# Chepeta Area



## stimmie78 (Dec 8, 2007)

I took a couple days off work to go camping this weekend. We left town Thursday afternoon and headed towards Chepeta. By the time we hit 10000ft the rain was coming down pretty good.

There were people already camped in the couple areas I wanted to camp so we headed back down the road to another spot. I set up camp in the rain in a spot right by Reader Creek. After a search for some wood I got a fire going as the rain was staring to let up. I always take my propane torch to get fires going. Helps dry out the wood when it's all wet.  My wife didn't want to stay since it was cold and wet. I convinced her to stay for dinner at least. We roasted hot dogs over the fire then I took our daughter for a bit of fishing in the creek.










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After they left I continued my fishing up the creek. After catching quite a few small brookies I headed back to camp. Sitting in camp in front of a campfire can be kind of boring when you are the only one there. After eating a few smores and checking out the stars in the clear skies I headed to bed.

Morning came all too quickly and rudely. The rain fly on my tent contacted the screen roof allowing water to pass through. Said water dripped right on my face! I got out of bed to find that it was much warmer than the previous day. I didn't even need to warm up near the fire it was so warm. Breakfast was made and I prepared myself for the day.

I drove up the road to Chepeta and parked the truck. The sun was out and the skies were clear. Chepeta is full. Very full.










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There's even a trickle of water coming out of the spillway.

I hiked on up to Moccasin lake. I cast a rapala in a few times and decided that the mosquitoes were too thick for me to stay. I was headed for the outlet of the next lake. On the way up I passed a few guys coming down the trail. They said they didn't see any fish or even have a bite while fishing at Papoose lake. I asked how they stream was and a kid said, "it's only four inches deep, I don't think there's any fish in it." Silly boy... little does he know.

I switched my pole over to the fly rod and put on a CT mosier. BOOM! got one!










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https://flic.kr/p/4781054837

After catching a few more cutts on the fly I hiked up over the dam to give it a whirl. I planned on hiking around the lake along the east side but the wind picked up and the sky darkened. Temperatures dropped quickly. I decided I'd better get into some cover in case the rains decided to come down. After donning a long sleeve shirt and my rain jacket I switched the pole back to spinning. Since the outlet is fairly protected from the wind I put on my trusty rapala. More cutts! I could actually count about 12 fish in the little pool right at the base of the dam. This is the same pool I fished last year and had the same results.









http://www.flickr.com/photos/stimmie_78 ... 467097788/

I fished my way down the creek to moccasin lake catching more cutthroats all the way down. When I got to the lake and tossed in my hook, nothing. No bites, no follows, nothing. So I went down to the outlet of moccasin and caught a brookie. The rain was coming down pretty well so I decided I'd just head back to the truck. When I got there the rain really started to fall. I drove back to camp and sat in the truck waiting for the rain to stop.

After the rain stopped and I decided that I didn't want to spend another night bored around a camp fire alone I broke camp and headed down to fish Hidden Lake. I've never fished hidden lake. I marked it on my gps and knew where I needed to park. As I was preparing to head out the group of people I met on the trail earlier pulled up. They were headed to hidden lake too. Come to find out they were first timers to the lake as well. I showed them the pictures of what they missed out on by not fishing the creek. They were surprised that fish were even in the creek since it was so "small".









http://www.flickr.com/photos/stimmie_78 ... 467097788/

We made it to the lake and fish were jumping all over. I couldn't get a fish to bite at all. Finally after working my way to the north end of the lake I switched over to my fly reel and it was game on! Fish after fish took my flies. All I caught in this lake were cutthroats. This time I was using a double fly setup. Slight variations of the same fly. The fish were all hitting the same fly. Then I realized that I had used leader instead of tippet. When I found where my tippet was I made the change and sure enough soon as I made the change I was getting fish on both flies. When the fishing finally slowed up I decided I'd head back to the truck. When I got to the truck I figured I'm there, I may as well fish Lynn creek. More cutts. Seemed I was bound to be stuck catching cutts all day.

