The Undercut Bank

Brown trout love undercut banks. These banks offer shade, slower current and keep the trout hidden. Wednesday I was fishing with Kevin. We had each caught a few small browns and some large white fish. We came upon a stretch that was fairly featureless and a constant depth of about 1 foot. I would cast and let my flies drift near the far shore as I worked my way downstream to the next hole.

As I came to a tree along the bank I had a vigorous strike. A large brown leaped into the air and I knew this was the fish I was after. After the jump it immediately tore across the river to an undercut bank. I worked it out from under the bank and it swam back to the other side of the river where it was first hooked. Then it raced back again to the undercut bank. I worked my way to the bank and got close enough to the hooked fish that I pulled my net off the vest and started try to slide the fish across the top of the water toward the net.

Just then it panicked and raced back under the bank and my line went slack. I thrusted the net under the bank just in case I could still net it but it was gone. This is the kind of fish I come to the Weber for. Large browns full of energy. They jump, make long runs, and make things exciting by running under banks or near possible snags.

A Tiger Trout on the Weber

Last Monday I caught a fish on the Weber River that was even more rare on the Weber than the last cutthroat I caught, a Tiger Trout. This is the first Tiger Trout I have caught on the Weber. It must have come up from Echo Reservoir. As high as the river was this past month, it would have been easy for a fish to swim from the reservoir up into the river. Hopefully there will also be some other large trout that have swum up from the reservoir.

In the last 20 months, I have made approximately 45 trips to the Weber River. On average I catch about 7 fish per trip. That works out to be about 315 fish caught. I would estimate that half of these were white fish, 158. About 117 were brown trout, 19 were rainbow, 20 were cutthroat and 1 was a tiger trout. I ended up getting skunked twice.

What is peculiar to a Tiger Trout are the vermicular markings located on the top like a brook trout and also on the side. A Tiger Trout is actually a sterile hybrid of a female brown trout and a male brook trout. They grow fast and are known for eating small fish making them good for keeping down the population of trash fish.

Fast or Slow Action Rod

The Weber River was a little off color yesterday, not as crystal clear as last week. The water level was about the same. I fished the stretch below the red barn. Another couple of fishermen, man and woman, were just gearing up to head to the river. Since I was already rigged up, I grabbed my pole and headed downstream. The first hole I came to was just past the fence. I left on the San Juan worms I had used the previous trip, one brown and one red. After a couple of casts, I hooked a nice brown. After a jump he started heading down stream. I slowed him up some as I was getting the line back on the reel. Just then, the fish came off. I don’t know why. Maybe I am not setting the hook strong enough with my 4 wt Light Line Sage rod. It is a slow action rod and I am more used to my fast action 5 wt Sage RPL.

For those of you who may not know, fly rods are built with different actions. A fast action rod is real stiff and only bends at the tip. This type of rod is great for dry flies where you want to dry the fly on a false cast or for long casts. A slow action rod bends the whole length of the rod. It is better for a slow cast like you would use nymph fishing with a strike indicator and split shot. A medium action rod is somewhere in between.

I kept fishing as I proceeded downstream. This stretch of river has a series of large rocks coming out from the bank making it perfect for creating pools and riffles. The next fish I caught ended up taking the red worm. It was a nice cutthroat. Not too many of these are caught on the Weber so I’m always real careful in releasing them. Right after releasing the cutthroat I took a moment watching a garter snake get a drink of water while reaching over a large boulder. It then stayed on the rock soaking in the warm sun.

Never Underestimate the Worm, The San Juan Worm That Is

It had been a month since I’d fished the Weeb. I was wondering if the runoff was slowing down yet. As I approached the river the water was nice and clear. It was still a little high with the water reaching the pretty green plant growth that the wet spring had to offer - definitely fishable. The fish should be in good shape with all the food the high water had stirred up.



I started out using the yellow sally nymphs that I already had tied on from the previous trip to the Weber. I used these as I hurried downstream to my favorite stretch where I would turn around and fish upstream back to the truck. I noticed light mayflies coming off the water during my hike downstream so I switched to two different mayfly nymph imitations. I immediately caught a small brown and checked its throat contents with a stomach pump. The sampling revealed it had been eating a ton of worms along with a few mayfly nymphs like I had just tied on. I quickly replaced one of the imitations with a brown, bead head San Juan Worm.

This proved to be a correct move because I subsequently caught five more browns and one white fish from the same run. This was despite the frustratingly strong wind. The next run had trees along the bank that hung out over the river and the water was quite a bit deeper. After fishing the stretch with the same setup that worked so well on the previous stretch, I caught nothing, I added a second BB split shot and moved the indicator up the line another six inches.



I then proceeded to eat a granola bar, rest a minute and then start at the beginning of the run again. Half way through the run I had a take and connected with a medium size brown. Now with my hopes up a little more, I continued to the top of the run. I cast into the fast, shallower water that immediately dumped into the deeper, slower water. After a couple of casts I was fast into a …..snag. This snag ended up taking my lower fly and sinkers. I sat down, took off my hat and ate another granola bar. The wind was now dying down luckily. I tied on another piece of 4X fluorocarbon with a triple surgeon’s knot. On the 5 inch tag end I tied on another San Juan worm. On the other end which was 6 or 7 inches long I tied a double overhand knot at the end and added two split shot.

