2001 Highs and Lows

[Minivan]

The fishing highlight for me was spending a magical week in mid-October fishing for trophy brookies in the Boulder Mountains. I ended up catching about a half dozen brookies over 20".

The low point was the draining of Chesterfield Reservoir in Idaho. It will take a good 5 or six years for this fishery to comeback to its potential as a trophy lake.

[cardiac]

High points-fishing in the snow in June for Henrys Lake hogs. (no one on the water.)
Rediscovering a hellava fishery 20 minutes up the canyon.
Low points, broken tip on the LT, low water here and Idaho.

Mini-let's hit Daniels this year-need to rope Jason and drag him and a few others up there and fish it for a weekend.
Alan

[walksinwater]

My High point was fishing the Chattahoochee in Georgia during November. Three days of fishing and so many, many, many fish. Plus no crowds. A beautiful painting made of a Bream, a very colourful fish. It was the first time I caught one.

Low point. Not fishing the upper Provo during the July full moon.
This I really missed.

[Fred]

High points: 1) Fishing with the old man around Wyoming, the berry, the provo, and watching him have fun. 2) Watching my son reel in a couple rainbows from Jordanelle and laugh.

Low points: 1) seeing long lines at teh fish cleaning station at the berry and wondering where all the rainbows went. 2) Fishing on Sept. 11 and not finding solace in my favorite past time.

[Larry S.]

My high point was fishing with a friend and his wife for the first time last spring up on the Bear River(Black Canyon). Another high point was winning a custom built 3wt rod at our club banquet.

Low points...... Not being able to fish Beaver Creek(low water),......not buying an Idaho license(only fished up there once this year),.... going up to Yellowstone in September and not having the time to fish(my brothers fault),.... and not fishing at all since late September.

[mcgx2]

High Point - Being able to spend more time on the water than in any other year, and a lot of that with my sons when they visited. Last year I wasn't able to fish much because of business matters.

Low Point - The very low water in some of the smaller streams I like to fish.

[Jeff Brooks]

Great Topic!

High Points: My first day on Indian Creek bay at Strawberry last Spring just as the ice was beginning to open... I had my best day of the year. Taking a monster Cutt at Schofield. Fishing with Ed Kent Thanksgiving weekend. This great new web site!!!

Low Point: The midge hatch at Indian Creek in late May, the rest of the summer at the Berry was tough and slow.

JB

[Oak Crick]

My high point was spending four days fishing Slough Creek, Soda Butte Creek and the Lamar River in Yellowstone. Spending about fifty days on the water this year. The previous two years I was involved in Scouting and was not able to fish as much as usual.

No low point it was a great year.

[Scott Heemstra]

High points: Fishing over 100 days this last year, exploring a new state and all of its water, catching 14-20 in fish on the green in the spring, being setup with Boomer on the Berry to catch a fatty bow for the first time, catching a big steelhead on home MI waters..... etc

Low points: Not getting to fish Idaho, not getting to fish the Boulder Mts for brookies, fishing the miracle mile and grey reef area of the N Platte, not meeting my flyfishing dream women....etc

-Scott

[Light Cahill]

High: Getting to spend a combined 21 days of time on various rivers ad stillwaters all over Utah! The 16" smallmouth on Jordanelle, 20" brown on the Lower Provo and 15" Cutt on the Weber were all milemarkers for me as a 2-yr old fisherman.

Low: Wasting an entire day at East Canyon Reservoir. I even resorted to spinners, and then, when I had no hope - power bait. I was weak. Forgive me!

[Jason]

Highs: Catching my largest Cutthroat ever on a Utah stillwater (about 26 inches), discovering 4 new Utah waters to fish, spring trip to the Green with Sark, Mike and Cor, floating and fishing the Snake with my wife this summer, my late October trip on the Henry's Fork, and of course the UOTFly web site.

Lows: Not fishing as much as I did last year, the Green Drake hatch, and my fishing buddy Agassi passing away.

New Year Vows: Build my own fly rod, fish atleast 10 new rivers or lakes, fish in atleast 4 different states, improve my fly tying, and make UOTFly even better.

[Jason]

Well, there were a few days where it was just the opposite. But, I did gave you a couple of my secret flies but I guess you weren't using them. ;-) If that was one of your low points of the year then you probably had a pretty sweet year. FISH ON!

[cheech]

High point. Having a 40 fish day on the Green with chernobyl anys and sex midges. Rediscovering a small stream that my father in law fished as a boy. Fishing for a week on private bass ponds, and tying flies out of pop cans. Getting to know the fellas from this site: Scott, J.collier, Mike H, Mike, and Jason.

Low Point: Fishing the middle, catching a SWEET brown, and then snapping my only rod minutes later.

Cheech

[Señorfish]

High-Catching the Largest Trout I have ever caught (26" cut)
Thanks Mike H

1)Low-getting out fished by Mike H and having him rub it in non stop
LOL

2) Low-My wife busting my cover up lie when I left work early and went fishing. She was mad!

[Danny]

Highs: Building my own drift boat, building my first rod, getting my wife to hit the Salmon Fly Hatch with me on the Ogden, (first time she has ever gone fishing with me) taking the kids up to Pineview for a perch party through the ice, watching my dad land a beautiful Snake river cut as the first fish ever landed in my new boat.

Lows: Not making it home to Montana to fish during the Summer because the water was so low, the trailer on my new boat breaking and having to leave my boat on a dirt road 100 miles from home.

