July, 2015

6/30-7/1:  A repeat trip to Utah's Flaming Gorge and tailwater below the dam produced the same ugly results on the former described water and much better success on the latter.

The dog & I drove to our regular camping spot on the lake late in the afternoon and found the level of the lake to be maybe ten feet higher there than we'd ever seen it before.  Didn't know how it would effect our fishing, but we found out pretty quickly that we weren't going to have much success.  The lake is now plenty warm for the bass to be near the shore, but with so much of the shoreside tamarisk now under water, we simply couldn't troll close to the places the bass were inevitably living.

So after a fruitless evening and morning of paddling and trolling, we gave up the hunt and drove to Little Hole to try the upper part of "B" that afternoon.  A yellow sallie hatch was in progress and the trout were receptive to a #18 flat winged imitation of that stone fly.  Unfortunately my early-in-the-season striking skills were not tuned up at all, and I must have missed 90% of the strikes.  Nevertheless it was a lot more fun than being on the lake.  Here's a brown that didn't get away (until the release at least). 

Unhappily the dog apparently plowed through a bunch of cactus chasing a bunny and came up limping badly, so the following morning we opted to do a shorter half day session on the lower part of "A" just above Little Hole.  It turned out to be a great hike and fishing expedition.  There were tons of caddis on the bank along with some more sallies, so a two fly rig of flat wing stone and generic caddis were very successful.  Had tons of strikes, hookups, played fish, and releases.  One of the nicest days I've ever seen on this river.  It's such a treat when a reliable (and easily identifiable) hatch is in progress.

Tired rainbow laying under my rod here.

Probably was our last trip to the Green until this fall when we make a long loop through Utah on the way to Wyoming and Montana.  Here's the somewhat lengthy video of this week's trip:

7/6 and 7/11:  Too tough fishing on the Eagle right now.  Relentless rains and thunderstorms.  We're off to the Gunnison on the 12th and hope for better weather even though that stream's also not running at normal rates right now too.  Here's the ugly video of both trips:

7/12-13:  Boy is it ever tough fishing here in Colorado right now.  Don't know if there are any streams - including tailwaters - that are not flowing too heavily.  We hit the Gunnison this past weekend just at the forks of the Black Canyon and had very difficult fishing.  The water's so high it's all the way into the willows lining the banks, and that made casting borderline impossible - especially for Sue - as she's dominantly right handed, and we were fishing river left.

Managed to release a few smallish browns both Sunday afternoon and Monday morning, but it really wasn't a whole lot of fun.  Here's one of those fish:

Am not sure what we should try this coming weekend.  May have to drive all the way back to the Green again just to have something that resembles regular summer fishing.  So far the summer's pretty much a bust - - - but we sure aren't in drought!\

The short video of the trip:

7/26-27:  Boy is it ever tough fishing this summer.  It feels like we're still in the middle of spring run off but we're actually only a couple of days away from August.  Everywhere we went this past week was - while not really in flood - was just too high to be dependable.  On the Green we were shoved into the bank side willows by the high releases from the dam, and it was a ditto elsewhere here in Colorado yesterday and today.

Yes we did catch a few fish, but nothing like it would normally be this time of year.  So, anyway, here's the grumpy video of the trips.  With less rainfall in the forecast for this week, we may have a better trip next Sunday through Tuesday.

Last logbook Entry  � for previous day

7/29:  Local streams are finally descending to normal summer levels & I enjoyed a nice outing on Gore Creek this afternoon.  Didn't score any really "big" ones, but released numbers of regular sized brookies & rainbows.  Probably missed three times as many fish as actually were hooked & played. 

This coming weekend we'll do our annual loop trip over Cottonwood Pass to the Taylor River, East River, Anthracite Creek, and Gunnison - if time permits maybe even a bit of time on the Crystal.  It's one of our favorite three day trips here in Colorado.  Here's the Gore Creek Vid.:

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