This time, trying to avoid the snag, I casted up and across making sure I lifted the line before getting too close to the snag. After a couple more casts, I hooked a jumping brown. This was a nice fish but it got off just as I was starting to work it closer.

OK, off to the next run. The next run was where I had caught a beautiful 19 inch brown prior to the runoff. This time, I didn’t even get a strike. I proceed to the deep hole just upstream. I had caught 5 or 6 white fish in this deep hope on my last trip. Again, not even a strike. Just then a couple of spin fishermen came around the bend. I talked with them a bit and surprisingly they had been catching a few. In fact, I saw the first one catch a 17 inch brown from the deep hole I had just fished. I never expected that. I should try streamer fishing next time.

Well, I did happen to catch a nice size white fish on the next bend. The spin fishermen had never seen a white fish before so I was able to show them one. They were impressed with the size. By now it was time to head back. I wished them well, hiked through the pasture full of sheep, climbed the ladder over the fence and went to the truck for a nice drink of …warm water.

Little Hole

The next morning Nick and I fished the stretch right below Little Hole. This looked like a real promising stretch. We were able to wade out a few feet and cast right were the river became a little deeper. It seemed like this was where the fish would be holding but we weren’t able to catch anything except a couple of small rainbows in the first hole.

We noticed the fishermen on the other side of the river were catching quite a few nice ones. Looking for a place to cross we decided it would be too treacherous. A couple of advantages the other side of the river had to offer were (besides the fact that the grass is always greener on the other side of the river): 1) It did not get fished as much. Lots of people fish the close side along the trail but few crossed the river and fished the other side. 2) There were some inside curves where the fish could hang out in the calm water while the fast water would carry food along which the fish could grab.

We fished here for a couple of hours and didn’t catch any of the nice size browns. Fishing our way back to the parking lot, Nick caught a lot of rainbows in the first hole. One amazintg thing was that on one cast he caught two fish, one on the dropper and one on the point fly. This doesn’t happen very often. Way to go Nick!!!

Floating the Green River

Getting all our belongings out of the cabin we noticed our guide in front of the fly shop at about 11:30. We hurried and met up with him by noon. We introduced ourselves, put our fishing equipment in the truck and drove in his rig to the boat launch right below the dam. After putting the boat in the water, our guide Roger, drove the truck and trailer up to the parking lot. One of the tough things about floating the A section is the hike from the parking lot to the boat ramp. It is a good mile hike.

Roger rigged us up downrigger style. I have had other guides use this setup before on the green. It is similar to my typical rig that I use on the Weber. A couple of split shot are placed above a knot at the bottom of the line. Two droppers are placed a foot or two above this. We were using 5X tippets for this clear water with educated trout. For flies we were using red San Juan worms and small WD-40’s. We had no luck for the first few holes but noticed the other guides getting rises from large dry flies. I suggested we switch to a hopper dropper system. Roger rigged us both with large attractor dries with small nymph droppers. The droppers are added to the system by tying 2 to 3 feet of tippet on to the bend of the hook. We started having a lot more success with this system. It was also exciting to see the browns rise and hit the large flies.

One method that Roger liked to use was to drift downstream and find fish in the shallows. We would then hold tight and fish over these visible fish. Nick and I ended up catching 8 or 9 fish each, mostly using this method. A few fish were caught on the nymph but most on the large dry. For the last hour of the float we fished streamers. Roger would keep the boat a little more than a cast length away from the shore and we would cast toward the bank and strip back. This was exhaustive fishing, casting as far as we could every couple of seconds with a heavy fly. We were hoping for a large brown using this method but nothing materialized. I had a couple of followers on one cast but that was all.

Back at the fly shop Nick and I got some ice cream before heading to the tent at Dripping Spring. The tent was still standing despite the strong wind all day.

The Green River - Day 1

After coming home for the weekend and enjoying time with the grandkids, Nick and I headed to the Green River. The Green River below Flaming Gorge is purposely flooded every spring to help the spawning of an endangered species of fish. This occurs in May just before the other rivers have runoff. This means that by the time runoff is bad in other rivers, the Green has already started cutting back on the flows and the river is in decent shape. This ended up being the case this week. The water was nice and low and clear. The main problem we had was the wind. This made casting quite difficult. I had arranged for us to stay in a cabin at Flaming Gorge Recreational Services and to meet the guide the next day at noon. The cabin was real nice and did have its own bathroom and shower. In fact, it had two separate bedrooms, each with two bunk beds. It had a fridge, microwave and a TV. Dinner came with the cabin and guide package so I ended up having ribs again while Nick had Chicken Fried Steak and Potatoes.

Since we didn’t have to meet our guide until noon, we went to the river at little hole and fished for a half hour or so. Then we set up our tent at Dripping Spring so we wouldn’t have to set it up late that night after a long day of fishing. Flaming Gorge Rec. Services had no more rooms left for this night.

