# Trip with the Bro



## mjschijf (Oct 1, 2007)

I haven't been able to go fishing with my big brother for quite a while because he never had any free time with his job. However, he recently got a new job that is giving him weekends off, so hopefully we'll be able to get out more often. We started planning this weekend's trip a couple of weeks ago. I really wanted to take him out to Panguitch to get him into some nice sized fish.

I've been home in St. George for Thanksgiving break, so on Saturday morning we left from down here and were on the road at about 8:30. After driving for almost and hour and a half, we reached the turnoff towards Panguitch, and after driving for a few minutes down that road we realized that this probably wasn't the best idea. Ice was covering the road in several stretches, and snow was piled up in a few places from the recent storm. We were in a Honda Civic and after some deliberation we decided to turn around. We might have made it if we kept going but didn't want to take the chance. 

No worries, we just needed to change plans. We were debating between the fishing the nearby upper Sevier River in Garfield county, or stopping at Quail Creek on our way home. We decided on the river.

We parked in upstream and walked down a little ways and decided to work our way back towards the car. for the first little while I used Rapalas and spinners while Martin (my brother) fly fished. After no luck with these for the first hour, I switched to my jigs (the ones that never seem to fail me).

I had a fish on within 10 minutes:








A little Brown. Maybe 12 inches. It was good to shed off the skunk. That's four different species of trout now caught on those jigs. I love those **** things. :lol:

A little while later, I was letting the jig drift down a deep hole just a couple feet off the bank. Something hit it hard, and I knew immediately it was a pretty good-sized fish. I fought it up to the bank, and observed a nice one:
















It was about 17-18 inches. By far my biggest Brown to date.

We then came across a bend in the river that held a deep pool. Between the two of us, we probably casted 20 times into it with nothing to show for it. That's why it was quite the surprise when my stubborness paid off and a fish finally took my jig.

It was another nice one. A little bigger than the last:















Not as colorful as the last one. But it looked an inch or two bigger.

We kept fishing for a while and I had one more small fish hooked that got loose when I lifted it out of the water. It was probably about the size of the first one. However, that was all the action for the day. My brother took the skunk, as he insisted on fly fishing for nearly the entire time (I think he's turning into a fly "purist" :lol: ). We did switch rods for about 10 minutes and he tried the jig and I tried the fly rod. He found my jigs to be "boring", which I don't really understand. :lol: I asked him if he'd rather get skunked fly fishing or catch some fish using lures or jigs, and he never really gave me a straight answer. :lol: As for fly fishing, it defititely seems like fun. Casting didn't seem too difficult, but I'm sure there's way more to it than I realize. I bought an old fly rod at a yard sale a while back so maybe I'll get a reel and mess around with it some time.

Overall, it was a pretty good day. The fishing wasn't great by any means, I'm not going to complain when I catch my two biggest Browns. That said, I really did want to get my brother into some fish, and I'm pretty sure that Panguitch would have been good to us. He said he'd be down to head out there next weekend and take his 4-wheel-drive Expedition so that's a definite possibility. Hopefully it won't have started to ice over by then. I'm all for the ice, but I want to get my bro into some good softwater fishing before it's too late. We'll see I guess.

Another pretty good weekend of fishing. Bring on the ice! (Just not at Panguitch...yet). :lol:


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

Oh boy, I like river fish'in !!  

Good post mjschijf, and nice browns.....don't you know, it's not polite to skunk the bro.. :?


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## Nueces (Jul 22, 2008)

Nice report. Your brother could tie a jig onto his fly line and call it a "streamer pattern" ... maybe that would get rid of the skunk! :mrgreen:


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## mjschijf (Oct 1, 2007)

.45 said:


> Oh boy, I like river fish'in !!
> 
> Good post mjschijf, and nice browns.....don't you know, it's not polite to skunk the bro.. :?


 :lol: 
*I* didn't skunk the bro, the *river* skunked the bro! :lol: Trust me, I wanted nothing more than to get him into some fish. Hopefully I'll get out with him again next weekend.



SilverSmitty said:


> mjschijf, you improvise/change plans in a gud way. Nice browns, great photos and report! Hopefully your brother will be able to shake off the skunkage next weekend. What kind of gloves do you have on in that shot? Are they waterproof? I need some good waterproof grippy gloves.


Thanks SilverSmitty! Those are actually my brother's hands in that picture. I asked him, and he said the glove brand is called "SealSkinz". He likes them a lot. They are waterproof, thin, and have a good grip. I'm gonna look into getting a pair myself.



Nueces said:


> Nice report. Your brother could tie a jig onto his fly line and call it a "streamer pattern" ... maybe that would get rid of the skunk! :mrgreen:


Funny you say that, because I actually suggested that to him and he tried it! He had a difficult time casting though because the jigs are just a little too heavy so it didn't really work. He's still pretty new to fly fishing and has been doing some research online about flies. Hopefully next time we head out he'll have better success.


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

That sucks about turning around, but you may have been safer. Nothing wrong with that.

Way cool that you turned it into a positive river experience though. That last brown was a beaut! Good job, *trout lover*. :twisted:

:mrgreen:


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## mjschijf (Oct 1, 2007)

LOAH said:


> Good job, *trout lover*. :twisted:
> 
> :mrgreen:


Come on, dude, you know full well that I'm strictly a bass guy! :mrgreen:

:wink:


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## Nueces (Jul 22, 2008)

mjschijf said:


> Nueces said:
> 
> 
> > Nice report. Your brother could tie a jig onto his fly line and call it a "streamer pattern" ... maybe that would get rid of the skunk! :mrgreen:
> ...


He may be able to turn them over with a roll cast on a WF line, DT allow a little more distance past the belly of the line. Nymph lines will turn over heavier flies and I have used those for jigs or big bead heads. Just some options if he wants to do a roll cast, the existing line may work?


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