Strawberry Res, LC Ranch, and Green TR

[skifishbum]

Yo Suit, thanks for the forum.
Might as well use it.
I hooked up with my dad Fri morning for a couple days fishing. Even though I knew it was going to dump and I would probably miss a shot at what could be the "last Good Pow day" in a lackluster season.
We started off at Strawbery Reservoir on 40 outside Heber/Daniels summit.
Temps were ~ frezzing and a strong ~20mph were gusting. Forgot to check the water temp.
Kessler stoicly enjoying the weather and waiting for another stick to fetch.

Strawberry has allways been a favorite spot of mine. more than a decade ago, moving to UT, I really didn't have many river fishing skills. My grandfather had taught me to flycast for gills and bass and I had done a bit of carp flyfishing back in Chitown. I would cram my old school belly boat into my grandfathers kick me down pontiac sunbird for a day of kickin the float tube around the "Berry".
Around this time the reservoir had been roatoned and closed for a couple years. The DWR decided to restock it with Bear Lake cutthroats and sterilized rainbows to keep the bows and cutties from interbreeeding. Not that there is anything bad about cutbows imo. They also stocked kokanees. These were the "good old days" Those rainbows grew fat fast and were drag screechingly mean.
They (DWR) encouraged people to keep these quality fish and release the cutties to spawn and propagate to create the hookem and cookem family friendly reservoir they desired. So after a season or two all the big rainbows ended up on the dinner table or freezer. The FDA shut down the rainbow stockings due to the method of sterilization. Even with a 4 fish limit it wasn't long before the trollers and icefisherman kept enough to start to put a hurt on the fishery. The BL cutties didn't quite eat as many chubs as they hoped
and their #'s returned rapidly. So a few seasons later they are now restocking rainbows and now have a slot limit on the cutties. The cutties while numerous and fairly easy to catch are a pretty lame fight.
Even the +20"s just do a few head shakes and allow themselves to be reeled in. Every one in a while you'll get a hard fighter, but for the most part pretty lame fighters.
end rant
So I really thought under these conditions we were in for a skunking.
The trolling motor (my arms & oars) had to work overtime to keep up with the whitecaps. We actually did pretty well in semi shelterd bays off Soldier Creek. They were taking wooly buggers and black marabou leeches. Caught a 1/2 dozen nice cutties and a small rainbow. Most fish took the fly in a slow troll mode as upposed to stripping.
cuttie shot

Around noonish it started to dump pretty hard, so we bailed and headed off to the next spot.
Thehttp://www.lcranch.com
Located in Altamont (outside Duschane), the ranch is about 2 1/2 hours outside SLC. This place is awesome, about a dozen ponds, Stocked w/ browns and Kamloops strains of rainbows. They also do guided elk and deer hunts. This occasion was an annuall get togather of a Park City fly club my dad belongs to. It was good seeing and sharing fishing stories w/ the 30 or so people there, some of who I had shared a AK fishing adventure with.
Nick and Ann Stevenson are awesome hosts. If you were looking for a good place to fish without roughing it, this would be the place.
We lauched the boat in Dog lake, at 23 acres the largest lake, and got our fish on. Most of the catching happened w/ a size 12 callibaetis dry w/ a 1-3'
chironomid or other midge pupa nymph as a dropper. The dropper caught fish on a 6-7 to 1 ratio to the dry.. Throwing buggers along drop offs was also productive. After a delicious dinner, comfortable nights sleep in the lodge, and a hearty breakfast . it was time to fish again. Kessler spent the night in the durango and the next morning on our walk we came acros an elk cut out.
He sees it and starts growling, barking, and generally freaking out over it till I could get him close enough to see it wasn't real.


We fished streamers untill the sun warmed the water enough to start the bugs hatching and fish rising. The guys in kick boats did well slow trolling buggers and leaches. Dog lake holds mostly rainbows and the fat football shaped fish fought tough.
.
This fish was either so happy to be caught he is orgasming or so pissed off he is pissing on.

In the afternoon the winds picked up and we hit some of the smaller sheltered lakes. It started to snow/sleet /rain and it made the catchng even better.

Everyone else bailed, but being a fishaholic I pressed on. This was rewarded by a +20" who took me into the backing and tried to school me.
A sweet Rainbow

Kessler, while well behaved in the boat, is a little overzealous in his desire to help land fish. He lost his doggie fishing gold star by chaging down the bank and turning my fav 5 wt. sage vps from a 4 piece to a 5 . Still a banner day of fishing in a super cool local.
We loaded up and drove to the Green. It had snowed about a foot outside Dutch John and snowed through the night. The next morning I was unable to find any guides willing to fight their hangovers and fish in the snow on there day off. I was set to just hike down from the dam and wade fish when I hooked up w/ some friends from Solitude Who are up there for the season. Melissa and her husband Ian were down for a float, so we launched the Hog and headed down river. The precip stopped and w/ no wind he midges and blue wings were coming offin earnest. It has been a long time since I have seen so many trout snouts coming up and gulping bugs. It took me a few whiffs to nail down the crucial dry fly timing on the set, but we started to git em good.
They were rising river wide moreso in the middle and along eddy lines with smaller fish along the bank. Ian was getting them w/ a 18 p-chute adams. I was getting most of mine off a small 20 sprout midge behind a larger ant pattern. They would eat the ant in faster water but not in the slower water.
Melissa , who is working as a river ranger this summer did a fkna sweet job behind the oars. Like my wife she hasno real desire to fish and was content to row. Man I love good lookin chicks who can row.
Melissa and Ian at secret riffle one of my favorite spots on the A, for fishin and stunning beauty.

