Green River Fly Fishing

The boys and I decided this year to take a flow trip down the infamous Green River for fly fishing. We left Friday afternoon and after getting some supplies we reached our destination of Dutch John Resort. Where when we pulled up we found it locked up. After calling the after hours number, they came to the front of the store and let us in. We were planning on having dinner at the cafe since it was part of our package and luckily they hadn't turned the grills off. They took our order to go and we got our key to the "Cabin Lite". As we waited two more customers showed up to check in and get dinner as well so they let us stay and eat our dinner in the cafe. We finished up and went to our cabin. The cabin was okay, not what we expected for a "resort". The distinction of "Cabin Lite" means lite on everything it had 4 walls and a ceiling, a small fridge and microwave. The heater was a small plug in space heater that we had to find a working outlet to run it. The shower and bathroom was across the yard and the facilities left a lot to be desired, they were filthy! Filthy enough we were skeptical to even use the facilities. They did not clean them and when we woke up we decided to shower when we got home later that night they were that bad. We were hoping that it wasn't a sign of our entire trip.

After checking into our "cabin" we went fishing on Flaming Gorge at Cedar Springs recreation area. We spent the rest of the evening fishing from the bank getting a couple strikes but nothing to the bank. The evening was perfect and the sunset was superb. We went back to the cabin and played pitch until early morning. The alarm came quick.

 

 

 

 

Saturday morning we met up with our guides at the station. Rod and Spencer, Rod we had run with before a number of years ago, Spencer was our first time with him. We loaded and got on our way. 8:30 am we were on the river, Jim and Parker with Spencer and Rogan and I with Rod. Jim and Rogan had the nose of each boat. Spencer had his boat down stream quickly and Rod banked us while he set up our rigs. We started casting about 9:00 am the other boat stayed a little ways ahead for most of the morning. We fished until 1:00 pm and then stopped and had lunch together. Lunch was a good cheeseburger on the grill and some of Rod's pickled jalapeno's.

 

 

 

 

The morning stretch landed us probably 30 fish, browns and rainbows. Rogan landing landing more than me. Parker and Jim and had about the same success with Parker leading the count on their boat. The fishing was very difficult with winds sustained at around 15-20 mph all morning and gust up to 30 mph. We had a difficult time getting our lines to lay down where we wanted them to. We also had a few tangles due to the wind I had more than my fair share of tangles that's for sure. We persisted with the help of our guides and still put a good number in the boats. The water was stained for the most part and nothing was on top of the water. Making it a nymph kind of day. Watching strike indicators and hearing Rod holler out "Set it, set it, set it" and then say "Well I guess we didn't want that one anyway" was the words of the day......LOL. Meaning we could have had a number more in the boat. Oh well we were having fun!!

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch we covered ground a little faster. The upper stretch has more holes than the lower section. Rod would run through a section of the river as long as we had hits or caught something. Then he would move to the next hole. The river was loaded with boats so we had to wait for holes to open up at times. The lower half was fun and bigger fish were being landed. Jim caught the catch of the day with a 21 inch brown trout weighting in at 3 lbs. He was happy but I guess not nearly as happy as Spencer their guide. He moved them to the bank and seen the big brown trout roll and jumped out of the boat grabbing both rod and net making sure this fish was landed. Parker and Jim said it was quite the site. Rogan caught the fish of the day on our boat with a nice 19 inch 3 lb rainbow trout.

We docked at Little Hole seven miles down stream from where stated that morning at 4:00 pm. We were pretty tired from standing casting and fighting the wind all day but still happy for the adventure we had. We parted our ways with our guides at the station and loaded up the mule and made our way home talking about our day and sharing stories of each boats catches. Spencer was a good guide for the boys, Rod was good for us as well, however he was worn out by the end of the day. We won't be doing the Dutch John Resort again it was not worth the money we spent.

 

 

 

