Joey Bagels
Well-known member
Another trip to Salt Lake City for business meant another chance to add a couple days vacations and hit up my old friend, the Green. I first fished it 20 years ago. And it was a trip 4 years ago that inspired time to finally join this forum. Lots of great memories on this river and the surroundings.
I got to the place where legends roamed. This is Del Canty’s record rainbow trout (39.5” as I measured it) and I think Joe Butler’s record brown. Same length.
Stopping to pay homage to the reservoir was the first order of business the next morning.
I arrived the evening previous and went to check the river before eating and settling in. It’s been bumped up to 4500 cfs from last weeks 1200-2500 to help Razorback Suckers spawn downstream. Hey, they were here first and fair’s fair. Some of the anglers were coming in grumbled. The guides were saying things like: “At least you got a fish!” Oh boy... this could be tough. At breakfast the next morning, talk around the diner wasn’t inspiring. One guy claimed his guide assured him one fish every 3 hours was average (!) Others were talking about the river being “all tore up.” After lots of coffee and oatmeal, I made tracks to the river and started upstream with magpies and redwing blackbirds calling their greetings.
The water was flowing fast and high, but fish were around and eating Baetis and midges. I went to work with nymphs and got a few of these and lost a couple of good browns because I suck.
I had some come up to inspect a Chernobyl ant, but none ate, despite there being lots of these all over the place.
They were into little nymphs and that’s fine by me. Next day (today), it was another story completely. There were trout rising in most quiet water spots and even the deeper, swift pools after about 11:00. Oh sure, I caught a bunch on nymphs too from 8:30 on.
But it wasn’t long before I had to experiment with terrestrials. Watching a fish casually swim up and suck in a big foam fly makes me feel all kinds of happy. One fish ate a tan Chernobyl.
Others firmly declined it, making me run through the battalions of beetles, hoppers, cicadas, and ants. AH-HA! The ant! That’s the ticket! All inhaled it without hesitation.
It was interesting to me because there’s a few cicadas around, but the fish definitely aren’t clued into them yet.
A few more fish on nymphs rounded out the day before I had to head back to SLC to catch a 6:20 am flight tomorrow. I’ll be thinking about the pair of otters I saw. And the osprey, the great blue heron that a rafting guide assured his clients was “an American Bald Eagle,” the marmot, and all the insects and flowers.
One of my favorite places on earth.
Now I will hide out at home over the holiday and start planning for my next trip to this corner of the planet. And dream of these.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I got to the place where legends roamed. This is Del Canty’s record rainbow trout (39.5” as I measured it) and I think Joe Butler’s record brown. Same length.
Stopping to pay homage to the reservoir was the first order of business the next morning.
I arrived the evening previous and went to check the river before eating and settling in. It’s been bumped up to 4500 cfs from last weeks 1200-2500 to help Razorback Suckers spawn downstream. Hey, they were here first and fair’s fair. Some of the anglers were coming in grumbled. The guides were saying things like: “At least you got a fish!” Oh boy... this could be tough. At breakfast the next morning, talk around the diner wasn’t inspiring. One guy claimed his guide assured him one fish every 3 hours was average (!) Others were talking about the river being “all tore up.” After lots of coffee and oatmeal, I made tracks to the river and started upstream with magpies and redwing blackbirds calling their greetings.
The water was flowing fast and high, but fish were around and eating Baetis and midges. I went to work with nymphs and got a few of these and lost a couple of good browns because I suck.
I had some come up to inspect a Chernobyl ant, but none ate, despite there being lots of these all over the place.
They were into little nymphs and that’s fine by me. Next day (today), it was another story completely. There were trout rising in most quiet water spots and even the deeper, swift pools after about 11:00. Oh sure, I caught a bunch on nymphs too from 8:30 on.
But it wasn’t long before I had to experiment with terrestrials. Watching a fish casually swim up and suck in a big foam fly makes me feel all kinds of happy. One fish ate a tan Chernobyl.
Others firmly declined it, making me run through the battalions of beetles, hoppers, cicadas, and ants. AH-HA! The ant! That’s the ticket! All inhaled it without hesitation.
It was interesting to me because there’s a few cicadas around, but the fish definitely aren’t clued into them yet.
A few more fish on nymphs rounded out the day before I had to head back to SLC to catch a 6:20 am flight tomorrow. I’ll be thinking about the pair of otters I saw. And the osprey, the great blue heron that a rafting guide assured his clients was “an American Bald Eagle,” the marmot, and all the insects and flowers.
One of my favorite places on earth.
Now I will hide out at home over the holiday and start planning for my next trip to this corner of the planet. And dream of these.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Last edited:
Well done.