We switched up and Ian got a few nymphing midge pupas and I threw the Sculpin on a sink tip for a few pigs.

It was one of those special river days that you hoped would not end.
We reached Little Hole around 7 having caught a good 20 fish each. I thought they were going to jack the flows on Mon. So I drove home in order to appease the spancer and assure my ability to make future fishing road trips. They didn't raise the flows, it seems they will wait until the Yampa peaks ~ the 10th and will probably only run 4600 cfs for a week.
All in all another sweet road trip for some fkna fine fishin.
Parting headed out of town scenic shot

Well there is another fishin Tr I apologize for the misspellings bad grammer and rambling writing style.
Thanks again for those buggers Tipp It was cool using a maggot kick down to catch fish. Someday your fam and the ice clan will all get togather for a river trip.

[schwerty]

Keep the UT TR's comin!!!!!

[truberski]

Beautiful! I hit the Berry a few times a year and it is always a nice change from the rivers. Chuck, duck, strip, repeat. I also get to the Green with a buddy once or twice a year and we always target a bad weather day or early/late in the season for some seclusion. Fishing is definitely getting good right now n Utah...

[72Twenty]

This shot is awesome.

[Lexi-Bell]

^^Great pic, I mean like Boner-city, for rizzles.^^

Killah TR, SFB!!!!

Maybe I'll have to leave Montucky to come fish UT!

Keep em comin.

[Lonnie]

Strawberry has allways been a favorite spot of mine. more than a decade ago, moving to UT, I really didn't have many river fishing skills. My grandfather had taught me to flycast for gills and bass and I had done a bit of carp flyfishing back in Chitown. I would cram my old school belly boat into my grandfathers kick me down pontiac sunbird for a day of kickin the float tube around the "Berry".
Around this time the reservoir had been roatoned and closed for a couple years. The DWR decided to restock it with Bear Lake cutthroats and sterilized rainbows to keep the bows and cutties from interbreeeding. Not that there is anything bad about cutbows imo. They also stocked kokanees. These were the "good old days" Those rainbows grew fat fast and were drag screechingly mean.
They (DWR) encouraged people to keep these quality fish and release the cutties to spawn and propagate to create the hookem and cookem family friendly reservoir they desired. So after a season or two all the big rainbows ended up on the dinner table or freezer. The FDA shut down the rainbow stockings due to the method of sterilization. Even with a 4 fish limit it wasn't long before the trollers and icefisherman kept enough to start to put a hurt on the fishery. The BL cutties didn't quite eat as many chubs as they hoped
and their #'s returned rapidly. So a few seasons later they are now restocking rainbows and now have a slot limit on the cutties. The cutties while numerous and fairly easy to catch are a pretty lame fight.
Even the +20"s just do a few head shakes and allow themselves to be reeled in. Every one in a while you'll get a hard fighter, but for the most part pretty lame fighters.
end rant

I understand your and lots of other peoples frustration with the lack of rainbows in the berry, but if you go and talk to the biologists (and I have. I spent a day picking fish and crayfish out of the gill nets last year for Trout Unlimited) you would realize that to keep strawberry viable as a fishery, that the current management plan in the only thing that really works. When the lake was poisoned back in 1990, chubs were over 90% of the fish biomass in the lake, and the treatment used 1/3 of the worlds supply of rotenone. That's insane. The only way that the chub population can be controlled is biologically, and that's with bear lake cutts. The problem is, rainbows aren't piscivorous, that is they don't really eat fish predominately. BLCT do. That's why the DWR chose them for this job. But that wasn't enough. They also have to be of certain size to really put the brakes on the chub population and that's why we have the 15-22" slot up there right now. Just as a little background, I got my masters in Population Genetics and Ecology and wrote my masters thesis on brook trout genetics.

There's a lot more to it, but here's a good post from over at utahonthefly that sums up the situation nicely.

http://www.utahonthefly.com/forums/s...8&postcount=14

Lots of folks would love to see the glory days of big rainbows in strawberry, but that management strategy got us in trouble in the past and the UTDWR has learned from those "mistakes". I think that they are working hard and looking for a place to make a Trophy Rainbow fishery in the state. Have you fished Minersville lately?

