For Memorial Day weekend this year, we headed up to explore more of southern Utah. After a day in Bryce Canyon, we hit up Boulder mountain in search of some big brook trout. Along with big brookies, we also found plenty of aspen, rain, sleet, splakes, and even some tigers (trout).
We spent Memorial Day weekend exploring the diverse landscape of Southern Utah. One of the days we wandered the hoodoos of Bryce Canyon and the other two we walked among the aspens on Boulder Mountain, in search of fish.
Boulder Mountain is an interesting place. It’s a high elevation plateau that drops steeply into the surrounding deserts. It’s an 11,000 ft mountain oasis surrounded by the red rocks of Southern Utah.
The first day we spent on the north slope hitting a few of the lakes beneath the rim. It was a cool, cloudy, and breezy day. The kind of day that makes you realize May is the heart of spring not the beginning of summer at 10,000 ft. We managed a few nice fish, including our first splakes.
The second day we wandered around a few of the lakes on the southern end of the mountain that were supposed to have some decent brookies and tiger trout. It was cool and breezy again, but there was more moisture in the air. We would fish for a while, then run back to the car when the freezing rain hit, then the sun would come out for a while and we would fish again. We repeated this process for most of the day.
The lakes on Boulder Mountain are managed for trophy fish, so they limit the fish population in each lake to reduce competition for food, which results some large fish. It makes for some slow fishing at times, but when you catch one, you know it’ll be nice.
Tyler and I (Cory) caught our biggest brookies ever this weekend – two fat 17″ and 16″ers. Tyler also landed his first ever Tiger trout and it was a beauty.
