ChuckD
04-01-2004, 06:47 PM
Well my western ski vacation enabled me to get a few days on some great trout waters. Landed 12 rainbows on a 22 griffith's gnat in about 5 hours on the Big Lost with my cousin's husband who is a guide out there. Biggest was a nice 18" hen. The fish were all nice and red gearing up for the spawn so we were gentle on them and released them quickly. Second half of my trip was down in Utah skiing Alta and fishing the Provo with my buddy who lives at the base of Little Cottonwood Canyon. We got two days in, one of which where we skied an AM half day at Alta(gotta love that mtn.) in about 1.5 feet of the fresh white stuff and then sped straight to the river where the Blue-Winged Olives were going absolutely nuts. It was one of those cloudy days with occasional snow squals that are the perfect setting for a blanketing BWO hatch. These were good sized bugs too(size 16). We fished the middle stretch where Trout Unlimited has been doing a $30 million restoration and the results are going to be fantastic as we already found plenty of browns in the 12-25 inch range and I am sure some larger individuals that were too wise to our imitations. We fished the next day as well but it was sunnier and the hatch not as good. Still managed to stick a bunch of brownies for yet another great day of trout on the fly. March is definitely a great month in the West! --125-3