lunkertees.com

Well hello and welcome to my blog!

You would think that living in Utah and being a hard core angler I would be starved for some serious fishing. If the truth be known, there are some great fishing opportunities to be had here in the desert. The Provo river is renowned for its renowned for its fly-fishing and is considered a blue ribbon fishery. Strawberry lake offers some of the best Cutthroat trout fishing in the mountain west with a average fish going 19 inches and fish over 28 inches common. Lake Powell is world renowned for house boating and striped bass fishing. Utah is certainly a surprising place!

When I haven’t got a rod in my hand I am with my 2 kids and lovely wife. We like to RV and travel in the summer and take advantage of the greatest snow on earth in the winter months.

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!?

Utah would have to be one of the most surprising places in the USA. General perceptions are of clean cut people breading to unbelievable levels and visions of women dressed in early settler attire while holding the hand of a sister wife. Well that was my perception before moving here 7 years ago. Its true, there are big families modeled after the Brady Bunch and you do get those polygamist folks, some traditional some not so. If you are a fan of big brother you will know what I mean. With perceptions you will always have surprises. Utah fishing is one of them, and this story is an example of a great trip to Strawberry Reservoir fishing for trophy Cutthroat trout.

We get to the late around 9am, late by the usual standards of this particular group. The day was spectacular, not a ripple just sunshine. I tied on my usual selection of rapala's and giggled to myself as my fishing buddies started fiddling with plastics! Plastics for trout in open water? Now Im not talking about those fancy new hybrid swim baits that you have to take a mortgage out to purchase, these baits were 5" tube jigs, the stuff used for fishing bass. Well it only took me an hour before I became a believer as I was completely out fished. The method was no different to Bass fishing, although you want to work the mid water too.

The results on that day were 15 + fish around the 18-20" mark 3 Cutthroat Trout between 22-25". Amazing day, probably the most fun trout fishing I have had, all thanks to tube baits and bass tactics!