Bryan Eldredge
Learning to fly fish shouldn’t be overwhelming and complicated. Bryan Eldredge and Spencer Higa teach a beginning fly fishing course at Falcon’s Ledge and in Salt Lake a few times a year. Bryan has come up with some basic info that is easy to understand yet very important for someone just getting into the sport. There’s also a list of recommended flies to get you started. Read More
Top 10 nymphs for when the fish aren’t keying on anything in particular in rivers.
1. Higa’s SOS. Size 16-20. I prefer the original, black.This is my top confidence fly for the past four years or so. I got to fish is as a prototype and have caught fish on it during Read More
Tim Jenkins with a leech fed rainbow
Leeches at the lodge are hot right now. Just fished this last weekend with excellent success, not moving an inch for about 3 hours and pulling in 40 fish between 3 of us. I never knew there were leeches of this size in our lakes but there they were, and the fish took notice! As is typical when landing a trout other curious fish will tag along and try to investigate what is going on as their comrade is being pulled to shore. We saw the same thing this day, however there was not one or two rouge fish following, this was a whole school of fish that was trailing and they were aggressively darting back and forth through the water. I soon realized what they were doing. Upon getting the hooked fish close to shore they regurgitated between 5 and 15, 3” leaches that the other fish would quickly swoop in to clean up. We fished with great success a chironomid / leech rig under an indicator slowly striping and pausing.
The fish hit with such ferocity that at one point, with about 20 feet of slack line at my reel,
Tim’s mom also found success with leech patterns.
I reached down to pick up a fly box with my rod under my arm and, upon standing back up, found my indicator gone, my fly line fully extended and before I realized what was happening the fished hooked itself (and almost ripped the rod out from under my arm) as he finally pulled all the slack line and hit a dead end at the reel. Fortunately the drag was set pretty loose and it cushioned the abrupt halt in line feeding through the guides. A great day on the water and one I’ll remember for a long time. Don’t forget to bring your leeches!
Written by- Tim Jenkins
A while back we posted a blog on a trip to the Yellowstone River when the Yellow Sallies were hatching. As we got to the river we noticed all sorts of bugs hatching but the fish were keying in on the Sallies. Grant’s first fish came on his first cast. This is an amazing river near Falcon’s Ledge that holds rainbows, browns, cutts and brookies. A grand slam in very possible on this river.
We look forward to seeing you at Falcon’s Ledge this summer.
Utah Brown Trout
It’s March and I’m going mad. The snow and the sun are fighting for playing time. It’s that time of year when it’s hard to decide whether you spend time at the tying bench or on the river. It won’t be long now until there won’t even be a question. What makes the difference? Bugs, of course. Read More
Orvis fishing managers that attended the retreat last summer were in for a treat when guide, Jake Ricks showed them one of our favorite rivers in Utah. This day was full of action.
Paul Range, Adam Cook and Bruning Rangel were treated to some great dry fly fishing on the Strawberry River. They all walked together because this river doesn’t hold a lot of fish and took turns targeting rising fish. Having a few spotters is always nice and your chances of getting fish gets better.
With all of the action it was fun to see Jake net a couple of fish from the air. Jake put them on a lot of nice fish and let them get a taste of the strong fish in our Utah waters.
Ever wonder what it’s like to hunt pheasants at Pleasant Valley Hunting Grounds? Well, club member B. Harwood spent a beautiful winter day in the field with a group of his friends. The birds are flying strong while the dogs are working hard. This is a great depiction of what a typical day in the field is like in Utah chasing pheasants. Dogs, pheasants, GoPro’s and shotguns. What a fun day!!!! These dogs are having as much fun as the hunters. Enjoy!!!!
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This is a cool photo from last summer’s trip several Orvis folks made to Falcon’s Ledge after the Outdoor Retailer Show in Salt Lake City. We posted about Jamie Mercer’s day on the water back in August, and there’s a great post on the FL blog about the second day of the Orvis fishing managers’ retreat: Read More
