2007 West Denver TU Green River Trip : April 28 - May 5th

Hello From the Green River.

From the Webguy:

Bob and company got there Saturday. While at work Jim Arnold kept thinking about the trip. Soon he was chomping at the bit wanting to leave late Saturday afternoon instead of early Sunday morning as we planned. So Jim, Dale and I were off by 5 PM Saturday. After a few drastic deceleration to avoid deer and elk herds in the mountains above Vernal we arrived at the camp grounds at about 12:30 in the night. Getting there in the middle of the night turned out to be an excellent thing as we were able to get a little sleep and then fish all day Sunday. The weather Sunday was very sunny and warm. More essential though: the bite was hot. For me Big ol' Texas size flies like the Fat Albert pattern tied in black and tan was popular with many a trout. Ants and Parachute Adams were desired patterns, also. I had not even thought about Ants in spite of tying up some red with black ones just for the trip. That is until Glen laughed about loosing his last Ant and not getting any attention since. A couple of black ones I had in my box, similar to what he had lost , got him back in the game. At least that is what he said later. But at the end of the day he did give them back to me.... hmmmmm. From Bob's report you can tell that many other patterns also worked.

Everyday the water was crystal clear, flowing at about 800 cfs at about 40 degrees. Walking along the trail along the river you could see fish every where the water was not rippled. The fish were eager and gullible on Sunday. Things slowed down from there though. Wednesday was a very tough day for me as I tried many new patterns I had never fished. The patterns that were working before were not producing either. Those killer San Juan worm patterns that I read about on the Internet forums which are suppose to produce when nothing else would not buy me a thing. All the others were without success. Besides that the air temperatures got up to 85 degrees. I should have taken 4 bottles of water instead of three. Sitting down in the 40 something water for a moment helped cool things down. Thursday Jim became a guide and instructor trying to correct all my bad habits. I think our friendship has survived it though. He deserved it for convincing me I had to use his PMX all afternoon on Thursday and chastising me for even considering my Texas sized Fat Albert. He claimed THAT "way to big PMX" was not the one he gave me.

I think it was Tuesday that Bob Untener took a one man pontoon down the river for his very first river float while fishing. He was responsible for me loosing my most productive fly. I was changing tippet when I looked up stream to see him drifting my way. I jumped for my back pack to grab my camera for a few snap shots before he could get away. When I got back to my fly it had flown the coupe on the wind. While there Fred took his new pontoon on a maiden voyage plus several additional trips. Charlie Horn and Glen pretended not to see me fishing on the backside of a boulder as they floated by with a guide (that is my story). I did not recognize Charlie in full fishing garb until they had passed and I saw Glen's fishing hat facing the opposite bank. A little later Fred was able to quietly drift by me with out me spotting him while changing flies but I caught Bob. Everyone that floated the river had giant grins on their face when talking about the day the weather and all the fish they brought to the net.

Every one else had headed home by Wednesday morning but Jim, Dale and I walked up river from Little Hole. Jim pointed out a nice deep run that had been good for Jim on other trips. I was not long before Dale was trying to retrieve his fly back from a 22 inch rainbow that did not want to give it back. We left on Thursday morning. A very timely thing to do it turned out as a storm was expected to roll in carrying snow with it.

Normally I seriously avoid hot spotting a river but since this river and this section of the River is constantly hot spotted in the magazines I have not had any problem doing it here.

Here are a few pics for you to idle your time away with. Click on the picture for a large view.

dB

Pictures are Courtesy of Dan Sullivan and D. Brady