2012 – FisherDad

Cold Creek Fall Stocking Completed

Brian and I made time Thursday afternoon for a half-day trip to Cold Creek. The last time we fished together was in May 2010. As I recall, on just his second fly-fishing excursion Brian out fished me that day. That was a very good day.

Cold Creek Pond Stocking Reconnaissance

Since it was getting deeper into fall and the weather had turned decidedly cooler I took a quick run up to the pond at Cold Creek to see if it had been stocked this week. As most of you Cold Creek followers know the Nevada Department of Wildlife stocks rainbow trout in the late fall and early spring. The short answer was: no.

Northeastern Nevada – Ruby Lakes, Lamoille Creek, & Illipah Reservoir

Ruby Mountain Range, Elko County, NV. Robinson, Soldier, and Hidden lakes over ridge right of center.

I may have seen more of the state of Nevada than most, but I certainly have not seen all of it. Nevada is such a vast state, over 110 thousand square miles ranking it the seventh largest state. Two New York states could fit into Nevada, or three Indiana states. One part of the state I have not visited is the lonesome northwest. I would love to see the Charles Sheldon Antelope Refuge or fish Knott Creek Reservoir, but they are 600 miles away… one way.

Red Creek Reservoir, Utah’s Dixie National Forest

Enjoying the early morning shadows on road to Red Creek Reservoir, near Paragonah, UT.

As a birthday gift to myself, I took a day off from work to make a fishing day trip. Although I have Fridays off, fishing on Friday is becoming much like fishing on Saturday used to look like. The 4/10 workweeks are more common now, and lots of others seeking more solitude start their weekend excursion on Friday. So, by exercising my birthday holiday on Thursday I got a jump on other enterprising anglers. On top of that, Mother Nature was running her summer monsoon routine and Thursday was forecast to be partly cloudy in the mountains of southern Utah, while the days surrounding Thursday were forecast with thunderstorms. It isn’t good to be waiving chrome-tipped fly rods in a lightning storm.

Pine Valley Reservoir, Southern Utah

This photo looks through the little meadow from which the Santa Clara River enters the small Pine Valley Reservoir. The “river” nomenclature is a misnomer; in reality it is a small creek. Note the two bait anglers settling in near inlet that I had just vacated.

It seemed to me it had been a long time since I had an out-of-town angling adventure. Excluding a 90-minute visit to the local Cold Creek pond, my last fishing trip was with my son Doug over eight weeks ago. I feel as though I missed the best part of the spring fishing. Maybe I feel that way because I anticipate next year will be difficult for spring fishing due to Nevada’s biennium legislative session, but who knows. Regardless, I know the anxiousness I feel about missing the productive early spring season seems directly related to God’s timing.

Cold Springs Reservoir – Wayne Kirch

Doug tubing Cold Springs, Grant Range in distant background

I admit to enjoying fishing alone. When I am by myself I feel as though I am in control of all the decisions. I can decide to fish shorter or longer, stay overnight or not, even to change destinations without consulting a fishing partner. Of course, I only “feel” as though I am in control. When traveling alone and making changes to the “plan” I always check in with my wife, both to keep her informed of my location and travel itinerary as well as to ask permission when such changes affect her expectations of my presence at home.

Chief Financial Officers fishing Cold Creek

Mummy Mountain, 11,527 feet above sea level, from Cold Creek Road

This late winter, early spring has been frustrating as the fishing goes. There have been periods with temperatures around 70 degrees in Las Vegas, and that translates into early morning to mid-day temperatures at the 6,000-foot elevation of 40 to 60 degrees… very tolerable. But life gets busy.

The Pond at Cold Creek

This was Cold Creek pond at 7:30 AM: 35 degrees and no ice. The Sheep Mountain Range is in the background.

Chan’s winter fishing of Utah’s Santa Clara River inspired me, and I was seriously contemplating tubing Baker Reservoir this Friday. Chan was kind enough to verify the Utah Department of Wildlife reports that Baker had not yet frozen over, and I was watching the weather patterns thinking Friday would be a fine time to hit it mid-winter.

Santa Clara River, Pine Valley, UT – Chan’s Way

Baker Reservoir, just off Utah Highway 18 between Veyo and Central – no ice!

Many folks take up fly fishing but quit after a while. I suppose we get attracted to hobbies for one reason or another, and once we learn more about them our interest wanes for who knows why. Perhaps it’s not as fun as we imagined, or the hobby is too costly, or maybe it’s harder than it looks. For fly fishing, the most common beginner complaints are the cost and the difficulty as compared to other fishing techniques. I attempted to address those two fly fishing complaints in my beginners blog, but I know that fly fishing still requires a certain adventuresome spirit to fully embrace it.

Cold Creek Ice Gone

A large high-pressure weather system has settled into the Great Basin and beyond, keeping temperatures around Nevada near record highs for this time of year. For about two weeks the Las Vegas valley temperatures have been between the high fifties and the high sixties. I began to wonder if the Cold Creek ice had melted off.