to the end of the dirt road at about 8 this morning and it was nipply to say the least. freezing temp's, ice on the lakes and iced up guides are not what i had in mind before the day started. we fished the 3 lakes that are in the immediate area unfortunately having to skip some good water due to ice. we did manage to catch fish in all 3, none of any size but some really colorful fish. the weather cooperated and for late october at higher elevations it was quite nice.

Condit Dam Breached

Condit Dam & The White Salmon

Good to See

I got into a few fish in about the first 50 yards, landing only 1 of them and then nothing the rest of the short evening. i was happy to get this fish cause i rarely get into anything throwing streamers this time of year for some reason so i was happy. a nice brown of about 18". i got this fish right out of the gates so i had anticipated a great evening just to get shut out from there.

Down an Hour

Just went to check the river out to see if it cleared up any. it had cleared just a smidge, streamerable but barely. the down fall is is that the flows came up quite a bit, which meant that i couldn't cross the river but once or twice. there just about an hour, got 1 hit and caught this little guy. the weather was to nice not to try and fish.

Tiger Musky

Got an invite from corey to take up some space in his drift boat pursuing some predator type fish. it was a welcome change of pace from all the trout fishing i'm accustomed to. after an entire day of rotating between casting and manning the sticks i landed the only and my first tiger musky. i didn't notice him following my perch pattern until it was about 2 ft. behind my fly. i had given 2 quick strips then paused and when i paused he made his move and pounced on it. it was cool to see it all unravel. there was no need to wait to fell the tug before setting the hook. i saw his big ole mouth open up and as soon as i saw my fly get engulfed i set the hook. unfortunately tiger muskies, like pike, at least from my little experience with pike, don't have a whole lot of fight in them. it was still awesome to land such a sweet fish. we got a rough measurement of 36 inches.

Pre-Saturday Warm-up.....Hardly

Today was my friday off and since i didn't get a suspected call to head north i stayed pretty close to see if the fish would still be looking up. as i figured, with the nice weather the fish certainly were. i stuck with the usual purple haze. i rose quite a few fish and all though i didn't land anything of size it was still enjoyable. i did miss a couple of good fish though. i also fished one of my regular sections and as usual it didn't disappoint.

Muddy Waters

Flows on the chart looked a bit high but me and jerry decided to check it out anyway. i picked up jerry at 8:30 and off we went. when we got to the river the flows looked perfect but there was quite a bit of stain in the water, but it looked fishable. we parked, rigged up and made our walk to our starting point. the fishing started off slow but i did move 2 fish with a streamer. eventually i switched to a nymph rig and shortly after started tagging fish. sows were fishing well and eventually jerry started landing a few on sows as well. the holes were hit and miss, the fishing was less then stellar. i did pick up 1 more on a streamer. once we were done we drove over to check out another piece of water that the gauge was showing really high and it certainly was. we took a different path home so that we could see some more water. it looked perfect so might venture that way tommorrow.

Off the Grid

Off the Grid from RA Beattie on Vimeo.

Fall is for Brookies

Got the family up early to make the drive to brookie lake. it's always nice when i can some of the family on the water let alone all of them. we geared up and made the long hike to the lake. when we arrived the weather was calm, sunny and didn't see anything threatening above us. shortly after arriving at the lake the weather quickly changed. all of a sudden the wind picked up a bit and on the horizon it looked like snow. neither the kids or i wore any sweatshirts or coats cause of the weather looked like when we parked. michelle was the only one smart enough to wear a coat. austin wanted to go back and get something warm so while i went back to the jeep with him, michelle and jasmine stayed back so michelle could fish. she hadn't even hooked anything in the short time we were fishing but when me and austin got back to the girls michelle said she had caught a nice one and it was confirmed by the pics that jasmine had took. another impressive brook trout for michelle, i was pretty damn excited. as we worked our way around the lake michelle didn't catch as many as i but she caught the bigger and the more vibrant fish. mine were smaller and for the most part less colored up. the weather had blown over for a short period but then came another little storm that spilt a little rain on us. the kids were ready to go back so michelle went with them and i decided to fish my way towards the trail back to the jeep. i guess michelle was having to much fun catching the fish so she gave the keys to the kids and decided to make some more casts. after i caught up to her at the end of the lake she was landing another good fish and after a few more pics it swam into the deep. we threw at them for a few more minutes and closed the day with a brookie/grayling double, the first grayling of the day. i wish michelle would've caught it since she never has but at least she got to see one since she never had. it was an enjoyable day with the family. i did try and teach the kids how to casts but it's gonna take some time for them to figure it out.