Big Brook Trout in the Uinta Mountains

Brookies generally don’t get all that big in the Uinta Mountains or in most mountain waterways.  Now and again you stumble into an area that where you start off by catching a few small brook trout and then… Whammo! You rip into the lips of a trophy brookie that takes you for a ride! This lake is definitely one of those areas where, on the right day, you can catch a lot of good cutthroats and brookies and now and again hook into one that goes into the 4-5 pound range.  Brookies have always been one of my favorites to fish for.  Generally, they are much more aggressive than other trout, will hit almost anything you throw at them, and put up a strong fight.  Pound for pound they are among the strongest of the trout and char varieties and among the tastiest as well. 

Island Lake is nestled just beneath the rocky peaks of the western Uinta Mountains. It’s not a very popular destination and it requires a good amount of hiking on less than well-traveled rocky trails.  The hike isn’t terribly aggressive in terms of vertical ascent but it is a solid six or seven mile jaunt.  The trail is poorly marked and dead fall occasionally blocks it all together. A few areas will test your scouting skills and may present difficulties in choosing the right path to follow.  I’ve hiked in and out of this lake in a single day with a few hours of fishing in between. If you plan on the same trip you better be prepared for a full day and have flashlights with you just in case you fish longer than planned and end up hiking a few miles in the dark.

The trail usually is muddy and even into late June and July you can run into a few deep snow drifts. Good water proof hiking boots are a must. Horses will certainly do well on this trail but be aware of the bogs and swampy areas where elevated platforms have been built up for hikers.

Flies work well on this lake and so do gold and black panther martins, red and white Daredevils, the frog patterned Daredevils, and gold, hammered brass Krocodiles. Don’t be afraid to let your spoons sink to the bottom and jig them back slowly. Often the large brookies will follow your gear in right to shore and strike just a few feet away. In doing so you will occasionally snag into sunken logs and hook up on rocks but the risk is worth the reward...

Jealousy and Sibling Rivalry

Tony and Tom Redmon

This is a hole Tony and I fished in just a few days before...

There is only one thing that distracts me more at work than knowing my two little brothers and my dad are fishing. That is having them send text messages to me all day and knowing they are catching lots of big fish! Not to mention that they borrowed two of my rods and my fish finder...

The phrase "the early bird catches the worm" doesn't mean a thing to these three.

Tony Redmon

This bunch of fisherman is the kind to sleep in, take their time, and refuse to fish all day.  Usually I criticize that kind of behavior but now and again they prove all my theories dead wrong.  This morning, to their credit, they actually did get up somewhat early but they got caught in a white out blizzard. When they arrived at the lake they were unable to find the holes Tony and I fished in just two days before due to the poor visibility and not to mention we didn't mark the spot with a GPS.  After wondering around for quite sometime, the sun finally broke through long enough for them to find the holes.

As soon as they got their jigs to the bottom they started laying into the fish.  Within a short time they had a double hook up.  A short time after that, they hooked up another double!  My youngest brother, Taylor didn't even have much time to fish as he was running back and forth between Tony and Dad helping them land fish.  All in all they had a great day with catching around 10 fish. A few were over the 20 lb range and a couple dipped into the 30's. Man I wish I could have been there!   

Tom Redmon

 The following day I actually took the day off work and went with Dad back out to this same area.  To see what we caught that day click here... it was one of the best days of fishing at Flaming Gorge I have ever had... I would say that for all the jealousy I felt while they were fishing, that day made it all better.

Taylor Redmon

The Trip that Started it All

We hadn't fished lake trout much this winter at Flaming Gorge until we had heard that some friends had caught a couple great fish through the ice in an area that we had been waiting for to freeze over.  Our schedules finally matched up and I was able to talk my little brother Tony into getting out on the ice. Tony and I are very competition when it comes to fishing but no matter what we always have a good time.

 The first area we fished was slow but we saw a few fish moving through the area.  I had one good hit right off but the new knot I was testing to connect my monofilament leader to my braided line snapped at the hook set.  We readjusted with a new knot and got back to work in no time flat! Tony's fish locator also wasn't working quite right and after a few hours of not catching fish and fighting a steady 30 mph wind we had enough.  We decided that we needed to get the "skunk" out of our sleds and spend some time focusing on rainbows. After a few more hours with no hook ups we almost gave in and went home.  Good thing we didn't. The place we were fishing rainbows was near an area that I had scouted out while fishing in the boat a few years earlier and I remembered we had seen a lot of fish in the area.  Unfortunately, we didn't bring the GPS and couldn't find the exact numbers so we just started wandering around on the ice in the general direction we thought the spot was in.   Eventually we found an old hole someone had drilled days before. After checking the depth and terrain of the area with the fish locator I decided that we might just be close enough to the area I initially set out for. 
(A good trick I learned years ago that saves your strength and keeps your auger blades sharp is to take a water bottle with you and just pour a couple teaspoons of water on clear ice and put your transducer directly to the ice and let it transmit.  Usually you can transmit through the ice to get an idea of the depth you are standing over.  I will often write the depths next to each spot I check to get a feel for the underwater terrain and to find rises or drop offs.  Believe it or not but I have actually been able to see fish near the bottom when transmitting through the ice! Go Humming Bird fish finders!)

We dropped our gear and we immediately had fish move in all around us. This was somewhat surprising due to the lateness of the day but seeing that many fish was encouraging. Both of us started getting bites immediately but we just could not hook up. For some reason the fish weren't taking our jigs right. I reeled up several times to check the jig body expecting to find bite marks but every time they came up unmolested. They seemed to be just grabbing the tails below the hook or just slapping them with their tails.  Finally, around 4:30 in the afternoon I hooked up this good fish.  We continued having hits until just before dark but we weren't able to hook into any more that night.  It was just amazing to see the number of fish in that area that continued to move through for hours.  Sometimes eight fish would come by in one big group.  You could see them chase your jigs as you would real up and drop back through them but they just wouldn't attack like you might expect.  All this turned around in a huge way on the next few trips that we went to in that spot... Stay tuned!