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Fishaman

By Fishaman
in Saltwater

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Fishaman Rookie

Fishaman

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Hello one and all

I have been very busy both on the water and off over the last few months and haven't had time to post. With all the rain we have had in SEQ it has been challenging to say the least to find quality fish in the estuaries so I said "bugger it" and got on a plane to Salt Lake City, Utah. Jokes, I had to go for work but I did find time for a fish.

I lived in Salt Lake City for a time back in 2010/11. In that time I got to make some great mates with a common love of fishing. One of those is Pete. Pete is an outdoors legend. A crack shot with a rifle and bow as well as a very VERY good fisherman. He said he would try and get me onto a trophy trout from a lake up in the Uintas. These are a part of the Rocky Mountains and is nestled in amongst some of the most stunning scenery on the planet. The lake itself sits at 6,042ft above sea level. Anyway, we headed up on Friday arvo, downed a few sherbets, hit the hay and got up at sparrows on Saturday morning. The temp was right on 0 friggin degrees when we launched and Pete opened up the throttle on his competition ready bass boat. We topped 62mph on the way to our first spot. Watery eyes and runny noses were the order of the day when the first lines hit the water. We flicked a couple of jerk baits about on a steep drop off and it wasn’t long until we both put some rainbow trout in the keeper bag. Then we headed into the deeper water looking for the biggun. We were jigging 5 and 7 inch white tube jigs tipped with thin slivers of minnow fillet. We were fishing between 65 and 115 feet of 2 degree C water. Pete got a hook up on a good fish about 4 hours in but he struck too hard and popped his leader knot. I asked him what he uses for a leader to braid knot, he said double uni. I tried to convert him to the FG, we’ll see. Seven grueling hours later we were getting tired. Conditions were beautiful but we just didn’t get a touch other than Pete’s bust off. We were a bit despondent and we agreed that this last cast was it for a while and we would go chase some rainbow trout. The tactic we were using was dropping a tube jigs straight down to the bottom. 15lb braid with 15lb leader onto a 3/4oz jighead. We would get it on the bottom, pop it a few times then wind up about ten foot to see if you could get a strike. Well in a fairy-tale ending I landed the freshwater fish of my dreams on the last cast after an epic 10 minute battle on this relatively light gear. A trophy trout!!! Pete had said that many come to this spot and return empty handed but I bagged one first time out and I’m not sure who was happier him or me. You can’t see the big belly on this fish as I was cradling her as she was full of roe. Pete pegged her at 20lbs. A quick pic and back she went back into get bigger and fatter. We spent the rest of the day chasing rainbow and brown trout. We ended up taking a nice feed home. Pete will take the rainbow trout home and smoke it for me to bring home.

 

We headed back to our cabin and had a few more Makers Marks, some prawns and talked **** for a while. Full of piss and bad manners we decided we would head out again for a couple of hours the next day. Sunday morning, up at 5am, coffee, Tim tams and away we went. It wasn’t as cold as the morning before (about 4 degrees C) but there was a strong southerly blowing at about 20-25 knots. We didn’t pick up a lake trout but on the way back to the ramp Pete stopped in at a little sheltered cove that had a little gravel spit sticking out. We tied on some small 3 inch green tube jigs on 6lb line and 1/8th oz jig heads. “Throw it up in the shallows and pop them back” says Pete. I swear, every cast if not second we smacked trout who were up spawning. We landed fish after fish.

 

Anyway, we were keeping the better trounced and Pete says. Let’s get a couple more to get our bag and head in as he landed one more. He walked up to the front of the boat, bumped into the front pedestal seat, tried to catch his balance and..... yep.... over he went into 2 degrees C water with full waders, jacket, jumper, jeans, balaclava, fur lined boots, gloves ....the whole shebang. A got up to the front as quick as I could. He was sinking but stuck his rod up, I grabbed the end of it, pulled him to the boat and dragged him around the back of the boat to the little ladder he had for easy access into the boat.... except he’d bloody tied it up and with both of us having frozen fingers we couldn’t undo the rope. I ended up dragging his soggy arse into the boat and he just laid there for a bit composing himself while I pulled my gloves off and stuck my frozen hands under my armpits as they were so cold it felt like both hands had been slammed in a car door. So Pete gets to his feet, strips off and picks up his bloody rod. I say, “so we are heading home to get you warm yeah”? And he says “ yeah after I get our bag of trout” and continues to throw lures and land fish for the next 30 mins. Sure enough we bag out on good trout and head to the ramp.

 

An awesome weekend and I’ll doubt I’ll ever forget it. Here’s some pics

 

 

FG2.jpg

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Fishaman Rookie

Fishaman

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22 minutes ago, Drop Bear said:

wow what a trip. Great report! Some glorious post card shots there too.

So that is how they cook fish. whole straight on the bbq. I like it. That would work with school mackerel here. :)

Thanks for a great read and congratulations of the trophy trout. 

Yeah we did the rainbow trout whole on the BBQ. I caught one smaller lake trout and kept that too. It is a lighter coloured flesh. I decided to do those in a crumb for my friends back in SLC. I dusted in flour, dipped in egg wash then coated the fish in crushed up salt and vinegar chips. They were suitably impressed.

 

 

IMG_0967[1].JPG

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Angus Rookie

Angus

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Mate I would usually not ask but it seems way to coincidental not to.

 

Some friends of mine are doing an massive road trip for the honeymoon camping out along the way and they are going through Utah and the rockies. Do you still have contacts there? And more to the point contacts that may be interested in taking a couple of nice young Aussies fishing? It would be one of those cracking stories that would make a great trip that little bit greater if you know what I mean...


Angus

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Fishaman Rookie

Fishaman

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On 3/23/2018 at 6:51 PM, Angus said:

Mate I would usually not ask but it seems way to coincidental not to.

 

Some friends of mine are doing an massive road trip for the honeymoon camping out along the way and they are going through Utah and the rockies. Do you still have contacts there? And more to the point contacts that may be interested in taking a couple of nice young Aussies fishing? It would be one of those cracking stories that would make a great trip that little bit greater if you know what I mean...


Angus

G'Day Angus

 

I will shoot you a PM with some thoughts :D

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