Tigers, Cutthroats, Rainbows, Smallies, and Wipers (Pic Heavy)

[Big Sky]

I was on vacation down in Utah all week. While it was a family vacation I did manage to sneak in 1.5 days of fishing. I had a great time time fishing with my oldest son and friends. Plus I was able to catch tiger trout and a wiper, of which, I have never caught before. For only a day and a half on 3 different lakes I really can't complain.

Al Morris (of Foxpro/Hunter's Specialties fame) and my oldest son with his first Kokanee Salmon.

Me with one of several rainbows we caught out of Strawberry Res.

Al and I with another trout.

My son with a pretty cutty.

A few days after Strawberry Res we traveled to southern Utah had continued success. I've never caught a tiger trout before. I caught this little guy and one just a little bigger. Granted it's tiny, but at least I can say I've caught a couple of them now. The fishing conditions on the mountain lake where they live wasn't that great. The lake had weeded up really bad and made fishing really difficult at best. However, my partner and I still managed to land a couple each. I sure think they are cool looking and I'd like to have another run at them when the lake isn't so weedy. Wouldn't mind catching a few bigger one's either.

 

[JohnCushman]

Looks like fun!!

 

[Big Sky]

We also spent the other half of the day fishing for smallmouth bass. My son kicked my butt in this department as did everyone on the boat. I landed only one tiny smallie, but I caught another fish that more than made up for it...more about that later.

Here's my son with one of several smallies he boated. He did real well for having never caught one before.

One of my best fishing buddy's with a nice smallie he was able to bring aboard.

This is the guy that was kind of enough to take us out on his bass boat. He was a super guy and I'm glad he was also able to land a really nice smallmouth.

Like I said earlier I didn't exactly light it up with the smallies. I'm not sure why. I've caught literally hundreds of them in my lifetime. For some reason I just couldn't hit my groove. I did manage to catch a couple 20" rainbows, but I can catch those here and I wasn't all that excited about them. So hence, no photos of the trout. However I did get totally surprised when this dandy wiper nearly ripped the rod right out of my hand. Heck, I was using my ultra-light outfit and it gave me all the battle I could handle. The two local guys were all giddy over it, as I guess it's biggest one they've personally ever seen come out of the lake. I was all giddy because I'd never caught one before and it wasn't a total dink sized minnow. It was a fantastic week with friends and family. I can't wait to do it again some day.

 

[JCS]

Hey, that's enough of the fishing. Pretty soon you will be ice fishing and not chasing any coyotes.


By the way, nice photos.

 

[Big Sky]

JCS, Not to worry. While I do ice fish it's not my favorite way to fish. In fact, unless the fish are really biting I find it mind numbing boring. I would much rather coyote hunt!

 

[1_pointer]

Very nice! Seeing the wiper brough back some memories for me. My father worked at a power plant and the cooling lake had gotten infested with shad, which would occasionally plug up the intake into the plant. In an effort to reverse that, they company started stocking the 3K acre lake with wipers. My dad and I had a few great days on that lake fishing for those! Super fighting fish. I once caught 7 fish on one hook with one cast! I snagged a fish basket that had went overboard and it had 7 live wipers in it.

 

[mdunc8]

Sounds (and looks) like a great trip. Hope to find a tiger trout one day too. My buddy caught a decent one out of Belt Creek two years ago. Had no idea what he caught until after he released it with only a single crappy cell pic as evidence.

 

[Big Sky]

mdunc8 you are the second person to tell me about a tiger coming out of Belt Creek. I'm half wondering if your buddy was the same person that told my friend about it. I fish that creek nearly every week and have never seen one. It would be pretty darn rare to have it occur in nature. I'd sure like to catch a bigger one. I'm might just have to zip back to southern Utah in late spring before the weeds arrive and try of something bigger. I'm pretty sure if I caught one 20" or better it would follow me home to my living room wall. Most fish I catch go right back in the water, but I'd make an exception for a Tiger Trout of 20" or better.

 

[mdunc8]

Yeah, they're pretty neat fish. His wasn't exceptionally large, but it warranted a better picture than he ended up with.

 

[kenton]

As usual Big Sky, great pics and an awesome story to match.

 

[Sytes]

WOW! Awesome stuff there! When I see a thread from ya... I know there are some good fishin pictures!
Thanks for sharing.