Taking On A Flaming Gorge Wave

Paul, Chris and I decided we needed to hit Flaming Gorge while the Rainbows were close to shore and easy to catch. We must have shown up a week or two too late, the schools of rainbows were nowhere to be seen at their usual spot at Antelope Flats.

We were trolling most of the time, caught a few behing pop gear and a flatfish, but wasn't producing any good numbers.  I had read that a pumpkin flake colored tube jig was working when cast to shore and retrieved, so I gave it a shot, and fishing caught fire! Probably caught a dozen or so within two hours, here are a few we got in the net.

 Dark colored rainbows.

Another fatso that gobbled the pumpkin jig.

 And another.....

 Caught this one trolling the fly rod with a black bugger, my favorite way to land a fish from the boat.

 Beautiful fish

The weather kicked up and turned real ugly, and fast. I am convinced that a smaller aluminum boat would certainly have been capsized. It got so hairy that Paul got out the life jackets and handed them out, and I steered us right into a wave while I was distracted getting mine on. Everybody's feet were soaked by the wave crashing onboard, and really had me nervous for a bit. Finally the weather calmed down enough to make our way back to the ramp, we were all frozen, what a storm! The Gorge is a great place to fish, extra fun when the rainbows are spawning and have these rich colors in May.

 

Until the next fish......

A few firsts at Deer Creek

Every time we go out on a lake, we have needed someone to help launch the boat. We decided in May that it was time Jess learned so we can go out with just our little family. It was her first time, she was a tad nervous, took about 10 or so corrections, but ended up right where the trailer needed to be to launch the boat.

Halle in her favorite spot in the back of the boat.

 Managed to catch a few trolling with the fly rod, which is always a bonus for me.

 Ruby's first fish!! Who knew a baby could catch catch a fish?

 Ruby's Corner, her favorite nap time spot.

 Halle loves to pet the fish as we catch them.

 Jack........Not so much.

We had a lot of fun, weather was awesome, managed a few fish, and not too many boats on the water. First time launching the boat by ourselves, and caught Ruby's first fish, I call it a success! 

 

Until the next fish.....



Deer Creek Buddies

My daughter had been begging me for weeks to go out fishing, and finally the weather was good enough to get the boat out.  We really wanted to invite some friends, so we called up the Giles crew, and they were free to go! Giles and I were outnumbered 2 to 1, but we were up to the task.









The kids got along great!

The girls.

Front of the boat was the kids club.

We didn't catch a ton of fish, but enough for all the kids to reel one in. We caught them all off the same pole behind a Ford Fender and a green fly with a rubber tail with all the fish being rainbows of average size.

After the fishing slowed down, and the little ones asking to "go fast", we decided to take a cruise, and just so happened that the Heber Creeper was heading along the lake.  The kids loved cruising alongside the train, and they were nice enough to wave to us.

There were only a few short lived spats between siblings, a mysterious peanut butter and jelly sandwich that stuck to the front of one of the girls, and Giles almost falling into the water trying to get off the boat. The boat struggled a bit, the guy at the boat shop gave me the wrong spark plugs and I completely melted the gap on one of them, so we were running off of 3 cylinders. 

Can't beat a day on the lake with great friends!



Scofield & Strawberry Ice

Scofield
Headed down to Price with Adam and Nate Friday night before the fishing tournament at Scofield. Woke up early and made it to to the registration tent before sunlight. We loaded up the 4-wheeler and decided to fish about 50 yards out from the boat ramp down by the dam. I could tell by the size of the crowd being in the hundreds that fishing was going to be super slow, and it ended up that way. Missed a few fish, ended up catching 3, one 12" and two guppies. The group I was with only caught another three. I might be willing to give Scofield another chance, but this trip for sure didn't make me want to go back any time soon.  Not a lot of fishing action, for sure the highlight of the morning was cooking cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and some Papa Murphy pizzas for lunch with Adam's camp chef oven.

Strawberry
The first Saturday of 2014 I was able to get my brother in law Paul out ice fishing for his first time ever at the Strawberry. We set up camp on top of our boating hotspot we nicknamed "cutthroat alley", and it paid off. We landed about 18 or so, all were big and great looking fish, most of them were rainbows. Caught a lot of fish, and home in time to watch the wildcard playoffs, not a bad weekend.

Bills