Boulder Mountains

 

 

 

 

I haven’t fished with Paul Judd since he joined in on a trip to fish Montana’s Madison and Beaverhead Rivers in I think it was 2008. It’s always a treat to hang with the Judd Man. I am excited to meet up with David & Hammer, who drove up from Phoenix to reunite with us in the absolutely beautiful country of the Boulder Mountains.

I think when you hit the town of Bicknell you see the red rock mountain, and the Freemont running through the town (Bicknell Bottoms) its maybe some of the most stunning topography Utah has to offer. From Hwy 24 you make your way over to the town of Torrey, which has a turn off to Hwy 12. That road takes you through an amazing range of almost 12,000 feet of pine and aspen mountain top of the Boulders, to the red and white rock of Escalante Grand Staircase forest, to Bryce Canyon.

Forget even talking about the rivers, the lakes, the fishing—just forget about even talking about fishing, let’s just talk about the drive. Where else in the world can you see such a range of terrain? I don’t really know the answer for sure, but I think I can say—nowhere else in the world can you see that! Many parts of the west have truly stunning red rock canyons and formations, but I just can’t think of an area that is like this—with such range and diversity.

We drove up from the town of Escalante on Hells Backbone (what a great name for a road) to Posey Lake. David & Hammer arrived about 4 hours before us, and had set up camp. Not a sole was on the whole lake—what luck. I prefer to camp in what’s called “primitive” camping areas, but honestly not a sole was camping up there. The next day though, one solo man decided to camp right next to us through. We wolfed a yummy Dutch Brat dinner, in the dark, and enjoyed a bottle of Camp Fire whiskey courtesy of my buddy Colby. I would like to elaborate more on the absolutely hilarious antics that resulted as the night progressed but some things need to stay at the lake.

The next morning after some pain and suffering (look at the pic of Paul’s face) we slid out of the tent on our quest for many small rivers that are home to many large fish—information directly from the mouth of the Oracle. To our disappointment they were pretty much dried up. The Oracle had warned me about this because this area hasn’t seen a lot of water this year. But no worries we made our way over to the Black Canyon and to the upper Antimony River. Hammer and I broke off from David, and we pushed it until dark; what I should really say is that I pushed it until dark. We had a long and hard drive back to camp on dark winding roads.

The next day I wanted to explore more of the lakes on Hell’s Backbone, or even make our way back to Bicknell to hit “The Bottoms.” But reason, a touch of wisdom, and the look of all of their faces told me the best thing to do would be to work Posey Lake. It was the best decision of the whole trip. We stalked the shores of the lake, and in terms of fishing, it didn’t get any better than watching both Paul and David hone their killer instincts and casting technique to bring up fish to take their dries.

David caught the biggest trip of the trip, a healthy Brooke in pursuit of his orange #16 stimmie. It was awesome to see him drop a cast in just the perfect spot in front of this bad boy, to see the take and the set. It was pretty much the exact story with Paul. It brings such satisfaction to see someone go from awkward and struggling, to focused, precise and deliberate. It is also great to see them have a fish take their fly. Hammer had his night of glory on Antimony Creek the night before.

All said and done we didn’t catch a ton of fish, and the ones that we did catch were by no means trophies. But I had as good a time fishing as I ever have. I can say it a million times, and not say it enough—it’s not about catching fish. Maybe for me it’s about seizing all the other things. I hope they all had as good a time as me. One last note: the final night’s dinner was a huge Dutch oven success for me. I started out wanting to make a sort of shrimp Cajun dish. It ended up having about every animal from the farm and the sea in it when it was all said and done. But they all sat back in their chairs, full and happy.