I went flyfishing on Wednesday with my friend Sam. He said the ice was off at Strawberry so I got up and on the road at 3 am. We drove up the canyon and were fishing around first light. The fishing was a little slow since we were a couple days late, Sam did better a few days earlier. I struddled since I forgot my reel with sinking line. I was still able to catch this one by adding some splishot to my brass head wooly bugger. Sam caught a few very nice fish and I was impressed by the size and quality of the cutthroats. I will definitely try to get up there next year for the ice-off.

Since it was my Brother Jim’s birthday, I stopped by his office in Orem and took him to lunch on my way home. He insisted on dining on Sushi and I tried to be a good sport. It was okay, but I was wishing we were eating a big juicy burger the whole time. Despite the Sushi it was fun to visit with Jim and see what he is up to. Him and Barb are gearing up for a big trip to Europe without the kids this Summer.

We hooked up with Uncle Robert last week for the maiden voyage of 2008 in his tracker bass boat. Our smiles quickly faded when motoring across the lake the engine overheated and we had to turn back. Turned out that the impeller for the water pump was hamburger and the engine was not cooling at all.

Not to have our fishing day ruined we headed for the shallow side of the lake to try some shore fishing. It was a little early for the big bass as the water temps were not quite up yet. The day was spectacular though and we couldn’t think of a better place to be.

Uncle Robert taught us how to fish for the bass using the senko method with a texposed hook. Another name for the method is called dead-sticking, I think. It took a lot of patience and we had to fish terribly slow. We finally found this spot where the water was deep enough and close to cover.

Senko Success! Uncle Robert snagged the first nice bass, his first using the senko method. He got pretty good at it and ended up cathcing another nice big bass and missing a couple more.

After some careful tutoring and watching the master, Dad figured it out and caught his first bass using the Gary Yamamoto senko bass method. I got skunked but had a great time and enjoyed the carne asada fries at Alberto’s in Hurricane, UT on the way home.

Okay, so I had to pry him away from his favorite treat (sunflower seeds) to reel in this nice trout. We enjoyed some father-son time in the mountains at our favorite fishing hole. The weather was a little warm but the fishing was good enough to keep us interested for an hour or so. Travis’ favorite part was driving the Polaris Ranger into the mountains. This was our last hoorah before school started the next day. While fishing there was a deer that came to graze in the trees only feet away from where we were sitting. On the way back down the mountain we saw some baby ducks, a red-tailed hawk and a few more deer.