[truberski]

I understand your and lots of other peoples frustration with the lack of rainbows in the berry, but if you go and talk to the biologists (and I have. I spent a day picking fish and crayfish out of the gill nets last year for Trout Unlimited) you would realize that to keep strawberry viable as a fishery, that the current management plan in the only thing that really works. When the lake was poisoned back in 1990, chubs were over 90% of the fish biomass in the lake, and the treatment used 1/3 of the worlds supply of rotenone. That's insane. The only way that the chub population can be controlled is biologically, and that's with bear lake cutts. The problem is, rainbows aren't piscivorous, that is they don't really eat fish predominately. BLCT do. That's why the DWR chose them for this job. But that wasn't enough. They also have to be of certain size to really put the brakes on the chub population and that's why we have the 15-22" slot up there right now. Just as a little background, I got my masters in Population Genetics and Ecology and wrote my masters thesis on brook trout genetics.

There's a lot more to it, but here's a good post from over at utahonthefly that sums up the situation nicely.

http://www.utahonthefly.com/forums/s...8&postcount=14

Lots of folks would love to see the glory days of big rainbows in strawberry, but that management strategy got us in trouble in the past and the UTDWR has learned from those "mistakes". I think that they are working hard and looking for a place to make a Trophy Rainbow fishery in the state. Have you fished Minersville lately?

You answered my biggest question on the Berry. On a good day you catch lots of cutts and they are all identical (+/- a few inches). Other stillwater fishing I have done seems dominated by Rainbows which I have seen very few of on the Berry. Too bad Browns would not be a good match since they seem to be the most consistent streamer chasers.

[skifishbum]

Thanks for the link. I think they (UTDWR) does a good job. I am just a skiing fishin bum so I don't have a fisheries education, I just think it was a bit far fetched to think a strain of cutties from a fairly barren Bear Lake were going to eat chubs in a reservoir with as much diverse and more easily attainable food supply as Strawberry. I never understood the need for sterilized rainbows. What's so bad about cuttbows. The ones in Henry's lake kick ass. Or why not stock smallies. It seems to be working well in Jordanell. I realize what I would like to see in Strawberry and what a lot of other people want differs. I think the slot limits should have been put in place from the get go.
If that encourages the people who desire to fill their freezers to go to Scofield or East Canyon fine w/ me. I never got into ice fishing, seems like a waste of potential skiing time , so if they were to close it, that wouldn't bother me either. Never been to Minersville. It's on the hit list. Let me know if your headed down that way sometime.

[Lonnie]

I never understood the need for sterilized rainbows. What's so bad about cuttbows.

SKFB,

The problem with the diploid (2n) rainbows is that down stream of the Dam is where a lot of restoration work for the Colorado River Cutts is taking place. There are several pure strains down there and the DRW is worried about hybridization if some of the rainbows were to escape through the dam. Also a big part of the Strawberry Restoration plan calls for the cutts to have a certain percentage of their population come from natural reproduction. When the BLC start hybridizing with the rainbows, that takes away from that. Add those two things together and you get triploid (3N) rainbows. On the plus side for the triploid rainbows, they generally grow faster and are bigger than their 2n counterparts.

Smallies are out for the reason (I think) that they tend to overforrage their food base and stunt or crash. In other words they wouldn't target the size/age class of chubs that need to be controled in Strawberry. Basically, in their gill net surveys the DWR is having a hard time finding smaller chubs (age class 0-2) in their surverys now (that's what the smalies would target). There are still lots of bigs chubs, but very few small ones. For what it's worth, the DWR has found a few larger smallmouth in Strawberry in their samples already. They do not know for sure, but do not think it's a breeding population.

However, the REAL threat to strawberry is all of the oil and gas leases that have been sold up there. If all that exploration takes places and/or turns into production then the fishery could be in big trouble.

If you want to find out more, come to the stonefly society meetings here in Salt Lake sometime. There the first tuesday of the month. We meet down in taylorsville.

http://www.stoneflysociety.org

BTW, you should sign up at UTOF if you haven't already.

[mushmouth]

This forum is taking shape!

[Lumpy]

Nice Shots SFB! I personally like having a spot where you can nail cutt after cutt. When they are on they are really on. Plenty of rainbow spots to hit locally.

Anyone fished Viva Naughton outside of Kemmerer recently?

[skifishbum]

Bump and a big thumbs up for the UTDWR buying the Little Hole land parcel, for 1.6 mill. This land didn't need to be developed.
While some are whining about the $$$ that UT school kids could have had. Fuck it it's only money. It just gets spent, while wild undeveloped open spaces are forever. I miss the days when you could row or wade across and camp on this land. To bad a few lazy fucks couldn't pack their shit out and they put the kabosh on the campsites. Dutch John is a odd place sometimes. On one hand they want all this $$$ but they won't allow zoning for a B&B or lodging.

[grizzle6]

Yeah Dibbs! Sweet TR!

[Lonnie]

Dutch John is a odd place sometimes. On one hand they want all this $$$ but they won't allow zoning for a B&B or lodging.

BTW, one of the (I think) commissioners up there (one who was pushing hard for this )has a stake in Flaming Gorge Lodge. Maybe that's why they won't allow the zoning change = fear of competition. Anyway, I'll never stay at FGL, again....