Fall Bite is On

[stenacron]

A nip has returned to the air here in Utah and the fish are strapping on the feed bags. I made a couple trips out to our local Cutthroat lake and the trout all seemed to be sporting beer guts. Scud bite has been fantastic from early light until the sun gets up, then they switch over to Callibaetis as long as things don't get too choppy. If the waves keep coming, the Chironomid bite has been a good plan B, although the action on these has not been as good as it was earlier this spring... but better days might be coming. The time is now guys!

I just love the skies this time of year.

Check out this rainbow, seemingly trapped in a passing cloud.

Population explosions of scuds are fairly common in early fall. And judging by the guts on these fish, and they're preference for my smoky olive scud, I would guess that this is the case.

Conditions captured here... notice the sun just getting ready to crest the ridge line in the reflection... if things remain calm, expect the Callibaetis to appear and the fish to react to them instantly.

If you get really lucky, the winds stay down and you can sight cast to cruising fish chasing ascending mayflies. Kind of a poor man's "flats" fishing.

Practicing CPR... catch/photo/release

And if you like shampoo, here's your basic HEAD...

...& SHOULDERS

 

[GrtLksMarlin]

Great stuff, thanks for posting it here!

B.E.F.

 

[hjw]

deleted thread

 

[mcnerney]

Joe

Great post with some awesome photos and fish, thanks for sharing!

 

[kentuckysteve]

Great photo's.Love that Head shot.Thanks for posting them.

We should all practice more CPR.

 

[james w 3 3]

I'm fishing as much as I can this time of year, 4 days in a row week before last, 4 different lakes.

The weather is great, the people are gone, and the trout are just voracious.
One day I had an entire lake to myself, never seeing a single person until I was packing up my stuff and a forest service guy came by to chat.

Now the weather is becoming "unsettled" and I'll need to be much more flexible in my times and locations as I try to stay below the snow line.

With any luck there's another couple weeks before water temps drop to where the trout become somewhat sluggish. Then it's time to break out the ultralight rods and fish the valley lakes until the snows begin to melt.

Sort of a cycle-of-life sort of thing.