This week Shifty and I went to the Green River, one of the premier, if not the premier fly fishing rivers in the lower 48. Only a couple hours from home, I don't fish it enough. Shifty not being a fly fisher in heart he always goes with me when I need a fix. He hadn't been to this area of the state since his teenage years, I on the other hand fished it with my sons last year with a guide. Which is a great way to fish the river, they know how, where, when and what to fish at all times. Plus the boat lanes are always productive. This trip we waded the river, Shifty did his homework and got all the "hot" flies and info from one of his co-workers that fish the river every week.
We started the trip at 4:00 am where I met Shifty at his place and he drove. We hit the road and made good time pulling into Vernal at 6:30 picking up a few things at wally world and gas, we were on the road again. This time through the rock of ages tour, where each of the rock formations are highlighted until you reach the summit. We reached Dutch John at 7:00 am, got a breakfast sandwich checked out the flows for the day and their new fly fishing shop. They have built a new shop and are still working on it.
After eating our sandwiches we made our way to Little Hole. The take out spot for "A section" of the river for the boats and guides. We noticed a few boats going into the "B section" of the river that goes to Indian Crossing. We readied ourselves for the day. Shifty used a pair of my waders and tied on his flies, his pole that he has had since he was 16, still in great shape and very worthy of the trip. I pulled out my 9 ft and tied on what I had that looked similar to his patterns and we made our way upstream for today. We stopped along the way to look at the water levels and see if fish were rising. This trip was all about dry fly fishing, getting some top water action. We fished in a couple holes together and I gave some tips to Shifty to increase his casting efficiency and then left him for some holes upstream. We didn't make it all the way to the island but only because the fish were going nuts in the last boat lane.
I tried my best to get out far enough in the channel to reach the lane on the other side of the river but the flow was too high and what is generally a ripple was a nice even flow, meaning the river was up a good two to three feet over normal flows. Still I persisted and kept throwing everything in my box that simulated the hatch, but no luck. Shifty caught up with me around 11:00 am and we fished the rest of the day together in this stretch. He wasn't using the "Yellow Sally" pattern that was hatching, he was told this would be the go to fly, so I tied it on and finally coaxed a nice brown trout into hooking up. We fished into the early afternoon and called it for lunch and check-in.
On our way back to Dutch John we stopped at Trout Creek Flies and got lunch at the burger shop inside, a tasty burger and fries but take your bank account. We loaded up on what little supply of flies they had and went to Dutch John where we were staying the night in one of the cabin lites and stowed our stuff.
After a quick break we loaded up and went to Flaming Gorge and fished at Mustang Ridge boat ramp. First, however I need to tell you about the rattle snake we came across as it was crossing the road. Shifty hit his breaks and swerved, but this snake stretched completely across our lane and looked to be a good 2 - 3 inches in diameter. Shifty made a quick turn around to get a picture of it but it was gone by the time we got back. We don't know how we didn't hit it, but it survived our encounter. Back at the ramp we hiked a little bit away from the ramp and found some good rocks to fish from and started fishing. I got a little smallmouth to take a daredevil and then another to take a kastmaster. Shifty got one to hook up but lost it on the way in, we ended with 3 fish from the bank there. and Shifty wanted to go fish the river for the rest of the evening.
We got back to the river around 5:00 pm and went upstream again, The hatch was long over and the fish weren't surfacing as much. A half hour into our fish the clouds came in and dumped on us. Shifty fished for a little while longer and I waited for breaks in the sheets of rain that were coming down and tried some lures. Nothing was enticing them to bite and we were soaked. Calling it a day on the river with only one fish in the net for the day was discouraging. That evening we went to Flaming Gorge Resort where we got a few more flies that JD told us to get and Shifty almost bought a set up for a lot of cash but refrained. We ate dinner at the restaurant, again pricey but okay food if they have what you want. We made our way back to the cabin and called it a day around 10 pm.
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