Dumb Fish In Smart Water

Destination:  Flaming Gorge ~ The Green River in Utah.  It was a nice weekend to get out.  25 degrees as a low and hoping to reach 40 degrees as a high.  A last minute trip to the Green River, about 4 hrs away.  I have never been there before.  I have always talked about going, but it never came to fruition.  But, when I told my friend Jeri that the Provo was planned... Well, she had another idea.  And I'm not the River Damsel if I don't take on an adventure...right?  I was a little skeptical as it had snowed about a foot the week before.  But, when we got there... the snow was just in the forest with the deer, elk, and the many hunters in their hunter orange.  The drive was gorgeous.

As we approached the small community of Dutch John, we had to cross over a dynamic bridge and the 500 foot dam (elevation 6,048 ft) where the Flaming Gorge Reservoir ends its 91 mile run from its beginnings near Green River, Wy. 

Below the dam, the cold and clear Green River resumes the journey it started as a small stream in the headwaters of the Bridger Wilderness Area of Wyoming. 

Well, I was definitely glad that I drove out the night before putting my line in... And a "welcome" at the restaurant made me grateful that my bear spray was packed. 

The next morning, it was just a five mile journey down the road to "Little Hole", the popular Green River access point.  There are several boat launches as this is a popular place for drift boats and guided floats.  The river is divided up into Sect. A, B, and C.

We headed upstream towards the dam in Section A on the first day.  This is about a 7 mi stretch of some of the finest trout water you can find.  There is an estimated 20k per mile of cuttbows, rainbows and brown trout in this section.  Incredible!!  And guess what?  Most of these fish are extremely smart as they see many anglers and drift boats.  So, we had our work cut out for us.  We headed out to the "Aquarium" as it is affectionately called.  What would we find???

An hour or so in... My brown trout felt like an anchor had been dropped at the end of my line!  Whoohoo!!  The newly tied on flies made the difference!  One red, San Juan worm was the appetizer... Definitely the toothiest trout that I have caught... And how do you like that gnarly jaw???  = )

Saying goodbye is never easy... But, we put him back to let him continue his journey.

  

And now for the sad tale of not hiring RD as a photographer.  Jeri had the first fish, a beautiful rainbow.  But, as I was snapping away with the camera, it wasn't being saved.  Hence, a decision was made as we headed back to town.  We had to come back the next day and fish Section B.  We knew that we could find a few more "dumb" fish amid the 20k that were swimming in front of us...surely! 

Another trip to the Trout Creek Fly Shop. (They loved us!)  And a drive down to the Flaming Gorge Resort to find the "Gorge Burger" that my friends had told me about...

The next day was spent downstream on the B Section.  And Jeri got a chance to find yet another rainbow... And a pretty nice one!

And finally a brown trout.

I know what you are thinking... Are all of these fish this big?  The answer:  YES!

Honestly, the smallest fish in this river stretch is probably 15" and that is no small taking...  The challenge is fooling these educated cruisers.  They might even have PHD's for all I know.   Each fish, we relished... Even if they were "dropouts".

Wading...

 Walking...

Enjoying...

The fall browns have to be my favorite trout to catch...

And so we had success with a few, dumb trout out of thousands of smart ones and left behind memories of a great fishery... The Green River. 

Flaming Gorge Reservoir

As in every "RD Adventure", something unusual happens.  But, I really didn't think that I was going home via the Mothership...

   

Picture taken by Jeri Simms~Masters as I departed...

Well, I guess that it is time to "Phone Home..."