Green River

Leave it to the Dr. to make us all jealous…BASTARD!!!!  -  post taken from the Xstream Outdoors blog.

Every year it’s tradition for me to plan a trip to the Green River during the famed Blue Wing Olive Hatch. Its the one trip each year that I am so excited about that I am thinking and planning for it all year. In a way its an adults Christmas. The first trip I took was a little crazy. We caught more fish than I have ever seen caught in one day on BWO’s and ended up with $1,000’s of dollars in tickets and fines. (Stupid Obstructing Justice Rule) Another memorable trip was the first trip with my boat. We floated 3 days with great weather and the big browns would not leave our PMX alone. But just as time changes all things, this years trip ranks up top as my new favorite BWO trip. The trip started well before the scheduled date of April 17-19th. During that time flies were tied, boat was refinished and customized, needed gear was bought, and people that sore they were going to be there dropped like flies. We started the trip with only 4 of the original 15 group members. (Weather, wives, dogs, girl friends, money, jobs, and everything else seemed to be an excuse. I guess its all Obama’s fault) So with Gunner, Mallary, Wayne and myself, we set off for the Green and in search of a rising fish.

Day 1 (Friday 17th)

After a snowy drive we reached the red rocks of the flaming gorge valley. Its always a warming feeling when one descends down the windy path and reaches the clear cool water of the green. The days fishing was red hott from the start. Mallary caught one of the two fish caught with a nymph rig the whole trip, as we launched the boat. After that I noticed midges everywhere, so we hit up a couple of my favorite scum lines and had a blast, as we fished little midges for rising trout. The fishing turned up another level as zeroed in to what they were really wanting and how they were wanting it. The fly of choice was a customized Orange Asher that I created on a wim. (I am sure glad I did) The scum suckers wouldn’t leave this fly alone. It caught fish all day for us. By the end of the day and after a trip to “The Wall” we were about 50 flies short and 25 of those were ashers.

Highlights:

• Waynes and Mallarys huge browns at “The Wall”
• Spread Eagle, I mean bald eagle (What was that eagle)
• Frozen Hands, Feet
• Last ones off the water, floating the last mile in the dark
• Staying in a warm condo and not camping
• tying flies watching fish porn

Day 2
With a better idea of the fishing and the bugs. We started the day with a better idea of what we wanted to do. We started off with dries and never looked back. Midges and BWOs were the flies of choice. We only fished areas that held rising fish, which wasn’t very hard to find. With ideal weather the fishing was off the charts. It rained for about 30 mins as we had lunch and then after that the fishing was even better than before. In places the midges were so think that it looks like their was sand on top of the water. On the way down “the wall” produced right before dark with bwo’s. If Mallary didn’t fall in and get all wet I would have been able to catch even more than 3 fish in 5 mins. It was an amazing site to see hundreds of rising fish in the shallow water run. That night we met up with the rest of the crew Jeff, Laura and Addie. They had a nice warm dinner ready as we got off the river and back to the condo.

Highlights:

• “I love your boat” Happy B-Day Tristen
• Meeting Scott and his girl
• Trav and Mall fishing together-just killing it
• Watching the Rocker

Day 3
Bright skies, warm weather and rising trout is a good way to sum up our last day on the river. We fished our favorite spot from the last couple days and it produced like we knew it would. The fish were a little picky, but a size down or 5 was all one needed to temp them to take our little midges. As the afternoon came, I noticed bigger fish were rising in a fast water seem. I studied the water and noticed the trout were only talking the emerging bwos. With this in mind I hooked and quick released the largest fish of the trip. Guessing it would have pushed 25, but who knows. I was able to pick up a very nice 22 to end the trip and fill my pot for another year. We rowed down the rest of the river fulfilled. As we reached little hole we were greeted with another prepared lunch and a chance to share our days stories, before we had to call it quits.

Highlights

• Osprey catching fish
• Warm Weather!!! not for fishing
• Addie first float
• 22 inch brown on 28 midge