Flaming Gorge July 2009

This summer Darrick took Dusty and Mandy fishing on Flaming Gorge for Lake Trout, and they hooked into some nice ones. After a few years of experimenting with different lures and techniques Derrick has got the Big Mac fishing dialed in. Dusty's Mac weighed in at around 29 lbs and 43" long.

Smith & Morehouse Camping 7-12-2009

These are some fishing pictures from our five day camping trip at Smith and Morehouse, with our children and grandkids, and the Parks with their children and grandkids.

While out for a hike with Linda we spotted this snake eating a fish.













Rick and I spent some time fishing below the reservoir.














We had a fun afternoon one day at Smith and Morehouse reservoir fishing and kayaking.





















A Nice day on Mirror Lake kayaking and fishing. We were trolling spinners and bubbles with flies. Linda had on a Mepps spinner that the fish really liked, and she caught more than me that day, it was great.

East Canyon Reservoir 6-30-2009

Flint and I took some of the young men in the ward fishing for small mouth bass at East canyon reservoir. We ran up after work so we didn't fish very long. The fishing was slow, but we did manage to catch a few small ones. Adam (Flints son) caught the biggest of the trip.

Silver Lake Flat Reservoir 6-27-2009

I thought I would go do some kayaking and fishing, so I called the varsity scouts. Only two of the five (Chase and Aaron) could make it and I had four kayaks, so we invited Aarons two younger brothers (Jason and Nathan), and there dad (Tim) to come along. The fishing wasn't very good, but it was a nice day for kayaking, and Chase caught his first fish ever.

Island Park Area 6-17-2009

For the past six years Sam has put together a fishing trip to the Island Park Idaho area during the week of June 15th.
This years participants were myself, Sam, Beau, Dave, and Chris, The no shows were Scott, Dean, and Jason.
We were in contact daily with Brett in Ashton and Rick in Island Park, sharing information about the hatches, flows, and where to fish and what flies to use.

Wednesday
We arrived in Ashton Wednesday to heavy rain around 11:00 am, so we stopped at the Premier Fly shop to see Sam's good friend Brett who has built some Sage rods for Sam.












After visiting with Brett, we went up to the Buffalo campground and setup camp. Then back to Ashton and the Ora bridge to do a float down to the Vernon bridge. Luckily the sun had come out and it didn't start raining again until we had the boat almost out at the Vernon takeout. Our float was from approx. 1:30 to 4:30. We caught a few Browns, Rainbows, and whitefish.



















By the time we drove back to the Ora Bridge the storm had really turned ugly, so we decided to wait in the truck to see if it would pass. It finally slowed to a drizzle and Sam and I decided to wade up river from Ora bridge, Baeu had worked the night before so he opted to sleep instead of fish. While we were on the water, the rain slowed and we witnessed a massive Flav hatch. There were thousands of them floating on the water with very few fish rising to them, but we were able to fool a few Rainbows into taking our dry flies.













Thursday
We woke Thursday morning to overcast skies after heavy raining most of the night. We headed over to float "The Box" below Island Park Reservoir. The top of the box canyon is swift with nice deep pocket water behind big boulders with lots of snags, but it holds the biggest fish if you can get your fly down to them before it is swept downstream. Sam did a great job of navigating the boat around the rocks, and putting us in casting range of the best holes. Beau and I spent a lot of time retying on tippet and flies because of the snags. We were able to land a few Rainbows and lost some.

















After the Box Canyon float we had some lunch and headed over to where the Warm river dumps into the Henry's Fork. This is the Warm river to Ashton float, this is the longest float of the trip (approx. 6-mile) with just a few small rapids. It was raining hard at the launch, but quit after about 20 minutes on the river. Sam let me practice on the oars for this trip. The fishing was slow, but Sam and Baeu did land some small Rainbows and Whitefish. I talked to some people at the dock, and they all experienced the same fish conditions.













We still had some time after getting the boat off the water so we headed back over to Ora bridge to try to hit the evening Flav hatch, but we were too late according to the fishermen in the parking area. Beau left for home, Sam joined Brett down river from the bridge while I waded up.
Sam caught some on top while I only caught a couple nymphing. If you look at the second picture below you can see Brett fishing. It was a fun day, and we hit alot of water.














Friday
Weather wise this was the best day of the trip. In the morning there wasn't a cloud in the sky at camp. It was just Sam and I so we decided to go wade fish the Madison in Montana. This was all nymph fishing the runs, riffles, and pocket water. I caught around 20 (most Rainbows) and Sam caught more than me. It was a lot of fun, the fish hit hard, made long runs down river, and jumped a lot. The Brown I caught below was a nice 18-incher. I loved the color and spots on the Rainbows.

















After several hours on the Madison, we had a tailgate lunch, before driving back to the Ora bridge to meet up with Dave and Chris.












At Ora bridge we caught more fish nymphing. Check out the width of the Rainbow that Sam landed, in the first picture.













Saturday
Another nice day we floated the box again this time with Dave and Chris. I was able to land more fish than the time before, but I still lost several flies to snags.

















That evening we went back to the Ora bridge for the best evening and dry fly fishing of the trip. We started out nymphing and caught several Nice Rainbows and some big Whitefish. Finally the conditions must have been just right, and the Flavs started hatching, except this time the fish were all over them. They were rising everywhere, and Sam was nailing them on top. By the end of the hatch and when things had calmed down he had landed over 20 on a dry fly. I did manage to catch 6 on top the rest were nymphing. These were also some of the biggest fish of the trip.

















Sunday
As you can tell we spent a lot of time fishing the Ora bridge area, it's Sams favorite spot, so before we went home Sam had to go down and wet his line one last time. While he fished I took some picture of the senery and him fishing.