It’s been ten years since I’ve used my Fishcat pontoon
boat. That was back in the day when I
was a scout leader and my son Gary was a varsity scout. I added a platform and additional seat to the
boat so two of us could float. I would
be in the rowing seat and Gary would be up front. One particular week-long outing on the Green
River below Flaming Gorge, Gary and I would put in each day after the mid-day
rain storm. Starting the float this late
in the day meant we would have the whole river to ourselves. Below Mother-in-Law Rapids was our favorite
hole to fish.
Getting the pontoon boat out of storage last September
reminded me of those days. The water was
so low that the last mile of the float Gary and I scraped bottom most of the
way. My next trip down the Green was in
my drift boat which I’ve since sold.
Last September’s trip was also on the Green but the section
below Fontanelle. Ron had just acquired
a pontoon boat and he invited me to go on the trip.
He has a Landcruiser and a trailer with a
motorcycle. This served as our
shuttle. There are no commercial shuttle
services available in this stretch.
We would leave the motorcycle in camp and drive up to the
put-in below the dam. We would then
float and fish, mostly pulling over at good-looking spots and fishing.
When we would get back to camp at Weeping
Rock, Ron would hop on the motorcycle and drive back to the put-in.
He would then put the motorcycle on the
trailer and drive back to camp. This was a fabulous way to fish the river.
One day Ron drove the truck and trailer to the take-out at
the bridge, left them there and rode the motorcycle back to camp where we
started the float.
This was mid-September and the weather was gorgeous; maybe a
little too gorgeous. We caught quite a
few rainbow trout on small nymphs but only one brown on a streamer.