Wading at the Grey Reef

Back at the Grey Reef, Nick and I decided to hit the Lusby stretch where we launched the boat the previous day and had such good luck. Although the water was quite high, it only went to our thighs until the drop off. This made it so we could wade were the weeds were and cast into the deeper, original riverbed. We got there at about 4:30 PM and saw Ryan with another client.

I was wondering what he was doing in this stretch at the end of the day. Then I remembered that he must have floated the upper stretch this day, right below the dam. He yelled out “Howard, is that you” I said Yes. He said they had just caught a couple of nice ones and pointed to the sweet spot. I waded my way to were he pointed and was fast into a fish. I yelled to Nick so he could hurry and fish that stretch of the river as well. We each caught a few and were very satisfied with our luck. Nick caught a huge 21 and a half inch rainbow that evening, the biggest trout of the trip thus far.

Let’s hit this place in the morning, we both agreed. We got up at 6:00, ate our shredded wheat, and were on the river by 7:00. We were hoping to fish this stretch before the guides with their clients launched. Then we planned to go downstream to one of the other hot spots we learned about with the guide. At 9:00 we figured we had caught enough fish to put down the others for awhile so we went back to the car to head to another spot.

Nick mentioned he needed to pick up some more flies so we went to the fly shop. There was still a group of clients getting ready for a float so we went in with wet waders and all and joined right in, buying flies, leaders and such. Driving back to the river we thought we had rested the Lusby stretch long enough that we ought to just go right back, where we knew the fishing was good. Nick immediately caught 3 or 4 right in a row. This was amazing fishing.

I went a bit further upstream than where we were concentrating our fishing earlier. While getting the debris from the line hanging down on the water, I saw my Thingamabobber dive under the water. This was something I liked about the fishing here. When the fish struck, the indicator would go under water, not just hesitate slightly. I set the hook and the fish tore off to the other side of the river. It then jumped a couple of times. The fish was way across the river, the line deep in the water, but this fish was in the air. This was excitement! It then tore down river and I followed as quickly as I could, given the weeds and deep water. I got the fish near the shore a couple of times but each time it got close to the weeds, it would take off again. By this time I was downstream from Nick and near the next bend in the river. Good thing we were using 3X tippets. I muscled the fish over the weeds near the drop off and finally into my net. It was a gorgeous hen rainbow. It measured 23 inches, the biggest trout of my life. What an awesome morning.

I waded back out to the drop off and let the fish go where it could be free from the weeds and be able to access the deep water. She hung out a minute or two until I coaxed her into the deeper water and she swam off. I looked at my watch and we had about 15 minutes left before we needed to leave in order to get back in time to check out of our cabin by noon. I cast a few more times without much hope of catching another trout since I figured I had just spooked any fish still in that spot. But no! I got another strike. This ended up being my last cast at the Grey Reef and I was rewarded with a 20 inch gorgeous male rainbow.

Exploring

Thursday we fished a couple of sections below the Alcova dam on the Grey Reef Reservoir. We only caught one nice rainbow and it was right at the base of the Alcova dam.

Then we went exploring. We drove to the Fremont Canyon stretch which is between the Pathfinder and Alcova reservoirs. This looks like it would be an excellent stretch when the water isn’t so high. One particular section is a beautiful red rock canyon.

Then we saw a sign to the Miracle Mile, which is between the Kortes dam and Pathfinder reservoirs. This is a famous stretch of water that I have always wanted to see. It was only 20 miles away.

I had asked the guide about this stretch and he said the water was really high but that it had been fishing well the last couple of years. After about10 miles on the Kortes Road, the road became a dirt road, or on this particular day a mud road. Nick looked it up in the Fly Fishing The North Platte River book and it said that the dirt road was actually good by Wyoming standards. If I would have known it would be a dirt road for so long I would have turned around. By the time we got to the Miracle Mile, the car was completely covered with mud.  Three thorough car washes later I am still finding mud in and on the car.

Despite the high water, which actually didn’t seem too bad, we decided to give it a try. Using red San Juan Worms again, we each caught a few medium size brown trout. It did look like a gorgeous stretch of river to fish when the water is not so high and when the road isn’t muddy from the rain.

The Cabin

We stayed at a Cabin that was part of the Riverview Inn and Sunset Bar and Grill. This is the one across the highway from The Reef Fly Shop. The cabin itself was nice. It had a fridge and small oven. The only drawback was that the bathroom and shower, which was part of the motel, was public and used by several people, like the guides and people with trailers. In the mornings, this was a problem because people would be waiting to use the shower and bathroom. There is also lodging at The Inn at Alcova.

There are a lot of camping areas just downstream from the dam which is nice to know. With all the rain this week, Nick and I were glad we had a cabin and not just a tent. Renting a room in the motel, however, would have been an even better choice since we would have our own bathroom. The rates are very reasonable for both the cabin and the room. In the summer or fall, camping with a tent in the campground along the river would be a good, economical option.

For dinner, there was a marina on Alcova Reservoir that had a decent menu. I especially enjoyed the appetizer riblets. This is maybe 10 miles from the motel. There is also the Sunset Bar & Grill, however Nick and I were not impressed with its atmosphere. Casper is also only 30 miles away if someone wanted to take the time they would have more dining options there.