Sand Hollow Bass Fishing

Wednesday morning Shifty Shurtliff and I loaded up his boat and truck and headed 3 hours south to Sand Hollow Reservoir. We started the trip at 4:00 am. We made it to the lake by 7:00 am and was fishing by 7:30 am. We started out on the bank at the north dam. The wind was blowing whitecaps and Shifty didn’t feel comfortable to put the boat on the water, he wasn’t alone. Many boats were at the dock waiting for the winds to die down. We made our way along the trail to the dam and started fishing. Shifty hooked up first with a nice large mouth bass. He then moved to the dam and hooked up another nice bruiser and it dove hard and fast and buried his line and lure into the structures it was hiding in. Shifty got the line free by breaking it off. He re-tied and kept fishing. In the meantime I had landed a small large mouth bass on the rocks that surround this Southern Utah lake. The lake is a man-made lake with dikes holding water that is pumped into it from the Virgin River. It is a recreational lake for all to enjoy from fisher’s, water skiers to scuba divers. It holds large mouth bass, crappie, bluegill and catfish. Our primary target was the large mouth bass. After I got mine back in the water Shifty hooked up another fish. From the distance it looked like another bucket mouth, but it was a large Crappie. This slab was huge the biggest I had seen. Shifty was very happy to catch a bucket list fish even though he had caught them before nothing of this size. We fished until the wind laid down and the water calmed down. I had gotten my second large mouth bass before departing and putting the boat on the water.

We launched the boat and headed for areas Shifty was familiar with. This lake is his favorite bass lake in Utah. He comes down two to three times a year, this was the first chance I had to accompany him. Time was about 10:00 am in the morning. We fished numerous areas around the lake and changed lures often, changing colors and style each time. Going from crank baits to swimming jigs, spinner baits and many more. Some would be hot for a few catches and then not catch another. We moved often trying to find the hot spots of the lake and talking to the anglers on the lake, it wasn’t real hot anywhere. We fished into late afternoon, 4:00 pm, and called it a day for a minute. We ended up with six fish a piece nothing huge but fish none the less. We loaded the boat headed for the hotel, plugged in the boat to recharge the trolling battery for tomorrow and unloaded and checked into the room at the Quality Inn in Washington. Shifty says it is the only hotel that has ever let him plug in and it is easy to access from the freeway. We went to dinner at Players and relaxed for a minute and realized we were both fried from the sun. First time in the sun for both of us.

We made our way back to the hotel and loaded up our gear for an evening on the dam. Shifty threw a swim bait and immediately hooked up with another nice sized slab of a Crappie. We fished until we could no longer see the line to retie lures. The swim bait was the ticket however and we only had one with us. Meaning I didn’t catch squat that evening. Oh well it was great to be on the lake and watch the sunset. Shifty caught two big slab Crappie that evening making a total of 14 fish for the day. Not blistering hot fishing but it was a great day! Went back to the hotel and hit the hot tub to relieve some sore muscles from our first big fishing day of the summer season. 7:30 am to 10:00 pm made for a long day of casting and retrieving. We needed the jets and they felt good.

Thursday morning came fast! 6:00 am wake up and a quick breakfast at the hotel, loaded and on the road by 6:30 am getting us to the lake again at 7:00 am. The wind was blowing on the way in and we planned on being on the bank for a few, but when we came up over the dike it was calm with a small ripple on it, perfect fishing conditions. We launched and started at the island, Shifty caught the first of the day with a spinner bait and I was throwing crank baits. I prefer crank baits, but really only because I know how to fish them. We fished the shoreline of the island for about an hour. I caught a couple Large mouth before we left for the flats and reeds. We fished the flooded flats for about an hour and I caught three more bucket mouths on a swim jig, first time really doing any good with this technique, it felt good to catch a few that way. We moved to another location and Shifty caught a couple. We moved again and got nothing and ended up at the west dike where they pump water out of the reservoir. This dike proved to be good for us. We fished down about 100 yards before we got to a decent depth and I could start throwing my crank baits. It was the perfect scenario rock structure and clear water to about 12 feet. I caught three fish on a chartreuse bait and then we turned around and went back up the lane. Funny how one direction is hot for one color and the other direction is hot for another. Shifty put a bluegill pattern and the other direction was good for him, catching a couple fish. We turned around I put on a chrome blue bait and got a couple more and Shifty caught a couple more. Seeing it was almost 3:00 pm we decided to put a time limit on the finish. We put 15 minutes on the clock and needed one fish to make our mark the day of 13 fish. I was lucky enough to catch it. We had nine more minutes and we fished to end not catching another fish.

We had a great trip to Sand Hollow Reservoir. Not too many people out and the weather cooperated with us. We shall return!

 

 

 

 

 

Rockport Fishing!

The boys went to Rockport Wed. evening and took their grandpa’s boat out for a troll. They fished the normal lanes and had plenty of hits and but the fish were short striking and not too many hook ups. Parker said they were running pop-gear and worm. I told Jim the next time they getting short strikes like to lengthen the leader or go with a double hook set up. Most of the time that will get fish to the boat. They said it was a nice evening a little chilly. They did land 3 rainbow trout and brought them home for the grill. I was with Shifty Outdoors on Sand Hollow Wed. and Thursday, that story is to follow this post.