I finally got out to do a little fishing yesterday. My wife has been on bed-rest for the last 3 weeks (she's 7 months pregnant and the little one is trying to come out to soon...) so any free time I have (and I have lots of vacation saved up) has been spent taking care of her and watching my 2 little boys. So I've been itching to get out. I had my fill of chums last month and figured it would be a few more days until the winter brats were in, so I decided to hit the yak. I've never fished it in the winter time so I was looking forward to the experience - fish or not.
I did some white knuckle driving over the pass and got to my spot (top end of the canyon) just before 9am. Some lite snow was falling and no wind. A very nice day really.

I stuck to streamer patterns and within a short while I noticed the large gaping mouth of a trout sticking out of the water chasing my fly as it skipped along the surface at the end of my retreive. I dropped it back down and quickly hooked up with a beautiful 12-14ich cutthroat. A few casts later a nice 12-14inch bow. Followed by another cuttie and some more bows. Hooked a monster that I horsed too much and lost about 15ft from me - easily over 20 inches.
I hiked and waded downstream and found a few more productive spots for these agressive and hungry bows (no more cutts). I was in my own winter wonderland as I watched fish after fish go airborne on the end of my line. Man can those fish fight! Some of the hits were very subtle and I really had to concentrate, but then out of the blue one would just nail it and scare the heck out of me as my 4wt suddenly lurched nearly out of my hands.
I ended my day around 2:30 - final score - 21 hookups, 16 landed (and tons of bites). Smallest fish was about 10 inches the biggest landed was 20 inches (I actually measured this one with a tape) - most were 12 to 16inches. Easily my best day on the yak (I only fish it once or twice a year). Other than blizzard conditions on the pass and stong winds on the west side, the river was perfect for winter fishing. And I didn't see another angler the whole time - not even a drift boat.

Here are a few of the shots that turned out halfway decent - still getting used to my new digital camera...

Cuttie # 1:


Cuttie #2




pretty 18 to 19 incher:


another shot of the 18-19 incher:


Nice 20incher:


Amazing fighter and jumper for only being 14inches:

In the future please keep these reports to yourself.... Just kidding. What a day you had! Nice pics. I've had good days on the Yak, but not that good.

Good luck with the wife and little on on the way.

Nice fish were you using flys or throwin spoons at them. Or are my eyes decieving me in picture #4 just about the fish top left corner. Yeah that shiny thing above your fly reel.

and to think I thought he was coming over from the "dark side"....

Maybe it's a new spoon fly?

I shouldn't talk much as I haven't had too many flies in my new boat.

I was wondering what kind of crap I'd get for that spoon sitting there - thought about cropping it out, but thought it would be fun to see who saw it and what they said...

I actually do bring my spinning rod to the yak (and do just about as well as I do with my fly rod) but no, that spoon sitting there is one I snagged a few casts earlier. I would have kept the spoon, but on one side it was to far coroded to be saved. I did end up putting the old line and spoon in my little trash bag I carry...
Good eye though

I was wondering if you new it was thier of if it actually made in the background with out you knowing. I had to get really close to the screen to figure out what it was.

The nice thing about digital cameras is that after each shot you can preview the pic and decide if you like it or not. I was very suprised when looking at the previev that I didn't notice when I was taking the shot that the spoon was there. That's why there are 2 shots of that fish. I wanted one that didn't have the spoon in it just in case I was afraid of getting blasted by fly fishing purists
But as you can see, I was fine with taking some heat

PP,

After our "set to" earlier this year I decided I needed to take a lighter approach on things.

That's why I only asked if it was a new spoon fly? I don't use any higher level of heat.

WOW! Those are some beautiful specimens. Mother Nature's finest. The coloring is phenominal.

Those are some beauties. Thanks.

Zen - I know you were just kidding. I'm really easy going so i didn't take it wrong. I think we made some kind of truce, right

Those definately were some beauties. The pics don't do them the justice they deserve. Watching those rosy red sides flash in the cold clear water was a great experience.

Nice fish! I'm gonna brave the pass tomorrow,I'm heading to try Fish lake. The fish look to be getting ready for the ice -over,and should be hungry.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes!

beautiful fishies! Nice pics and nice catch!

PhishPhreak:
May I have permission to use some of those great pictures on the site?

I got all the way to Fish lake to find it had gone from almost no ice over the weekend,to almost completly iced over. I didn't think it had been that cold over there. I think I'll wait a couple weeks and maybe try my hand at a little ice fishing.

You bet Mike!

HBP - did you have a plan B or did you just call it quits? I was thinking Banks Lake or Potholes may be good alternatives...

Plan "b" was to come home and clean the garage. It's what I should have been doing anyways. I'm heading to Potholes a couple days after X-MAS to do some fishing,and maybe get a shot or two at some Coyote's.