The Gorge - Whaaaaaaat?

Eager to get some fishing time in, Andrew D. and I headed down to the gorge early monday morning. We were greeted with bluebird skies, light wind, and absurdly good fishing. Oh wait, that didn't happen. It was bluebird and the wind was light up on the rim, but dropping into A Section we were slapped in the face with a blast rushing downstream. It never let up. Oh and the water was cranking at 3060 cfs, more than twice the usual winter flow. Wade fishing was tough. Really tough. Andrew managed four fish in one spot and that was it for the day. I batted a solid .000 unless you count catching myself with a barbed fly, pinning two shirts squarely onto my elbow. That was fun. I see lockjaw in my future. On the upside, I did manage to spend a bit more time behind the camera and have started compiling footage for a video project. Notice the bush in the corner at the end of the clip here, that's the wind we had to deal with.

After a rather nice evening at camp (despite the Utah near-beer), we decided to bail on the river and go find some carp. Having never actually fished for them in that reservoir, the search started slowly.

Dead ends, deep water, and hordes of bovine marauders met us at every turn but eventually we found some promising signs...

That's right, kids, when you're lost in the high desert looking for carp, pay attention to what you see. Signs of a bud light hatch tend to indicate suitable carp habitat somewhere close. Also, sightings of varmint cong tend to be elevated in these areas. Sure enough, we found it and it was prime habitat, however the water was still way too cold and the goldfish haven't moved into the shallows yet. We're getting there though, it won't be long....

Hurt So Good

What the hell am I doing here? It's a question that I ask myself nearly every time I'm waist deep in that gin-clear water and the trout are laughing at me. They're right there, in plain sight, sitting just below the surface, seemingly without a care in the world. Fly after fly visits the water via the end of my line and produces nothing. OK, that drift was bad, that little current pulled my line, that fly was too big, too flashy, too dull, that fish is blind in one eye. This GODDAMNED WIND! After a while it gets to be too much and that big rock in the sun looks like a great spot to sit for a while, so I do what anyone might do in this situation. Sit on the rock, eat a sandwich, and stare at those devil fish. This sucks. The dog's bored and staring at me as if to say "what's the matter with you, why aren't you catching anything?"

So I do the only thing I can really do in this situation. I finish my sandwich and tie up a different rig of absurdly small tippet and flies and hope this one works. There are bugs everywhere, on the water, in the air and up my nose. Usually, this makes fly selection easy. In this case, however, the miniature size and diversity of said bugs make it extremely difficult to narrow down just what the fish want. The size selection is easy, it's going to be the smallest thing I can find in my box. As far as color and shape, well, that's a different story entirely if you happen to be "prepared" for this sort of thing and have a bunch of different ludicrously small flies in there. Wasn't this supposed to be fun?

And then it happens. The one. Suddenly, whatever I just did worked and there's a spunky rainbow yanking my line through a maze of boulders, trying to break free. Nonsensical muttering ensues. "Nooo dont go that ok over he craaaap not the moss you basta yeah this nooooooo you don ok come this way and get..." Finally there's a fish in my net. It's not a monster by any means, but it's a fish. And suddenly I remember the answer to that question. This is why I'm here. Because that fish didn't come easy. Because four hours of beating my head against a wall finally paid off and I know what they want and how they want it. The dog's on her feet now, staring intently at the water, tail wagging with excitement.

We've all got those places that we return to. Whether it's a tiny spring creek or a particular turtlegrass covered flat, they have a pull on us. For some, it's the promise of lots of fish and constant action. For others, it's the promise of a challenge. Whatever the reason, we have to go back. We can try and resist, pushing the thought from our minds, going to different and exciting places, exploring new waters. But at some point, that place calls us back, and we must answer the call...

Streamer Destruction

Floated A section today with Tom Normington, and damn it was good. After four nice fish including a 22" bow in the first 15 minutes off the launch we consistently landed 14-18" browns and bows on streamers all day. The flows are still dropping significantly in the afternoon but it didn't seem to affect the fish at all. Some larger midges are starting to show up in the micros but we decided to forgo dries and kept pounding away with the streamers and were well rewarded. Tom's dog Riley had a blast and kept a constant eye on the action, I thought he was going to jump in after a few casts but he held it together. The pics may not show it, but Tom does smile from time to time. That's his serious face.

