Cooling Off With Brookies ~ Sunday Tippets, Damsel Style

Well, if you can't beat the heat... you head to the hills!  At least here, you do.  Normally, a higher elevation will do the trick.  Salt Lake City has had its share of 90-100 degree days this past month and I for one, was ready for a change!  Normally, it will be at least ten degrees cooler in my canyons nearby.  But, there is another mountain range that has even cooler air and beautiful brook trout.  It's just an hour and a half away, so I headed out.

Lately, I have been admiring more and more, the smaller fish and their vibrant colors.  Alan, over at Small Stream Reflections, always is posting up gorgeous small trout from the creeks and rivers that he visits.  As Alan says, "Fly fishing need not be complicated.  Take the time to slow down on the water and look to the grand beauty out there in it's most simple form."

I took this quote to heart.  Packed up my gear and met my friend Jeri for a day trip to the Uintas.  And what did we find?  53 degrees when we got there and 65 degree when we left.  Ahhh...  Now to tell you the truth, I wasn't so sure if I could catch a fish in that amount of water running through the rocks.  I'm pretty much a "big water" gal when fishing for trout.   I haven't had great luck on small streams.  But, Jeri assured me that they were hungry in there, as she had fished this stream before.  So, I packed up my bear spray.  (Definitely a must in this area)  and I packed my granola bar.  Yes, I know.  Don't bring food to feed the bears.  But, there was a reason for my madness.  When asking Mike, Mr. Troutrageous! for some small stream advice, he told me to "walk slow, stay low, if you're in the stream, stick to the edges.  And bring granola bars.  If you do spook em' ...stay in one place and eat a granola bar.  By the time you finish, their settled down and ready to cast to."

We had to walk through many pine trees and leap frog over many fallen tree trunks to get to the creek.  And along the way, Jeri was searching for her mushrooms.  She is a pretty knowledgeable gal on the subject of "Shrooming" and even belongs to a club.  She showed me the BAD ones, that you don't touch.  And we also found some others that you can hold, but don't want to eat raw...  We didn't find the variety that she wanted to bring home to cook up.  But, it was something new for me... a "shroomer" adventure of sorts!  Hey, it got me to stop thinking about bears anyway! 

Finally, we got to the small stream of brook trout.  It was a beautiful site!  Just like Alan said, you just need to sit back and enjoy the 

beauty around us sometimes.  

Now, how in the world do you cast out to small stream trout?  Well, you don't.  At least I couldn't, with the trees and shrubs all around me.  So, it was a simple drop and drift.  Drop the dry fly (yes, my nymph box did not come out this day!)  where you want to start and help it along the way through the rocks.  And if you get lucky and see a little deeper pool, drift it through there for sure!  I was starting to wonder about all of this and if you just catch these small fry with pure luck, until...

The first of some beautiful small fishies to jump out of the water and into my lap pretty much!   And boy, do they squirt off into the water
 quickly when released!  Zooooom!!!

Then, it was time for a T! snack.  I figured that I had stirred the little guys up with that catch.  Time to give the water a chance to settle down, like T! said.

Yes, it seemed that ants and caddis were on the menu...

A couple hours passed and it was time to head back down the road.  We stopped at another larger river on the way back to just toss a few casts.  Lots of beautiful slate on this river bank.  And then to another part of this river on 
 departure out of the "cooler" neck of the woods...

So, sometimes you have to venture out of the heat to be cool.  Unless you want to stay inside with your A/C on all day... 
But, that's not much fun, now is it??? 

I chose to find higher ground.

Even if it meant to throw a dry fly.  = )
It seems that I have added a few more in my box lately...