Union Valley 8/7-8/8

Had a bunch of friends that wanted to go camping, I suggested Union Valley and everyone was game until the day before when everyone bailed out on me, but my girlfriend and I still had the time off of work so we were gonna go anyways. Everyone asked me when was the earliest I would be willing to leave? Like a smart ass not thinking anyone else would be crazy enough to wake up that early I said 0500, but that back fired on my when everyone including my girl friend said ok! Woke up way before the butt crack of dawn. Got everything together, picked up Deni and off we went up the mountain.

Arrived at the lake around 0700 and put the boat down in the water. The launch ramp here is a ways off from the camp grounds so I had to get the boat over to the camp grounds and my truck. Originally with everyone coming this wasn't an issue, but with just me and Deni, Deni not knowing how to drive my stick shift truck and never driven a boat before she had some learning to do. It was going to be way easier to teach her how to get the motor working on the boat then to teach her how to drive stick so I showed her the basics. Made sure she could start it up and everything on her own and then off she went.

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I was a little nervous about letting her go on her own, but it wasn't that far and its not like we were in the ocean or in the delta where I had my mishap.

Met her back at the camp ground got everything situated and then we hit the lake to do some fishing.

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We worked the banks and some rock piles with robo worms for a good while until we finally found some

schools holding in deeper water.

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Fished em carolina, texas, and on drop shot rigs didn't matter it all worked as long as we were fishing 10-20ft of water.

Didn't bring any fire wood along so after that quick fix we ran across the lake to another campground area where I've been to before where I knew had an area with tons of dry fire wood laying around everywhere.

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Little bit of time and some elbow grease and we had more then enough for a couple of nights.

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Nice and tight wood bundle complete with handles made for easy carrying and transport. Work smart not hard.

Talked to a lot of people around the camp grounds and no one was catching any fish anywhere. Most were trying for trout, but even the bass guys couldn't find em. They were all working the shallow banks and no one was trying any deep water.

Evening rolled around and we went out again to try for a top water bite and maybe see some trout rolling.

I introduced Deni to the wonderful world of top water and she didn't end up hooking into any, but she had plenty of blow ups and lost a few that got her heart pumping for sure.

I ended up sticking one on a Zara Puppy

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Biggest of the day.

No trout though. Back to the camp to enjoy a nice camp fire and get some rest so I could try and find some trout tomorrow.

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I had a slight temptation to try for koke's, but I have never caught one or even tried for them before and I don't like taking Deni with me on learning trips since she doesn't have the same amount of patience that I have.

Next day we went back into Jones Fork to look for some trout. A buddy of mine took me back here a few years ago and told me its usually always a good place to try for trout. Sure enough we got all the way back there walked in a little bit and I saw some surfacing in the area. Stuck a couple on a Kastmaster, but never landed any of them. Switched over to some salmon eggs below a bobber and started landing some.

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Fish on a stick!

Deni ended up sticking a few on a super duper

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The bite wasn't red hot, but the weather sure was. After a couple of hours we ran out of water and got tired of the heat so left there with a few trout for dinner and left a couple of bass with some sore lips as well.

Worked the evening again for another top water session for a few more blow ups and one more fish to the boat. Stayed that night and back home this morning in time to unload everything and get ready for work again.

Bass fishing was good, trout fishing sucked until we found em. The whole trip was a blast and some great fun with the girl friend. Glad I was able to get a camping trip in this summer before life got too busy with school and work.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark