Green River Report March 31, 2010
Me and a brown trout
I recently had a chance to float the Green River in Eastern Utah with a couple of old friends Andrew and Kevin. We had a great time. We floated the A section from the dam down to Little Hole in a drift boat we rented from the local lodge. The weather was incredibly snowy, but we carried on undaunted. The day started a little late as we were recovering from our late-night drive to the lodge which included plenty of snow, an encounter with pajama clad vixens in the Mountain View, Wyoming Maverick gas station, and a VERY near miss with a bounding deer (actually she brushed up against the car, but there was no real contact).
Kevin and a brown trout
After hearty breakfast at the lodge, we headed off to the river. We started the day with some deep nymphing, but found that to be a little slow, mostly I think this was due to not finding the right depth and feeding lanes. Within an hour of getting on the water however, we found ourselves in the midst of the biggest midge hatch I have ever seen. They were on the water in droves and everywhere you looked there dozens of fish up and feeding actively on the surface. We pulled over to make some rigging adjustments and I got out to wade fish. I had two beautiful browns in a matter of moments interestingly enough they were both caught on my olive compar-a-merger pattern which let me know that the BWO were also getting ready to join the act.
Nice healthy rainbow trout
After dialing in the bug selection, we set off with Andrew throwing a dry midge and Kevin nymphing. We got into fish right off the bat. The nymph rig turned out to be the most successful although they both caught fish.
We continued to make our way downstream with regular success all along. By the time we made it to Secret Riffle, we had boated about 10 fish. The snow was still falling and the bugs continued to pour off the river. This was about 2 in the afternoon. At this point we switched over to streamers to hit the long stretches of pocket water that lay ahead. This was a successful strategy and started picking up several fish on streamers.
Andrew and a nice rainbow
We mainly were throwing ginger colored stuff. The most successful ones were a cone-head sculpin and a monster oil can which is like the big mean brother of a wooly bugger. As we got closer to Little Hole the weather actually started to warm and change. There was a definite drop off in the number of fish taking the streamers, although they continued to follow. We finished the day with a couple of laps around the shelf across from the Little Hole boat ramps until wind forced us to get off the water. We had a great day.
Ice "anemone"
The drive home was nearly as eventful as the drive there, only with much more snow and ice. By the time we got to Evanston, Wyoming our car was encased in ice and there were some cool ice formations on the hubs of our wheels. They looked like sea anemones. I can’t wait to get back!
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Cheeseboy said:
Apr 08, 10 at 7:23 PMThat looks awesome. I’ve never thought about fishing there in the winter, but it looks like there is some good catchin’ afoot. (I have a hard time speaking outdoorsy)
MB said:
Apr 08, 10 at 9:39 PMWe didn’t really mean to fish it in the Winter, but the weather was definitely wintry. I think the weather really made the midge hatch something special and really provided a new perspective to the canyon. It was a really fun trip and we only saw 2 other boats all day. Pretty much had the river to ourselves.
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