It's Gorges in Utah

Headed back down to the gorge with Mark for the past 2 days. Once again A section proved frustrating on Wednesday with only a few fish caught despite a lot of work. On the upside, I did land a nice 14" bow on 7X with a #28 dry midge. I was stoked on that. Of course I did manage to end up falling (literally on my back) into the river and slice off the tip of a finger that evening which was a bit unpleasant. Today proved a bit nastier weatherwise as we headed down B section. The fishing, however, was pretty consistent on streamers and we popped a bunch of nice browns and bows. The video here is the first of the day. It seems the fishing is getting steadily better as the days get longer, the next month down there should be good.

Flaming Gorge 2/3-2/4

Fishing is picking up down in the Gorge. Even with the winter flow adjustments (2 peaks daily) the midge activity has picked up considerably in the past few weeks. Most of the midges are in the 20-30 range, pretty small but productive nonetheless. I fished alone this past week, hitting A section from the dam down on wednesday and B section between little hole and coney island thursday. Thursday was much more productive with a good number of rainbows and browns to 18" on midge nymphs and some great streamer action in the afternoon. The weather was pretty fair, highs in the 30's with a pretty consistent wind blowing upstream one day and downstream the other. Looks like the weather should hold for this week, hopefully it'll be good fishing.

Fishing with tiny nymphs can be daunting for even experienced anglers. Tailwaters such as this one tend to either make you better or frustrate you to the point of giving up. My standard rig here is pretty straightforward although it might sound a bit complicated. If I've got the advantage of having a pretty good idea what I'll be using, I rig these before I leave the house and wrap them around a card that I've cut slits in the ends of. This helps keep them organized as well as eliminates fumbling around too much on the water. I start with a 9 foot leader, usually 4x tapered. I prefer Rio's trout leaders. I'll add about two feet of 5x or 6x fluoro tippet to this (Rio FluoroFlex Plus) and tie on my first fly to the end with an improved clinch knot. For flies down to size 26 I'll then tie on another piece of the same tippet to the eye of the hook, not the bend. This allows the body of the fly to sit perpendicular to the leader, increasing your chance of hookups. This second piece of tippet should be about 1.5 to 2 feet long and I'll attach fly #2 at the end. The second fly is usually a bit heavier than the first, I find it helps to put your heaviest fly at the end of the whole rig to help in turning over your loops. This particularly helps with light tippets, windy conditions, long leaders, and long casts. Tiny midge nymphs sink slowly, so I'll add a piece of split shot halfway between the two flies and vary the amount of weight depending on where in the water column the fish are actively feeding. For surface feeders I'll still add weight, but very sparingly, to get my flies just below the surface film. If I find myself in need of smaller flies, the rig changes a bit. With flies smaller than 26 or so, it's not uncommon to have a very difficult time threading two pieces of tippet through the hook eye on the first fly. In this case, I'll tie the second piece of tippet directly to the first with a triple surgeon's knot, leaving a few inches of one tag end hanging. I find it usually helps to use the end that faces away from the terminal end of your leader. I'll tie my first fly to this tag end with either a loop knot or improved clinch to achieve a similar perpendicular orientation to the leader. Here's the important part: if the tag end is too long, it will cause your fly to wrap around the leader while casting. A shorter length will add a bit of stiffness to the rig and help keep the fly free. This does, however, cut down on your fly's natural motion, so a loop knot to attach it can help. Add an indicator of your choosing somewhere above the whole mess according to the depth you want to fish, and have fun. Just don't pull a bassmaster hookset with this stuff or you're going to be giving away a lot of flies.

Flaming Disaster

So after freezing all night camped near Flaming Gorge, Mark and I hit the river and proceeded to produce one small rainbow all day. It seems A section didn't want to be kind to us last thursday. Despite seeing a ton of fish we couldn't manage to even get their attention. The weather was slightly cloudy and there was a pretty decent midge hatch going off but the fish didn't care. I went so far as to drop a striptease right onto the nose of a decent brown and he didn't so much as flinch. Bummer for us. The dogs had a blast despite being cold all night and didn' seem to mind the lack of fish. We're gearing up for another day on the Snake tomorrow and so the midge restocking continues...