# Bliss



## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

Wow, what a great day! 

The original plan was to gather up my family and try some new waters at a higher elevation than the popular spots that are getting hammered right now. I've got a mental list of different places that I've never visit, but would like to.

Potentially, 2 or more of those places could get crossed off that list today (Saturday, 5-16), so long as the sun has done its job on the ice conditions.

Well, like usual, the original plan got modified a little bit as soon as I tried to get my wife out of bed. :lol: Looks like I would do another exploratory solo trip (which is just fine).

So out the door I went, to Central Utah! The mountains between Fairview and Orangeville are quickly becoming a favorite of mine. That area really "speaks" to my soul. Almost the same way the High Uintas do.

Once I got to the top of Fairview Canyon, I was overtaken by emotion for some reason or another. I had to pull over and "just be" in the crisp mountain air, taking in my surroundings. It was so quiet and wonderful. Not another human around, just the cawing of a near by crow.

I took a couple of shots, from both sides, just to give an idea of what season it is up there.

It's the perfect time to take HWY 89. The hills are as green as could be. Spanish Fork Canyon, too.










Now 180 degrees and here's the other side of the ridge:










It wasn't very cold though. Just right, IMO.

After my little "Zen" moment, I got back in my car and continued down the road. I took some more photos to show where certain lakes are in the thaw.

Here's Huntington:



















Hmm, not quite. Next week, it will have some fishable water, for sure. It won't be totally open, but there will be room to cast.

Miller Flat Road:










Just in case anyone was wondering.

Cleveland was still iced, except the main inlet had an area of open water around it and the other trib by the highway also had some open water. It even looked tempting, if I didn't have other plans.

Here's Electric on the South end:










That ring of thin ice around the edges was pretty broad by the dam, but frozen nonetheless.

It was nice to see what those lakes look like. It won't be long before all that ice is gone.

Huntington Creek was raging. It was clear and placid for the first mile or so downstream from Electric Lake, then it started getting fast and murky. The runoff became more and more evident as I progressed down the canyon.

I tried to get to the places I've been scouting, but they were still snowed in. I knew it was a gamble that the road might be closed and/or the lakes might be frozen. Oh well. There are more places around. I tried another lake near by and was greeted by a closed gate about halfway there. :x Why must Memorial Day be the official day to open all the stupid gates in this State?

So now, I had some more modifications to my original plan. :lol: It wasn't a big deal since there's water all over that area, so I ended up taking a drive to Joe's Valley, pulling over in a few spots to give the majestic Straight Canyon Creek a try along the way.

This creek cleanses the spirit. I paid a visit a little while ago, but the water was full of that cotton type stuff from the trees and I couldn't get a cast retrieved without gumming up my lure. This time, the water was much better.



















Pretty wild flow right now.



















I didn't have any luck with the size 0 Blue Fox I was using. Sportsman's was out of my go-to #2 in brass, so I had to settle for what I already had.  My tiny lure wouldn't sink in the heavy flow of water.

I had lost a lot of time to unexpected detours and impromptu stops to flick a lure, so now it was time to actually get some dedicated fishing in. I made it to Joe's Valley right before the breeze rolled in and lucked out on a couple of glassy water shots:



















Some of you may remember from recent posts of mine that I just broke my ultra light rod. Well, I went to Sportsman's and had a new Shimano UL picked out, but then I saw a discount bin full of rods. I ended up getting a $60.00 St.Croix for $40.00. It's a 6'6" Light. Feels great.

I hiked down to the point where the dam arm meets the main body of the lake and threw out a minnow with one rod.

First cast on my new St. Croix paired with a medium sized brass kastmaster brought me a scrappy little splake. They sure look nice from the top:










Pretty soon, I picked up another little splake. This one had some better coloring than most of the muted tones that most of the JVR fish hold.










They were really chomping on that kastmaster today. Another splake to hand:










Looks like I wasn't this tiger's first hook up:










Add a cutthroat to the mix and we've got a triple play for JVR!










I caught several more without moving from the spot I was at, but catching the same old 12 inch fish from Joe's can get a little monotonous. It was pretty fast action and it was fun, but it was time to go and get something worth eating.

