Fishing Left Fork of North Creek, Zion, Utah


Well, it has been awhile. Now that I am retired, I have no excuse for not posting on my blog. So, here goes.

On July 2, 2017, I drove from my home in Sandy, Utah down to Washington, Utah, just north of St. George. My plan was simple. I would hike down the Subway lower trailhead and catch 50 fish or so and come back.

Here is a little background on this. I have done the Subway hike from the top down about 11 times. Each time I have seen dozens of fish cruising around in the creek in the lower pools. It is never practical to try and combine doing the top down hike with fishing. It is hard enough to just complete the hike. I had always told myself that someday I would get a permit(yes, a permit is needed to be in the left fork drainage) and hike down from the Left Fork Trailhead and fish.

I had asked Dick and Pete if they wanted to go and they each declined. So, I was going solo. I reached the trailhead and started the hike at 7:23 AM. It took me 30 minutes to descend down to the creek where I started hiking upstream. At my pace, at 35 minutes, I figured I had gone close to a mile. To my surprise, I had not seen any fish. I did notice some green algae intermittently along the banks. I ended up hiking for an hour upstream. I had seen only a couple of fish but had passed several deeper pools. I rigged up and this time and began to cast where I thought fish would be holding. I guess I expected it to be like shooting fish in a barrel since no one except crazies like me would fish this area. It took a while but I finally got a fish to take a stimulator fly. It was a nice rainbow about 12 inches. I had put a dropper on to try and increase my chances but with the brush and obstacles I thought it would be better to just have one fly to worry about. I worked my way downstream and over the next couple of hours, I picked up 6 fish, all rainbows, all on a stimulator. They were 12-14 inches long I caught only one fish per pool, meaning that I had to catch a fish, hike down to the next pool and then repeat the process. . I kept fishing until I got back close to the hike out and then continued downstream for awhile looking for more good spots. I found none. I took a break, hydrated and ate a Cliff bar in preparation for the uphill hike out. It was very steep and very taxing. I would try and take my rest breaks in areas of shade, catch my breath and then continue on. One group of youngsters said that it was a pretty hot part of the day to be hiking uphill. I said it was only going to get hotter. It was about 12 noon then. I made it to the ridge where the trail flattened out and I was able to maintain a pace without stopping. The hike down took me 30 minutes and the hike back up took me about 40 minutes, although it seemed longer.

Like I said, I had a plan but it seems the fish had another plan. I have always wanted to do this and now I have. Now, I think I want to do it during another time of the year; maybe the fall. I better start putting in for a permit.