A few weeks back we camped at Zion, an amazing national park located in southern Utah. The park itself is contained within a canyon of red rock cliffs that gives one the feeling of being rather small. Now I could attempt to write about the grandeur of the place, but thats now my thing. Instead I will write about the Virgin River that flows through Zion and once shaped its share cliffs.
I started scouting the river around our campsite; I had maybe an hour before dark so I wanted to get a head start for the morning. The river itself is stunning. Willow trees line the banks making pretty little windows as one looks upstream. There were no fish rising or any sign of trout whatsoever.
The next morning I had a couple of hours before the site seeing activities, so off to the Virgin I head. Tossing a small #0 Mepps spinner I landed a nice little brown trout that was maybe 10". Working my way up stream it became obvious that the fish count in this stretch of the river was very light. Managed another small trout about an hour latter and by then it was time to head back to the campsite.
In summary, one could do a lot better casting flies. There were trout in the shade of the willows that were spooked by my fishing lures. Chances of a lunker are nill. The average fish would be around 10" but who cares about size when you can fish one of the most amazing national parks!?
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