I toyed with the idea of going to Millsite, but thought about how warm the day had become and figured that maybe the ring of thin ice off the dam at Electric Lake would have receded enough to fish. If not, I could just wrap around to Scofield for some fat, healthy, rainbows.

...Not before some more of the creek on the way down though. :wink:














































Looks like someone on the road crew thought this was cool. Lame. They couldn't do a smiley face or something? :roll:










On the way back up to Electric, I couldn't help but pull over for some cool rock pics.

This one looks like it's melting:














































That canyon has the neatest geologic makeup. It's really amazing what wind, water, and time can do to a boulder

When I made it back up to Electric, my hunch was validated. Open water!










It didn't take long to score, but what a fight those cutts give! And they're so gorgeous! Vivid coloration and an aggressive fight made my day.

I caught quite a few, but only used 3 as examples:










Check out the super bright slash marks:










Not a bad cutt (same as both above):










Now THIS is a gorgeous fish!



















And this one had an 8 inch salamander in it's gut!










It was really fun at Electric. The fish fought really hard and made the fast fishing very rewarding. It topped off my day perfectly.

It was getting kind of late and I try to get home by dusk when I leave my wife at home, otherwise she gets really worried.

The mountains keep calling me, but I must return to civilization:










Even with my conscience nagging me to get home, I had to check on the north side of Electric.










Yep, that's open water. Looks like pretty muddy access, but it looks perfect for a float tube. Anyone planning on visiting will need to hike through either mud or deep snow to get to the water since the road to the ramp still has 6 feet of snow on it.

Well it was a great day! I wish my wife and kid could've shared it with me, but when they come with me, our trips never seem to last very long. It's better that I got to explore on my own. I felt like a kid in a candy store.

Happy Fishing, Humans.


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## plottrunner (Apr 3, 2008)

Nice Report LOAH and great pics..... Sounds like a good day all around


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## fishman (Feb 16, 2008)

Nice report And nice fishes.


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## HGD (Mar 5, 2008)

WOW! What a way to spend time outdoors. Real sweet pics and report. Thanks LOAH.


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## huntnbum (Nov 8, 2007)

Nice report, you sure can tell a good story.
Like all the pictures too.


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## Greenguy88 (Sep 7, 2007)

Awesome! Good report LOAH, and good looking fish! I remember seeing some of your pics of that creek before, it looks great I love the water color. Once again, a great post!


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## hunterfisher (Sep 14, 2007)

Man, i never get tired or your fishing reports. :!:


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## Poo Pie (Nov 23, 2007)

Great report LOAH, sounds like you have some Chris Mccandless tendencies??


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

Poo Pie said:


> Great report LOAH, sounds like you have some Chris Mccandless tendencies??


 :lol: Nah. The mountains might call me, but I have a civilized life that I'd be irresponsible to leave. I won't pretend that I could actually make it in the wild either. :wink:


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## Hellsangler69 (Sep 26, 2007)

Heck of a trip . If I did that trip I bet it would of burned up 50 gallons of fuel . Nice shots .


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## FROGGER (Oct 1, 2007)

As usual LOAH thanks for the post... You amaze me.... :shock:


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## mjschijf (Oct 1, 2007)

Great report, LOAH. That looks like an awesome area. The water at Joe's Valley really is perfectly still in that picture. Glad you were able to visit nature's beauty and catch some nice fish as well.


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## Jitterbug (Sep 10, 2007)

What a perfect trip out you seem to have had! Good going, LOAH! "Bliss"... yep, that pretty much sums it up!


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## DocEsox (May 12, 2008)

Great report and beautiful pictures....all of them. Those last cutthroats....looked like bonneville cutts? Great looking fish.

Brian


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

DocEsox said:


> Great report and beautiful pictures....all of them. Those last cutthroats....looked like bonneville cutts? Great looking fish.
> 
> Brian


Thanks. I'm not 100%, but if they come out of Electric, I think they're either Bonneville or Yellowstone. I could be wrong.


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## bigboat69 (May 8, 2008)

This website should pay you for that awesome report. You should get a job for an outdoors magazine.


