July, 2024
7/1 - 3: This was planned as our regular weekly summer camping/fishing expedition. To get away from the rotten weather in the Colorado mountains where we live, we drove all the way over to Flaming Gorge in Utah. Had lunch and fueled up in Vernal - then made the long twisty drive up towards the dam, turning right at Dutch John and down to Little Hole on the Green River.
Were surprised at the lack of wade fisher people on the upper part of the B section just downstream of Little Hole but hoofed it about a half mile down to start some fishing. The water level is perfect for wading right now. No hatches of any type going on, so I started out using a dry/dropper rig and had zero success. Changing normally useful flies made no difference either on top or down below. As we only had about three hours to fish this spot before driving to camp, I finally went down to a tiny comparadun and started getting strikes.
Have to admit that a combination of my aging eyes, a lot of foam on the water, and the wind made for bad strike sighting. After a good dozen misses finally started getting some hookups and released a few nice browns. As is always the case with these often hooked fish, there's not much excitement associated with playing them.
What was most unusual was that while Sue was walking the dogs around the Little Hole takeout area, she heard several tales from fishing customers that they were not even getting strikes, much less fish on those floats. And we all know that this part of the Green River tailwater is extraordinarily productive given that there are roughly 10-15,000 trout in every mile of the tive mile section of this river. It's insane to have that kind of negative result on the float through the A section.
We drove downstream to the Jarvie Ranch and camped above there for the night. Next morning we worked some more water on the C section without any more success. Did the long drive back to CO and while going to Meeker from Maybell, ran into a long stretch of Mormon crickets on the road. In fact the insects were so plentiful that the road had a sign indicating that slippery conditions were apt to be encountered. Had never seen anything like that before.
OK. The White and its tributaries are still running way too high, Rio Blanco Lake has just been restocked with juvenile bass, and the fishing was rotten in all those places. Take a quick look at the video for what may be the explanation for poor fly fishing over here and on the Green.
7/11-12: A planned solo two day fishing trip got shortened to one due to the heat that now is overwhelming Colorado and most of the rest of the country. I was hoping to do a couple of long days on the water of both the main stem and the Black Canyon stem of the Gunnison River just west of the town of Hotchkiss,
As it's about a 3.5 hour drive to get to the river, I really didn't get on the stream until the maximum heat of the day was upon us. Hatches were sparse as they should be in the middle of the day, and the absence of any kind of wind (for a change) meant that the plentiful hoppers along the bank weren't being blown into the water either.
But surprisingly catching was decent on the main stem just below the forks. Smaller stimis, sallies, and flat wing caddis along with a medium sized foam hopper all caught OK numbers of the local browns. Sizes of the fish ranged from maybe 10 -15 inches. No rainbows at all. I'd have had to go pretty deep for them and in much faster, more aerated water. The Black Canyon stem was difficult to wade where I'd hoped to do so because of a recent upstream release from the dam.
It was impossible to consider camping overnight along the river due to the triple digit temps, so I made it back over McClure Pass late in the afternoon and bivouacked for the night overlooking the Ragged Range. Much cooler up around 9,000 feet. As the Crystal was still running to high to wade, I ate a quick breakfast and drove back home early in the morning.
Here's one of the regular clunky videos we make of these trips:
Last Logbook Entry � for previous day
7/14 - 20: Kind of a messed up trip to one of our favorite Belize destinations - ST. GEORGE'S CAYE RESORT.
Every one of our scheduled UAL flights on this expedition were either delayed or cancelled. That was the worst part of the trip. OK. Maybe not the worst. When we got to Houston from our lift off point in Eagle-Vail, our late arrival to Hobby caused us to be offered (and which we received) a complimentary overnight stay plus a couple of meals. Unhappily the Radisson Motel where we had to spend that night was on the iffy side of good to bad. But we did have a decent oriental (whoops) DEI suggests that we now call it an Asian meal delivered by Doordash. Getting back to the airport for the next morning's flight was really ugly due to the over packed van in which we rode.
Enough. We eventually got to Belize City and then on the shuttle boat to the resort itself. St. George's is still a nice easy and fun place to visit. Our accommodations in the Villa were good as always, the staff is very nice and friendly, and the meals were fine - even the dinners were a bit better than our other recent experiences there. The time zone is equal to our home place in CO so no issues making sleep adjustments. Here are a few clips of the resort and the island experience.
The week went mostly fine. I love to fish for both tarpon (juvenile) and the small but fun bones resident in Belize just on the edge of this island. For many years we've enjoyed kayak paddling to the beaches of nearby Little St. George. Unhappily this time around that place has been overrun with what appear to be squatter families with equally unpleasant vicious dogs - two of whom actually swam into the ocean in a vain attempt to eat me for breakfast. So our inability to get out and do some wade fishing there plus a tide schedule that was too low in the middle of the day threw a wrench into our fly casting plans.
OK. Rest of the long story short. Night (7-8 PM on the resort docks was fine). Ditto for the early AM there. Hooked good numbers of tarpon in the 15-40 pound range and as usual lost 99% of them to a snap off or simple release after a jump or two. Released a regular quantity of the local mutton and yellowtail snappers and a couple of horse eyed jacks. Bones were fewer and further between and as usual were the typical smaller Belizean types. Weather was generally fine up until the last two days. Mosquitos were a problem due to recent rains.
Here's a quick short video describing the fishing.
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