The Last Hope – End of 2008

I have been trying to complete what seems like an easy attainable goal – catch a fish on a dry fly every month for an entire year. Easy enough right? Well somehow after 3 years of trying to complete the task I have yet to do so. It's somewhat due to the fact that I don't get out much in December. When I do I fish with streamers or nymph. So this is the last attempt at what was supposed to be an easy task.

Corey and I have been friends for sometime. He is always helping me in the wee hours of the night with some sort of project, photo stuff… its always one thing or the other. We have met just once and in two years have not fished together. BUT today is the day. We agreed to meet on the Middle Provo to shoot some photos and find some sipping Trout.

The drive to the water was a bit eerie at 4:45am. Fog was pushing in and visibility was slowly diminishing. I remember being excited and anxious to capture the morning colors of Mount Timpanogoes and reach my goal.

Corey and I hit the trail at 5:30 or so…temps were about 10 degrees. The trail was patricianly packed down for the first hundred yards before we "post-holed" the rest of the way. After an hour trek we were at the spot - and rather warm after the brutal hike. As we watch the light about to break the morning darkness a thick fog rolled in. NOOOOOOOQ! Although it was not what we had hoped for we used the unique opportunity to our advantage.

Another friend Scott Dickey hiked the hour long snow filled walk to meet up with us. Scott is a skilled tier and I always enjoy seeing his clean creative creations. We made our way up stream to find some sippers and test out a few new patterns/ideas.

Corey had a nice little rod that was perfect for casting tiny midges. I was using a little fiberglass rod my brother Mark had given me for my birthday a few years back.

We all hooked fish BUT I didn't get any off the top. We swung non-weighted nymphs to sipping Trout. I guess I was more interested in seeing if the new patterns would work and taking fish rather than completing my goal.

It was a fantastic day! The fog created an awesome scene to try and photograph. My test pattern worked surprisingly well and I finally fished with Corey and Scott. And it gave me motivation to start fishing my little glass rod to sipping Provo fish.