Boulder Mountain Fishing Trip

Some of my best friends and myself had been talking about going on a fishing trip somewhere in Utah for the longest time. There are many different places to fish in Utah but we wanted to go somewhere in the mountains that isn't heavily populated with people. We first started looking up best places to fish in Utah and there were a lot of known fishing lakes and rivers that we had heard of but we came across one that really stood out to us. There was a website that talked about Boulder Mountain, which is right in the center of Utah. It has over 80 different fishable lakes/ponds that you can hike to and each of them contain many different native species of fish. Without really knowing much about the area, we decided this was the place.

Prepping for the Trip

It was the 4th of July weekend and we all had work off so we decided that was the perfect weekend to head up to Boulder Mountain. We packed for 3 days of being in the outdoors and got enough food to feed all of us guys that were going to be there for that weekend. We then loaded up all of our gear and clothes into the back of my friends truck and we were on our way. It was the quickest trip preparation that I had ever done because we didn't really know what to expect so we packed light and decided to just go with the flow.

Beginning of The Trip

Boulder Mountain is a very large mountain range with many different lakes on it so we targeted 3 main specific lakes and we headed that direction. Our camping location was at Donkey Reservoir which is near the peak of the mountain range so we just plugged in the name to our GPS system and we were on our way. 

After 3 hours of driving, we made it to Loa, Utah which is a small town in the middle of Utah and it sits at the base of Boulder Mountain. Once we made it there, we saw a sign that showed "right to boulder mountain" so we took that right and hoped for the best because it was a dirt road and our GPS quit showing us directions. We drove on that dirt road for about an hour up a windy, bumpy road that took us to the peak of the mountain and we saw many lakes on the way but none were labeled Donkey Reservoir so we kept on trekking. Well the trekking didn't last very long because that dirt road came to an end quick once we made it to the top of the mountain. We were all confused because we had no idea where the lake we were looking for was because we had little information about the place. The stress and tension started to build among us five kids that are in our 20's because we thought, "great we are lost in the middle of no where with no directions." Lucky for us a truck came driving towards us so we flagged them down and asked them where Donkey Reservoir was located. Once again the confusion struck as the passengers of the other vehicle started laughing and told us we were no where near the reservoir and that we drove up the wrong side of the mountain. Well it was about 2 hours from dark and the other guys told us if we drove quick back down the mountain and around to the other side then we might be able to make it to our destination by dark. The guys informed us that we needed to take a dirt road up the mountain once we reached Teasdale, which is a little town just passed Loa. So it was a race between us and the sun to get to our next checkpoint.

We made it down that bumpy mountain that took us an hour to get up, in about 20 minutes and we proceeded to the highway. After driving for a few more miles, we made it to Teasdale and saw a dirt road that kicked off to the right up the mountain so we took that road hoping for the best. This road was an even windier, more bumpy road, that was made for a smaller vehicle and we were in a pretty large truck but we didn't care. We were determined to get to this lake before dark. About half way up the mountain and a few dings in the truck from hitting into big boulders, we had yet seen any sign of Donkey Reservoir and everyone was starting to get hangry (hungy/angry) from the bumpy frustrating ride and around the next bend in the road was a sign that said "Donkey Reservoir, 2 miles." We were all so excited and all of the stress was let out of the truck because we knew we were so close. After those 2 miles we could finally see the lake and it was just before dark and we knew we were about to have a great weekend of fishing. We found our camping spot just off the road and hurry and set up camp so we could get to bed and wake up in the morning to start our "fishing trip."

The Next Couple Days

Waking up that next morning was so exciting because we knew we were no where near civilization and you could see the fish jumping all over the lake so we knew we were about to have an amazing day of fishing. I had just got into a new type of fishing called fly fishing and that is where you whip around your pole in the air so the fly on the end of the line looks like a real fly and the fish will attack it once it hits the water. Not even within 2 minutes of my first cast, which was probably horrific because I am a beginner at fly fishing, I had a fish on the line! It was such a great feeling to know that all the stress finally paid off because catching a fish really is one of the greatest feelings ever. I reeled that fish in so fast because I was so excited to see it. I had never seen such amazing looking fish in my life. Most of the fish there are native fish and all have amazing color and looks to them. 

For the rest of time we were there, we caught over 50 fish between the five of us and we all had the time of our lives. It was such a great experience to have with the guys that I care about a lot and so many fun memories were made on that trip.