I need to buy rain pants
trident lake// Tiger trout, Arctic grayling and grilled cheese
Nights out: 1 Miles driven: 135 Soundtrack: Prof, Good Time Boy
losing to the mountains can still be pretty damn wonderful.
Day 1
Well, Mother Nature won this weekend. A planned two-night trip turned into only one. Utah got hit with the leftovers of a hurricane in the Pacific. Rain, wind, and cold weather covered most of the western US, including the High Uintas. I knew this before leaving, but wanted to test my abilities. Or at least that’s what I told myself. Really, I just wanted to go catch some fish and didn’t want to wait for another weekend. So I packed up my gear, grabbed the heavy winter jacket, and hit the road.
James and I cruised up, found a perfect campsite at the edge of a meadow near Trident Lake. I sent Caleb a pin, didn’t unpack anything except my fishing gear, and walked down to the edge of the water. I fished for what felt like an hour and a half, but when I actually looked at my watch, five hours had disappeared. Pulling beautiful brook trout out of a lake has a sort of time-bending effect.
@Caleb Leftwich
I finally hung up the gear once it got dark and joined James and Caleb around the fire. I made some grilled cheese sandwiches, cracked a beer, and started setting up camp in the dark. We knew the weather was coming and that it was going to get rough. And then, without warning, the sky opened. No introductory drizzle. No warning gust. One second we were dry, the next we were scrambling through a downpour. We hurriedly grabbed snacks and drinks, and each took off to our respective forts to wait it out. But it never stopped. It rained until the next morning. And then it rained some more.
Day 2
We woke up to rain and wind with short breaks between the waves. One break just happened to be long enough to get a fire going, make some pancakes, and rig up the rods. We took a short jaunt up the road to Washington Lake with one goal in mind: catch some Tiger Trout.
Right as we got to the lake, all hell broke loose. The temperature dropped at least 15 degrees, the wind picked up to 40 mph, and sheets of rain fell. Being stubborn, we tried casting anyway. I’m pretty sure my first cast got caught in the wind and somehow landed behind me. So I tried a hundred more times and finally got one to land in the water. Turns out that makes it easier to catch fish.
One of my first casts that landed in the water resulted in a pretty solid hookup with something. As I got it close to the net, I saw a color of fish I hadn’t ever seen before. It looked greener than the others I had been catching all summer. Sure enough, it was a Tiger. The wormy markings and green-to-silver fade were pretty remarkable. And the way he hit my fly was different from what I’d felt before. He was as aggressive as the weather. I was beyond stoked, and the others were beyond jealous. I made a quick joke about how the next fish would be an Arctic Grayling. I hooked up another fish, and about halfway through stripping it in, I realized it was, in fact, an Arctic Grayling. Apparently, the gods smiled upon me for being a stubborn ass and fishing despite the conditions.
@James Gessel
@Caleb Leftwich
@Caleb Leftwich
My hands were freezing, my cotton sweats were soaked through, and the hail stung my skin, but I stuck around for one more fish. Sure enough, it was another Tiger. This time, the biggest fish I’ve caught all year. Well worth the discomfort. Penelope was shivering, so I used that as my excuse to head back to the truck. I pretended to be worried about the dog so I could go warm up my hands on the heated seats.
One of my favorite things to do is pack up soggy, muddy gear while wearing soggy, muddy clothes… which is exactly what we did after we realized the weather wasn’t going to let up. With camp hurriedly packed away, we cranked up the heat and hit the road before it became undriveable. We conceded to the mountains and let them have the win. But if this is what it looks like to have your ass kicked by the mountains, I’ll gladly lose anytime.
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Trident Lake, located in Utah's Uinta Mountains, is home to brook trout. The lake offers excellent opportunities for fly fishing, particularly during the summer and early fall. During our October trip, the brook trout were plenty willing to eat, and I spent five hours catching them without realizing how much time had passed.
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Yes! Washington Lake is stocked with tiger trout, along with rainbow and brook trout. Tiger trout are a hybrid of brown trout and brook trout, recognizable by their distinctive wormlike markings. We caught two tiger trout during an early October storm, including my biggest fish of the year. Apparently, they don't mind terrible weather nearly as much as I do.
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Absolutely. I spent an entire afternoon fly fishing Trident Lake without a boat or float tube. Shore fishing can be productive, especially when trout are cruising near the banks looking for food. A simple fly rod and a handful of flies are enough to have a great time. No elaborate setup required.
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Yes. The area around Trident Lake and Washington Lake offers camping opportunities, including established campgrounds and dispersed camping in permitted areas of the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. We found a beautiful campsite near a meadow, close enough to the lake that I could walk down and start fishing before unpacking anything. Check current Forest Service restrictions and campground closures before heading up.
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October can offer excellent trout fishing in the Uintas, but the weather becomes increasingly unpredictable. Cold temperatures, heavy rain, snow, and strong winds are all possibilities at higher elevations. We caught brook trout, tiger trout, and an Arctic grayling during our October trip, despite weather that was doing its absolute best to convince us to leave. Bring warm layers, waterproof clothing, and a willingness to abandon your plans when conditions deteriorate.
Keep Wandering
Perfectly Level: For a slightly less violent introduction to fishing in the Uintas, head over to Christmas Meadows for a creekside camp, a few willing trout, and a weekend with kids and friends.
Cutthroat Chaos: Trade the mountain lakes for moving water and follow along on a trip to the West Fork Duchesne River, where native cutthroat trout and a healthy dose of stubbornness made for another memorable weekend.
Yellowstone Special Edition: Or take the fishing obsession a little farther north to Yellowstone, where wild trout, unpredictable weather, and a few questionable decisions make for a different kind of adventure.
