Arrowhead & Airplane Lake

Looking at Old Hyndman left, Hyndman right

Arrowhead Lake looking at Hyndman Peak

The mouth on this one

Last week a buddy and I decided that we would go and backpack into a meadow and hit a few lakes that don't see many people whatsoever, maybe 20 people a year if that. The plan for the first day was to set up camp in the meadow and continue to head up to Arrowhead Lake, one lake that I haven't ever been to which is rare since I've been to most of all the lakes around Mackay. Anyway I was the first one to get to the lake so I set up my fly rod and on the first cast I hooked into a 16 inch cutty but after a short dance it got away, but that's alright because I knew it was going to be an awesome day of fishing. Once my friend got to the lake he set up his tenkara rod and wasted no time hooking into fish. It was funny to watch him hook into these 14 inch cuttys and loose them right at the bank, eventually he smartened up and as soon as they would get off he would drop his pole and jump on them like Smeagol from Lord of the Rings, it was quite the site. He had awesome day, he caught thirteen cuttys with his biggest one being 17 inches, I as well had a good day. I enjoyed watching these cuttys slam my four inch streamer, what a great day of streamer fishing.

Airplane Lake

Stream flowing into the lake

On the way up to Airplane

The next day we headed up to Airplane Lake, they name it Airplane because when you get the lake you wish you would have used an airplane to get there. Airplane Lake is known to hold huge rainbows ranging to 27 inches in size, and a handful of goldens if you are able to catch them. The fishing report is short, no big rainbows and I was only able to catch one golden around 12 inches. We were able to catch about five goldens with are hands out of the stream and put them back in the lake before the stream dried out. I think this is one lake that would be better to hit in the fall. Overall the reason people don't go to these lakes is because there hard to find, there's no trail to them and they are hard to get to. From the trailhead to the Arrowhead Lake is about 3 miles with an elevation gain of 2200 feet. Airplane Lake is about 3 miles with an elevation gain of 2400 feet. This lakes may be hard to get to but the views on the way up are one of a kind.

One of the fish we released

   

Gold in the stream

On the way out

Lake X

Lake X from Last Year

On top of Mt. Idaho

So last week was a great week for me, on Thursday I climbed Mt. Idaho which stands at an elevation of 12,065 feet, my second twelver, and then on Saturday my dad decided that we should go to a lake and I said why not. We went to lake x for obvious reasons: reason one it holds monster cuttys that no one can seem to catch but a select few, reason two it holds big goldens that will someday have the state record in a few years, I guarantee it.



Because its such a long drive to the trail-head I wanted to leave early so we would have plenty of time to fish because you need to put in the hours to receive the results. I think we got to the lake around nine o clock and started working the usual spots that produced fish for us the past years but it wasn't paying off. As I continued to work around the lake I finally caught my biggest golden just off a snow bank. The golden was 17 inches and fat but nothing close to the state record, and if it was a state record I would still release it for someone else to catch.

After eating lunch I continued working a rock where I wasn't having any luck catching a golden, he would come up and hit the fly but he wouldn't strike it enough for me to set the hook and when I did set the hook he would keep getting off. Anyways I was determined to catch this golden by the rock, then one cast changed everything. I casted a little closer to the shoreline a bit farther away from the rock but I stripped it in anyways, soon and behold a hugh shadow came out of no where and engulfed my fly. The recap of the next few seconds was me screaming like a little girl and trying to get this pig to the bank before it got away. In the end I countine to find more and more reasons to love this lake, I won't name this lake or tell you where it sits for obvious reasons but I will gladly take you there for an awesome day of fishing.    

Tiger Muskie

Above Carlson Lake

This was my fourth attempt at catching my first Tiger Muskie and the end result has never changed. But there always hope and I believe if this fish was so easy to catch it wouldn't even be worth messing with. We had a pretty early start on the day and after we wadered up we hit the water and saw a 30 inch tiger muskie buried in the reeds it was in the same spot we saw one hiding last year. After seeing that muskie it gave me hope but after about seven hours of fishing and a sore shoulder with only one follow that was around 35 inches it was time to hang it up and give it another try on a different day. At least we did see a couple of tiger muskie and snapped a cool picture of one.

St. George Trip

Razor Ridge Pond

Last week I was able to plan a trip with my family to St. George, Utah. We have always done this growing up but the trip started to fade away as family members have started their own families. Being the youngest and having three older sisters to look after me they pretty much planned the trip and all I had to do was show up and drive most of the way which was about a 9 hour drive.

Before the trip I had a few ideas of where I could get into fish but was only going to plan on fishing one day so I wanted to try and hit a few spots and not spend all my time on one place. A few of the spots in mind were; Quail Creek Reservoir, a few ponds scattered around town, Sand Hollow Lake and Baker Lake. With those spots in mind, I decided on fishing in the morning at Razor Ridge Pond (that was a couple of miles from where I was staying) and then in the afternoon hit up Quail Creek Reservoir when the water temps were warmer and the fish might be more active.

Fishing at Razor Ridge was what I had expected, loaded with people and not the prettiest looking fish but all in all it was built for town people looking for a fishing experience. I caught one Rainbow about 16 inches right off the bat but it was not a photo worthy fish. It was the only one I caught that day but the pond was still a good place to help my dad practice his double haul. Quail Creek was one fishery I was really excited about because I've heard that there is some huge bass that live there and a Utah State Recorded that proves it. I tried fishing last year there but didn't have any luck and this year wasn't any different. I even tried scouting out some different spots using Google Earths database. It was a bust, we didn't get any hits or didn't even see any bass but it was still worth a try and just a good time to get out and have a few adventures with the old man.

Quail Creek

Trying to rob some fish of their dignity

Night Fishing

Went out fishing last night for the second time, trying to get the feel of things. The first time I went out it was probably a month ago and got skunked. I went to a spot that I thought might hold some monsters, turns out it holds a beaver. So I didn’t get to do much fishing with him splashing around, marking his territory. Last night I avoided that hole and worked my way down to another spot that I’ve had some luck with in the past. Turns out that I ran into another beaver but he didn’t notice me until I casted right in front of him. Even with the beaver making a lot of noise I was able to get some bites that led into some fish. Not the monster’s that I was expecting but not bad for my second night out.