When I was talking with the guys at Hidden Lake they told me they had been to Angel Lake the day before. They said they caught lots of grayling there. I was intrigued because I had heard that grayling were in Angel lake about 15 years ago. But I had never been there. I didn't have it marked in my GPS and so I was going to have to wing it. I had my atlas in the truck but it only showed the roads and didn't have a name on Angel lake. So I had to improvise. I drove up to the West Fork trail head. Then I drove up the road that I needed to get close to Angel lake. Looking at my atlas I knew that Angel lake was southwest of the trail head. When I got my truck near where I thought I needed to be I looked at the trail on my gps to see where the trail head was and where I was. At six pm I left the truck and figured I'd just head in the direction I thought the lake would be. I found it!









http://www.flickr.com/photos/stimmie_78 ... 467097788/

Fish were jumping like mad! Everywhere fish were out of the water. I tried everything in my arsenal to catch something! I'd get a bite once and that was it. Tried the flies, daredevle midget, krocodile, rapala, jakes, blue fox spinner, and kastmaster. That was the trick. My little blue and silver kastmaster. I finally got a fish! And it was a grayling!









http://www.flickr.com/photos/stimmie_78 ... 467097788/

I had finally caught a grayling. Those things are twitchy buggers. I couldn't get a good picture because it wouldn't hold still long enough. No more fish would stay on after that. I had a few bites but that was it. It was about 7:30 so I figured I better head back to the truck. Since I marked the truck on my gps it was a quick hike back.

All day long I had caught mainly cutthroats. I had the lone brookie from the stream out of Moccasin but that was it. 30+ cutts, one brookie and one grayling. Just didn't seem right to only have one brookie for the day. So I headed to pole creek. Parked the truck on the side of the road right where the creek crosses and I headed up stream with the fly pole. 11 small brookies later I felt like it was a good enough day and fly fishing in the dark wasn't something I was that good at so I walked back to the truck.

4 lakes and 4 streams and lots of fish. It was a good way to spend a much needed day off. Especially since today my license expires and it's the last fishing I get to do until I purchase a new one.


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## stimmie78 (Dec 8, 2007)

Images aren't working... I'll have to work on that.. any ideas? I did the


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

That's a fine report stimmie78, that's some fine looking country up there !!

Don't let LOAH see this post, he might miss sunday school to head on up there....and if he does I hope he calls me to go with him !!


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## grousehunter (Sep 11, 2007)

Those Grayling are squirmy and they put up a good fight on light tackle! Great report!


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## ShaneA (Jun 21, 2010)

The coloration on those fish are unbelievable! I'm jealous, great report


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## Size Matters (Dec 22, 2007)

It looks like you had a great time thanks for the report and awesome photos. 8)


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## sawsman (Sep 13, 2007)

Nice way to get up to that high country stimmie78!

Thanks for the detailed report.


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

Excellent! Nice pics of some gorgeous fish.


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## Jed (Feb 25, 2009)

Very nice report.


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## Nor-tah (Dec 16, 2007)

Nice work Stimmie. Those Cutts sure are pretty! Good to see red Colorados in the Uintas!


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## Dagwood (May 12, 2010)

Great report, love the color of those cutts, thanks for sharing!


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

Awesome report man.... great fish too. Way to work your way to some off trail areas, that had to be a cool find. I think I'd be ok with catching cutts all day looking like that.


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## stimmie78 (Dec 8, 2007)

I would have caught more if I had more CT Mosier... hint hint.. The red one was missing most of the hackle and the black one was getting worn out big time...


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## tuffluckdriller (May 27, 2009)

I'll give you some more whenever. I just tied a bunch of extras after the fly swap thing. Those Cutts sure are tasty, too!


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## hodie9 (Nov 8, 2009)

What a great report. Thanks.


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