Double Thanks

The day after Thanksgiving, I guided two different groups on The Mid and had two completely different experiences, both of which were incredible.
In the morning, I went out with the Greendog brothers down by Legacy Bridge. These brothers are adroit nymphing specialists, but wanted to throw streamers today. Unfortunately, Brent took a spill into the current while trying to retrieve his fly from a log trout, putting ice water into the bottom of his waders. He was a good sport as he fought through the cold shivers of wet jeans the rest of the morning, and went on to catch some nice fish. Hats off to his stick-to-it-iveness.

A nice 18" rainbow took an egg-sucking leach in about 4" of water. The real adventure was landing this thing. He went straight into the current and downstream through a thicket of partially submerged branches. We weren't hopeful that we would keep him, but upon doing some river pruning by removing some logs, he was still on the line. I was doing the pruning, Scott was tracing the line to the fish, and Brent had the rod. This was teamwork at it's finest. I couldn't have landed such a wiley guy with just 2 hands; thanks to Brent and Scott for their help. As you can see below, he was even wiley while trying to take a picture of him!

We calmed him down after some rock flopping to the point that he finally obliged for a nice pose with me, before sending this hard-fought beauty back to his homewaters.

In the afternoon, I met up with Mark and Nate up near the dam. A cold front passed through, literally dropping the temperature by at least 15 degrees from the morning. Casting was tough in the cross wind, fingers were getting chilblains in the intermittent snow, and the fish seemed languid. Still, Mark managed to catch a couple of browns. With the ambient light so gorgeous in the later afternoon, I felt Mark was at least deserving of a picture showing his nice casting loops in the evening slant.

All in all, it was a fantastic way to give thanks on the beautiful Middle Provo in some volatile fall weather.

Of Snows and BWOs

One of the best parts of fishing for me is the anticipation and preparation. All week long, monotonous cubicle work can be endured because I know what reward the weekend will bring: time for renewal, time for crisp air, time for my passion. Time to go fly-fishing. Man was not created or designed to sit in front of a computer screen for hours on end after all. So to wake up to a major snow storm on Saturday morning after planning all week long to be on the Middle Provo River certainly was a challenge to my core committment to the outing. Such weather tests not only my committment to, but also my love of, the sport. I like to think I am inured to the cold having grown up in Utah and spent a lot of winters dealing with temperature extreme's, but that doesn't necessarily make getting out of the door easy when it's snowing sideways. Fortunately, my nephew was not daunted by the snow storm, so I was able to feed off his excitement as we drove up Parley's. The waters of the Middle Provo were very windy and choppy in the Heber Valley, a nightmare for casting a fly. So we soon decided to go with the "heavy artiliery" of streamers to keep the casts forward and low.

Zak had never tried this technique before so I was eager to see if streamers could really "change his life as a fly-fisherman" as some purport, or at least put a dent in his head if he didn't pause long enough on the back cast. He slayed a nice brown trout rather deftly - maybe not life changing, but at least good for a few obnoxious yeehaws and chest bumps on river's edge.

Moving further upstream, we eventually came across a section of windless water. We were happy to see a few fish up on the surface and no competing crowds. The Mid can be packed on the weekend, but the cold weather drove away the weak-willed. Around 1 pm, the snows finally started coming down hard. Simultaneously, the fish really began to rise in droves to a size #20 BWO on the surface as well. The snow apparently sparked some mass feeding instinct in them. There were times when there were 20-30 fish rising all in tandem - no joking.

We had on 5 layers each so we managed to remain pretty warm.The fishing remained hot as well till about 4 pm, when the hatch finally died down and we were thoroughly wet. Certainly surreal to see so many fish coming up with so much snow falling down.

An Icon of The Wasatch

The Sundial is one of my favorites in the Wasatch Range. This peak belongs on postcards and calendars.

It has long been a family favorite, so we took the next generation of Hegewalds up to check it out: Christy and her two oldest, Tal and Max.Colors were all ablaze up Mill B South trail: red maples, golden aspens, yellow cottonwoods, and the whole spectrum for the scrub oak.

Then up at Lake Blanche/Lillian/Florence, we were gifted a rare site of a cow moose and her young son, a juvenile bull, drinking water from the lake. We could have sat and watched them all day long, as they didn't seem to mind us at all.

Why Stop Now?

Why compartmentalize the fun? Who says you have to ski on either liquid water or solid water, but not both? Why so rigid with the "ski" seasons? Who is making the rules anyways - man or the mountains? Since Winter 2010-2011 has been the gift that keeps on giving, Scottie, Johnny, and I decided to give a dawn patrol yet another run. (This season I have learned there is no such thing as the "final run", so let's just go with "another run.") On Thursday, July 14, 2011 we headed up LCC to see what snow coverage was still available and skiable. It was so nice meeting at 5 am in shorts and t-shirts in a warm summer breeze, rather than sub zero temps with 5 layers on trying to control the shivers.
We had to get as high as Alta to find some decent coverage on the slopes. Skiing the Main Chute of Mt. Baldy has been on my radar for a long time.

In mid-July there is no Alta Ski Patrol roping off that run. We skin-hiked it up to the summit, and after one false start down the east chute, finally found the chute thanks to Scottie leading us properly. We weren't the only one with this in mind- another fellow summer shredder had already put a boot step trail in the chute itself and was planning on 4 laps. We only had time for one lap, but found that the snow inside the chute was actually predictable, deep, slushy, and grippy. Unbelievable conditions for July 14.

The bottom iced up, but still unbelievable conditions for July 14, 2011.

Compartmentalize Utah's "ski" seasons at your own peril of missing out on amazing beauty and slushy good times.

Better Late Than...

One benefit of a delayed fishing season is the fact that I can organize the thoughts and pics of my past trips before moving forward to new ones. I realized I didn't ever report on a great trip up to Strawberry last November, just before ice-up. Those cutts are real opportunists. I've always preferred moving water to stationary water - rivers have always been my thing over lakes. But this trip almost had me thinking twice...

Bonus season

Johnny Lingo and I hit 10,240 Peak on Guardsman's backside in May. It felt like January in all regards. This season has been one to remember for years to come. It will be another 10 years till the next 700" ski season - mark my words. So if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.The rod will simply have to wait. Solid water is almost better than the liquid at times.

A blog worth following: No Mountain Too High for Kevin

No Mountain Too High: Day by Day: RENOVATION. As the blog recently received a major face lift, I first wanted to put a plug in for Kevin and Abby's blog. It is worth following. Kevin is a hero of mine and is taking on the challenge of cancer with incredible courage, optimism, and faith in God.