Not About Fishing ;)

Every once in a while I have to take a break from talking about fishing and talk about other things in my life. Although I really really really like to fish. Fishing is not the most important thing in my life.  These two and half people are…..

My family is absolutely everything to me. Amelia is the most amazing wife and mother that has ever existed. She makes sure that benj and I have everything we could ever need or want and she gives wholly of herself with no regard to her own wants or needs. She spends her entire day essentially hanging on Benjamin’s every word and deed and making sure that he is the happiest kid on earth.

They play playdough, they go on walks, they play on the slide outside, they cuddle and watch shows, they go to the library and get books, they play at the park, Benjamin dances while Amelia plays the 

piano, they are seriously the best!!!

We have had a lot of really fun times together and I could never describe them all. Benjamin continues to grow every day. He is getting so big!! He can carry on a conversation, and he is not afraid to give you his opinion. He grabs a hold of some of the best things and he just won’t let them drop. Amelia and I went to the temple a few weeks ago, and we told benj that he couldn’t come but that we would take him soon. From that day forwarded he hasn’t let a day pass without asking to go to the temple. Unfortunately, the nearest temple is an hour away, so we can’t just run up there, but we have promised him we will go soon.  He loves nursery so much!! We had stake conference a couple weeks ago and he couldn’t go to nursery, and you’d have thought it was a national crisis. He loves to play hungry hungry hippos with Amelia and Me, and he would play for hours if we would play with him for that long.  He will not let me out the door for work or anything else without a plethora of hugs and “tisses”, and the same with his mom. I love this little guy more than I could ever explain! I cannot wait to see how he interacts when Dani gets here.

Fishing in South Central Utah

Well, one of my favorite parts of living down here in Sevier County has been getting to fish a whole bunch of places I never fished before. Since moving here, I have fished Upper Box Creek and Manning Meadow Reservoir on Monroe Mountain, Clear Creek in Clear Creek Canyon, Fish Lake, Monroe Community pond, and of course Donkey Reservoir on the Boulder (not new, but so much closer). My two favorite new places are Clear Creek and Manning Meadow Reservoir.

Clear Creek is a small (west fork-ish) stream that flows down Clear Creek Canyon parallel to the I-70 between the I-15 and Sevier Valley. It has small cutthroats that are a blast. The best part of Clear Creek is that I can have my waders on and be in the water in 20 min from my doorstep. I have even started waking up at about 5:30am and running up the canyon before work.  So far, it has been fun figuring out what the cutties are hitting each morning. A classic “hopper dropper” rig always produces fairly well with about a 50/50 split between fish hitting the hopper and fish hitting that day’s favorite nymph. 

Bradley Came Fishing With Me

He is a goober... and I love my Bro!!

Manning Meadow Reservoir is an amazing high mountain lake that sits at about 9,500 ft above the Sevier Valley. This lake is used by the DWR as a natural fish hatchery for Bonneville cutthroat. I have done two late summer trips up to Manning and they were both spectacular.  On both trips, I just ran up the mountain after work and got to the lake around 6 ish.  The fishing was slow while the sun was still hitting the water and I was only able to catch two. One was kind of a reactionary bite on a grasshopper (the hopper had only hit the water for about a nanosecond before the fish hit) and the other was by stripping a beadheaded olive woolly bugger.

After the sun finally went down, the fishing really turned on. The fish were jumping like crazy and I tried 3 or 4 different dry flies before I threw on a blue dunn, they loved it!!! I would wait for a fish to jump and then I’d cast right where it jumped and within 10-15 seconds I’d have a fish. A beautiful 18.5 inch cutthroat provided me with my PR for fish on a fly rod and between the two nights I landed 16 or so fish between the 15-17 inch range… it was so much fun!!! These Bonneville cutties have deep red cheeks and awesome coloring. I really think Manning Meadow is my new favorite fishing spot!!!

To top it all off, I spent last weekend on the Boulder at Donkey Lake. Dad, Bradley, Parker, Preston, and I went up Friday afternoon and camped over. It was a ton of fun!!! For the first time ever on the Boulder, we brought some ways to get out on the water. Bradley and I had our float tubes and Dad brought up the canoe. It was a good thing we had them too!! The water was really low this year, which meant we had tons of weeds. Being able to get out on the water made all the difference. The fish weren’t going crazy like they had been in past years, but we were still able to land some really beautiful brookies. Friday afternoon/evening (while the sun was up) I tried just about everything in my fly box to no avail. Finally, a beadheaded olive wooly bugger with an extremely jerky stripping action and a good 5-6 second pause between strips started producing. As the evening progressed and the sun went down, a purple parachute adams on the top was producing very well. We finished the night with an awesome meal of 9 high mountain brook trout filleted, battered in Red Lobster biscuit mix, and fried in a cast iron pan over a propane stove.  Being in those mountains with the leaves changing and crisp early fall air did me a world of good. There is an indescribable feeling when you get to immerse yourself in the mountains and it is a feeling that ranks near the top of good feelings in this life.

Saturday morning was very cloudy, fairly windy, and it sprinkled most the morning. The fishing wasn’t amazing, but we all ended up catching a couple. Overall, the whole trip was an amazing opportunity for the McGuire boys to get out and spend some time together!!! Its crazy to me how big my little brothers are getting. Bradley and I have always been really close, but seeing how parker and preston are 15 and 17 years younger than me its pretty cool to see them turning into youngmen and falling in love with some of things that I grew up loving. Parker and Preston both caught their first brookies this last weekend, and it was their first trip to the boulder. Here is to many more trips and tight lines!!