The weekend started off by me doing a quick round trip to Salt Lake City Friday afternoon to cut the lawn and check on things as quick as I could. I wanted to be back in Roosevelt Friday night so I could get enough sleep to wake up early Saturday to take the kayak out for some fishing. I was going to be solo on this trip, PD had things going on Friday night and couldn’t commit to waking up early the next morning.
The plan worked and I was up by 6am on Saturday heading out early. Paradise lake is a ninety minute drive from our house in Roosevelt. This one has been on my list of place to try all summer, I decided it was time to check it off the list this weekend. Kayak was loaded and I set out for a day on the lake. Ninety minutes later and I’m there and ready for some paddle action.
I parked my car and walked up to the top of the dam to scout out where I’m launching my kayak. I was so disappointed at that moment, the fun was over! Only a few small ponds were left at the bottom of Paradise.
The stream coming out of the lake was still flowing some and I found a gentleman there fly fishing. Speaking with him I found out this lake is used for irrigation so the water doesn’t stay around late in the season. He told me it was pretty much gone the end of July. I’m now kicking myself for not putting this ahead of other destinations this year.
While I was speaking to this gentleman I realized he was catching a number of good sized fish out of this stream so I decided to stick around and fish the ponds. Was there still fish in the little water that was left in those ponds at the bottom of the lake bed? Oh yes! I ended my morning and early afternoon on those ponds with well over twenty fish in my net. It went so well I decided to keep a few to take home that day. Not something I do very often, I usually release everything. Brook and Rainbow trout left and right. Most of them really good sized as well.
When I returned home I had to show the boys the score for the day and tell them what they missed out on. That conversation turned to talks of going back that night. PD and I ended up deciding on doing an impromptu overnight camping trip at Paradise. We grabbed the essentials and headed back as quick as we could. With camp set up we had a few hours to fish the ponds that night.
Sunday morning we were up early and ready to get as much fishing in a we could before we had to return home that day. We started off with the ponds and pulled a few good sized ones out of there. I kept one Brook and a Rainbow out of that run. After that we headed for the stream to try out some Tenkara action. It didn’t take long there before PD was pulling them out like crazy. I couldn’t keep up with him. I blamed my limited fly selection I had with me. It is time to go fly shopping after this trip.
What started out as a really bad day in Paradise turned out to be a fantastic fishing and camping weekend with PD. My kayak will be on this water earlier in 2021.