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## orvis1 (Sep 7, 2007)

Thanks for the scouting report LOAH! I get what you are saying about that place, it really does hit the "reset" button for the next week at the salt mines. Looks like about 2 weeks until me and my little boat need to make a run up there. Thanks for checking on our little creek we will have to make a trip of it and really fish it hard and get you some more action on that fly rod!


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## STEVO (Sep 13, 2007)

WOW, looks like a awesome day. It looks like there has been alot of snow melt since I was there about 3 weeks ago. I have never fished electric lake , But it is on the top of my list for this spring, so possibly in a week or two. Joes valley is one of the most beautiful lakes in Utah. By the way, Nice fish too!!!!


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

bigboat69 said:


> This website should pay you for that awesome report. You should get a job for an outdoors magazine.


Wow, thanks Bob. I can't think of a better job. I wonder how I'd get my foot in the door for something like that. ?? Until then, I'll just keep fishing and dreaming.

Orvis1- Electric is going to be ice free very soon with these daytime temps. The fish have had time to grow too. I missed one that was taking line FAST from my bale. It was headed away from me, under the ice. I was trying the OTHER way to rig a minnow and it didn't work out. I'll just stick to my way. :wink:

STEVO- Never fished it? Definitely DO! The 16-18 inch cutts in there fight like a big bow from Scofield. I'm not joking. Pound-for-pound, the best fights I've had this year.


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## jdmckell (Nov 12, 2007)

Nice report man! I love those cuts out of Electric Lake! Brightest coloration I've seen in cutthroats in my own experience. Very nice report.


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## Steveb (Sep 11, 2007)

How is road access to Electric? Can a Civic make it? Thanks


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

steveb-

The roads are perfect. Both highways are completely open and paved. My Sentra did fine.

JD-

I thought about one of your previous reports from the old forum where you talked about the bright colors on the Electric cutts. I know how you like to float it just after the thaw up there.

I'd say next weekend is a good bet for Electric and maybe even Huntington. Have fun.


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## RJ-Max4 (Sep 11, 2007)

LOAH, 

Great report, those are some gorgeous fish you landed.


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

LOAH, Straight Canyon fishable?? Or is it too high right now? Gotta hit up JV sometime... your pictures show it as a beautiful place.... if the wind kicks up, is there anywhere to get out of it or does it pretty much shut things down?


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

Straight Canyon is running a little fast right now. I saw one small fish come up and sniff my lure in one hole and then had one up to my feet before it got off. I was using that medium sized kastmaster, casting upstream, letting it drop, and then slowly bouncing it off the bottom back to me.

That was the only way I got any action there. I wish I could've seen the fish that came off. It was really dark and I'm interested in what species it was. Too bad.

I'd say in a month, that creek will calm down and the fish will start holding in places that make more sense.

At Joe's, the wind is going to happen no matter what. You may as well just fish it anyway. :lol: I was using a kastmaster, so the wind didn't cut into my cast too much. I got all my hits within 30 feet of shore anyway. The dam arm might keep you out of the brunt of the wind. The hike down the rocks can get tricky, but I'm sure you can handle that. The water is really deep there. I was fishing at the bend going.

I don't know what the trick to catching the big fish there, though. I've never even caught one IN the slot at Joe's. All under. They're probably around the weeds on the other side of the lake, munching forage fish. ???


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## DocEsox (May 12, 2008)

Loah....did a little research on Electric Lake....the state of Utah has maintained it as a broodstock lake for Yellowstone Cutthroat (oncorhynchus clarkii bouvieri).

Brian


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

Yeah, I guess they drained it a while back and didn't put anything on the stocking reports from 2004 until last year, when they dumped a bunch of tiger trout in there. I guess the cutts and rainbows in there came from the creek?

I don't know. The stocking lists don't always show everything. If they did, we'd see fingerling tiger trout getting stocked in Scofield last year, but it's not listed.

??


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## Guns and Flies (Nov 7, 2007)

Thanks for the report LOAH, what awesome pictures. I love being up in the mountains alone, nothing like it.


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