[jim m.]

My high of the year was fishing an incredible PMD hatch w/ Mike while watching a huge hail/wind storm roll through and drop a tree in the river just upstream of us. The fish never stopped rising the whole time and we didn't stop casting. An unbelievable afternoon of fishing for sure!!

My low has been sifting through meaningless ice fishing posts on the best FLY FISHING website in Utah.

[cardiac]

Cheech-What the hell is a sex midge?

[Mike]

The sex midge is basically a pattern that imitates 2 mating midge adults. Another name that I've seen around is the "double midge." Sometimes you'll hear "mating midge" but that normally seems to refer to mating cluster patterns like the griffiths gnat. I've seen double midges tied various ways, but basically it's a fairly sparse hook with some hackle at either end -- kind of like a renegade. Some patterns also have a bit of micro chenille tailing off the back of the hook. Obviously match whatever you put on the hook to the color of the midges you're attempting to imitate.

[MrMom]

High- Catching my personal biggest ever on the Strawberry, a 4 1/2 pound rainbow and six cuts on a boat with two bait fisherman who went fishless.

Low- Just last week broke my tip clearing ice from the guides on the lower Provo.

[Ouzel]

High - Lieing on open ground in the mountains the first week of August watching shooting stars until I fell asleep.

Low - Finding my #2wt broken in the back of the truck because I did not put it away properly.Dumb.

[HWG]

Highs: Fishing Lees Ferry three times last year, Watching my wife catch her first fish on the fly(19in. rainbow), Fishing the Eastern Sierras in July and catching more fish than I can remember.

Lows: Not making it home to Utah to fish the Provo and the Berry.

HWG

[Wyoming 2]

Highs: Seeing Minersville Reservoir return to its pre-drainage status as bonified trophy water (I caught several fish around 20 inches last spring on my first float tube trip back after it was poisoned). Also, every Boulder Mountain trip I took (even the one that was spent moving from one lake to the next just to find lots of winterkilled fish)! 3) The numerous trips to UM creek and the loads of tiger trout and cutthroat I caught on dries!

Lows: 1) The drought induced low-water levels on my favorite Wyoming stream (I won't mention the name here). 2) The 6 hour day I spent trying to catch a tiger musky on my fly rod, but went home with nothing but a sunburn! 3) Reaching the year 2000's best big brook trout producer from the Boulders in early spring to find loads of dead fish. 4) Watching the video my dad and older brother made from their 2 week long float excursion into the heart of Alaska's wilderness and the resulting fly fishermen's paradise of all species of salmon plus grayling and dolly varden realizing the whole time that I couldn't go.

[PowerBaitHeppy]

High: Watching my wife catch Yellowtail and win the "biggest fish on the boat" jackpot.


Low: only fishing Minnersville once this summer.

[ollie]

HIGHs: Green River cicada hatch, throwing big bugs. Taking my little bro up to some Uintah streams and catching 6" brookies all day. Starting to tie my own flies, and actually catching fish on them. Repairing two old fly rods (Wright & McGill and Shakespeare) that my grandfather has used for the past 40 years (those rods have seen more fish than I could ever dream of). As I was sanding down the cork handles, I went through multiple years of sweat, dirt, and fish scales; made me remember every fishing trip I spent with my grandpa.

LOWs: Finally repairing a rod tip I broke 3 years ago, just to bust the tip of a different rod a few weeks later. Trips to the Middle Provo in late summer. A trip up to a small spring creek in Wyoming to find that a prime native cuthroat stream was nearly dried up and all of the fish had conglomerated into a few small pools. I'm sure the pools had dried up a few weeks later. The minks and racoons probably had a hay-day.

[D-Bone]

High for me was catching my first trout on the green with my own flies in the spring.

Low was not fishing the boulder mountains this year....which is my favorite flyfishing destination by far.

All in all it was a great fishing year for me, despite the low water.

D-Bone

[shazerblaze]

Highs -- Catching 20+ (I lost count after 15) on the White River system in the Ozarks, swinging soft hackles. I hooked up on every 2nd or 3rd cast. Good stuff!
-- 60+ on the Manti, with my father and brother. We decided to head down one more time, and everybody did well -- browns and rainbows.

Lows -- a skunking on Huntington Reservoir, but, positive also, since my father picked up a nice tiger (15+ inches).

[Crosby]

The high was fishing almost the entire year in solitude.

The low was having nobody to talk to on the river.

[Mountainman]

High: Fishing in the Olympic mountains with my brother and catching too many silver salmon to count, bigger than previous years...and eating wild blackberries on the trail on the way home.

Low: The slow start to my fishing this year.
Low: Being outfished for the first time by my brother in law powerbait fisherman, and then it happened again and again...yet when I didn't go with him I caught many, many fish.

[Cam]

high:
Taking the wife to Alaska for 3 weeks to fish.
Watching her catch a HUGE sockeye on a 6wt. rod.
Watching her catch a 6lb Rainbow from a Drift boat.
Catching 100's of fish my-own-self!!

Low:
Getting to Alaska, taking the new waders out of the box and finding they leak like a seive!
Not getting out as much as I wanted.
There really wasn't a low.
-Cam

[RHeppy]

Highs:
11 Day float trip through Alaskas prestine wilderness, Flyfishing for 5 species of salmon, dolly varden, grayling and rainbow trout.

Lows:
Only able to spend 11 days fishing in Alaska!!!