A lot of people may not know that a ton of rivers, or section of rivers, have “Fork” in the name. Its kinda weird and makes sense at the same time. I just go with it. This is my story about the Diamond Fork, Just south of Provo, Utah.
After a 4-5 hour drive, in the heat, up I-15 from Beaver, Utah, we arrived at Diamond Campground on the Diamond Fork river. This would be our first campground with no hookups. Good for pricing, but bad for Jaime’s severe lack of humor outside of the 68-75 degree range. She would have to run generator to pump the A/C while I was out. The good point of this, was however, that we were alongside the river, and shaded by some great trees. Its the best I could do within proximity to this river that I heard “Holds some big trout.” and Jaime was a gamer about it, so game on.
We settled into our camp pretty quickly, had a bite and got comfortable. I waited for the sun to move towards the horizon a bit and then packed up the truck for a jaunt up road a bit. I had heard that the Diamond Fork wasn’t fishing very good, and that 6th Water creek, a tributary for the DF, fishes much better.
So I drive up this 2 lane road, along the DF, through some beautiful canyons, and come to a dirt road and a fork. I follow the fort right, over a hill and down the otherside to a bridge over 6th Water creek. I decided this would be my ingress and egress for the evening.
I usually like to start of throwing some small dries, as they don’t disturb the water much, and a dry fly take is one of the best gifts that God has given us. I threw my small purple haze mayflies up to the riffle that washes into the pond and let it float down like feather on the wind. Nuthin, rinse, repeat, nuthin. OK, start working the edges of the pond, nuthin. Arg. OK, lets add a dropper nymph fly off the dry. It will imitate a pupa or larva, about 18″ below the surface. Nuthin. Arg again. But Yay, I finally get to throw my streamer (baitfish/leach) patterns. I like these because they usually bring out the bigger, hungrier fish. Throw it out and rip it back at varied speeds. Nuthin. Arg. OK, lets keep moving downstream.
I moved downstream, down the canyon, through the bushes, all the while knowing I am now in bear country, with my head on a swivel for bears, and a hand on my bear spray, and a firm familiarity with where my .45 1911 pistol is on my hip. (I had yet to get a 10mm or chest holster). Thankfully I didn’t see a bear, but it was a big part of my night anyway.
Back to fishing…. The entirety of the next 9 or 10 holes, and couple hours produced one or 2 little guys. What happened to this great river I went out of my way for? Slowly I started to pick up on that this place was pretty fished out, even being so remote. There were footprints and trails along the river everywhere. In fact, right before I decided to make my way back to the truck, I found two very fresh spools of 5x tippet (fly line). Ya, I was definitely not the first one here in a while.
I made it back to the truck before dark, and started thinking that maybe I was on the wrong stretch of river. Tomorrow morning I would explore more.
As I was driving back to the campsite, I saw an area where there was a a trail to a hot spring on the DF river, and the map shows its also near where the 5th Water and 6th Water creeks empty into the DF river. I decided that I may hit up in the morning. Go up the trail and then up the bottom of 6th Water.
Eventually I got home, explained my day to Jaime, we had some libations and sustenance before discussing tomorrow’s plan. She explained she needed the truck to go into town, and I realized it was time for me to deploy my secret weapon, and newest edition to the family, Pepe, my little Mule.
I love this scene in Romancing the Stone from my childhood. I’ve always wanted a Pepe.
Unfortunately, my Pepe is my mountain bike, on steroids. Its an e-bike, with pedal assist. 2017 Haibike AllMtn 5.0. This will allow me to bike long distances, with all my gear, without being exhausted when I arrive. I put a rack and bags on the back to carry my rods, waders, boots, extra water, fishing stuff, etc.. and if needed, i wear my fishing backpack as well. The other cool thing about it is, that is a really good full suspension mountain bike, so I can explore and get exercise as needed. For exercise, its somewhat like spin class. U can turn down the pedal assist and get a great workout, as it weighs over 50lbs, or turn the pedal assist up when u need a break, or for transportation without exercise. I love Pepe. If you haven’t ridden one, don’t judge. If you have, F off! 😉 Im happy.
Back to fishing…. So, the next morning, I get up and load up Pepe. I take the battery off the charger, hook it up, kiss the lady and take off up the hill a few miles. When I got to the hot springs trail parking lot I took off up the trail. Pepe did great. I was mountain biking along a river on my way to some fly fishing. What could be better?
The trail was pretty great for hiking or mountain biking. Lots of rocks and ups and downs. I was enjoying this way too much, and I hadn’t yet wet a line. After what seemed like a few miles in, I came to a bridge over a 2nd river. That must be the 6th Water. I biked up a little side path on that river for about 200 yards, found a big drop off near the river bank and dismounted Pepe. After unloading all my fishing equip and getting Pepe locked up to a tree, I tied on the usual small river dry dropper combo and started hitting soft pockets around the rocks and banks. This river was very much like the upper Beaver river I had just fished, where hungry trout rose from the depths to inhale small dry mayfly patterns. But, like the night before, something was wrong. I had very little action. In one hole I took one fish. In a normal, healthy river, I would have caught at least 3, prolly 5. Every other hole was nothing. I did this for 2 hours, as it was just beautiful, and I was content with the challenge. I tried many different techniques, streamers, nymphing, big flies and small. Nuthin. Ugh. Eventually I decided to give up and make my way downstream back to the bike. On the way home, I stopped at a few beautiful holes on the Diamond Fork. I caught one 12″ rainbow. Ahem. Diamond Fork, you suck.
Needless to say, I got back to Marge, and took the rest of the day off from fishing. Besides, the fridge was still broken and I needed to get some parts for the big repair job, so I went to town to hit up Home Depot. The next morning we were off to Heber City, near Park City. Fingers crossed for some better fishing, the fridge parts to arrive to Heber City RV park and eventually getting the fridge fixed.
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