# Big Cottonwood Brook Trout 1-31



## tye dye twins (Mar 8, 2011)

So I can admit straight up front that I have been doing lots of backcountry skiing and resort skiing instead of fishing lately. Now I have come up with a comprimise.........there must be skis involved! So my twin and I had an hour to fish. Why not big cottonwood river?

We headed up to Spruces at 3pm and tried our old honey hole. No signs of life so we headed back to the car and headed down stream. We tried several spots and I eventualy lost my gold blue fox. The panther martian started getting a few following brown trout, a few following brook trout, and even 3 bites from the browns. Then it happened, I got my 1st river brook trout. We snapped a few pics before releasing it back into the river. The hour was up so we "skinned" back to the car.

I was using a the smallest size panther martin in rainbow and bleeder treble hook. We also tried a blue fox gold in size #0 and a silver black bodied roostertail in size 1/8th with no results.

Me hitting the river.









My brook trout in hand, and Reynolds Peak in the background









Me, the brookie, and Reynolds peak which we summited 2 days ago.









Sunday skiing the ridge of Reynolds after summiting it.


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

Congrats on the first brookie. Released? :shock:

Who _ARE_ you? :lol:

Just kidding. Glad you got to scratch it off the list.


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## Clarq (Jul 21, 2011)

> The panther martian


Never heard of those before.


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## tye dye twins (Mar 8, 2011)

LOAH said:


> Congrats on the first brookie. Released? :shock:
> 
> Who _ARE_ you? :lol:
> 
> Just kidding. Glad you got to scratch it off the list.


Good one LOAH. I have caught them before at Lake Mary ice fishing on January 1st but never actually landed one in the river/streams that I have been persuing since august.

Getting them on a spinner in a river was WAY more fun than in 8 feet of water thru the ice. You can see the fishies take the spinner on the river.


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

Oh yeah...I remember the Mary deal. Derp. *\-\*


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## smoothie (Nov 21, 2011)

tye dye twins said:


> LOAH said:
> 
> 
> > Congrats on the first brookie. Released? :shock:
> ...


Have you ever thought of trying out fly fishing? I love watching fish follow my fly or streamer...it's a rush!

Congrats on the river brookie...Brookies are beautiful!


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## tye dye twins (Mar 8, 2011)

smoothie said:


> Have you ever thought of trying out fly fishing? I love watching fish follow my fly or streamer...it's a rush!


I own a fly rod set up. Back in the day I spent 2 years on the middle provo with 2 minows to show for it. So it sat in the garage for years. I caught a few rainbows at the sandy pond this spring thanks to fellow fly flingers telling me what worked. I put the fly stuff away till a few weeks ago I hit the Middle again and got the skunk.

I brought it with me in the car yesterday but the wind was blowing. Still I have no idea what flies to use on that river. Seemes like a great time to try as there are fewer snags on the shore right now. Any thoughts?

Next spring when the white bass spawn at Utah Lake I will try again with the flies. Last year the idea was just too late when I gave it a shot.


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## Jed (Feb 25, 2009)

Nice fishie. Big Cottonwood is not far from me. I will check it out. -|\O- 

Looks cold. Brrrrr....


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## smoothie (Nov 21, 2011)

tye dye twins said:


> smoothie said:
> 
> 
> > Have you ever thought of trying out fly fishing? I love watching fish follow my fly or streamer...it's a rush!


The beauty of fly fishing is that there are a ton of techniques. Some "purists" believe that fly fishing should only be done with a single dry fly. I totally disagree. Don't get me wrong...when the fish are rising, I very much enjoy and prefer to put on a dry fly. But, most of the time (especially in the winter), the fish tend to sit on the bottom of the river in their feeding lanes. Most of the winter months I use a 9 foot leader and tie on a combo of bead headed nymphs (that are separated on my line by about 14 inches). I use prince nymphs, sow bugs, hare's ears, zebra midges, egg patterns, san juan worms, etc.

On the Provo I've had a lot of success with bead headed rainbow sow bugs (size 14 or 16). Also, you can always put on a streamer or woolly bugger and strip it just like you would w/ a spinning rod using a lure. There's definitely a learning curve. I didn't catch any fish the first few months, but then I joined a fly fishing club in Kaysville, and now I pretty much have put the spinning rod away. I think you'll do great on Utah Lake when the white bass spawn in the Spring!


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## bowhunt3r4l1f3 (Jan 12, 2011)

When you said "Big Cottonwood..." I thought you were referring to the trout as big not the canyon. HAHA! He's a cute lil guy though ain't he?


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