Luke, Travis, Terry and I all woke up early Saturday and rallied through the snow to Dutch John. It was wild showing up to Little Hole with 4" of snow all over with no other person in sight. We scored! The sun was out and fish were slurping on midges. It didn't take us to long to hook in to our first fish. Travis the cast master was the man over the weekend. He had the flies, the presentation and skills to catch the most fish. It was a unique trip. Staying at the Flaming Gorge Resort and being the only crew in town. The storm must have keep all other fisher men in their warm beds for the weekend. It was cold out there but well worth it. We all had fun and were stoked we went. Here's some photos of our adventure and some wildlife we saw along the way.
A Near Death Fishing Experience
It seems through out my life I have almost killed myself at least once a year recreating. My most recent scare was last weekend on the Frying Pan River in Aspen Colorado. I was with Jon (my bro) Luke and Jason. This was the first day on our weekend fishing trip. We were driving up the road to get to the gold medal public fishing spot and we saw this tasty looking hole. So we had to stop.
Luke and Jason decided to stick to the left side of the river while Jon and I took the right. I wadded through the river while fishing and watched Jon and his dog walk across a fallen tree across the river.
We all fished a bit and only caught a couple small bows. Then we were over it and decided to head back to the car to get to a better spot. After wadding across the river and going up to my waist in water the first time crossing I wasn't ready to do that again. So I headed to the log crossing and started to walk the bridge.
As I got to the middle of the log looking to the left I started thinking this would be a sketchy place to fall. Then my worst thought happened. My right foot slipped to the left and suddenly I was in over my head in white water. I popped up a few feet down stream next to a rock wall. I couldn't touch! Scared that I was going to get pulled under the rock shelf by the current I swam as hard as I could to avoid the under tow. After avoiding the under water cave came the rapids. I hit a few small water falls and then went trough a bush and finely was able to grab some sticks on the side of the river to pull my self out.
I was alive! Soaking wet and happy that I didn't die I realized the last place I saw my rod was up-stream. I then started stressing out. $1500 in fishing gear was floating around in the river. I remembered the last place I saw my rod was in the first set of rapids. I decided to take off my fanny pack and shirt in case I had to swim and grab my rod floating by. No luck didn't see it any where. Jon heard me fall and by the time he got the river he saw me running around with my shirt off looking for my gear. We both frantically searched and after a 10 or so minuets we noticed my fly line in the water. The current had pulled it loose. Jon was able to grab a stick and pull the line to shore. He started pulling the line. But all this did was un wind it off the reel. He got all the way through the backing and felt a tug and suddenly the rod went free. I was down stream and was able to grab it as it came by. I was blown away that my 9' 4pc Sage One was still in tact. Not a noticeable scratch. I couldn't believe we found it let alone all in one piece.
I was so stoked! I cheated death! Not even my I-phone or Digital camera were harmed. I didn't lose a thing and came out with only scratches and bruises. We went back to the car shared some beers and laughed then went up-stream to have over a 100 fish day. This will be a day fishing I will never forget.
When I got home from our trip and went straight to the fly shop to grab some studs for my boots.
Colorado Fishing!
Jon and his friend Nate have been taking some journeys across the boarder in to Colorado. They have found a sweet little spring creek full of healthy fish. Im told the days are full of count less fish. I couldn't get him to tell me exactly where but I am told its easy to find with google maps. So if your into a little adventure from Utah head East and explore a bit. Im going to give it a shot.
Hams Fork fishing update
We went up to Hams Fork on Tuesday. The water was effected by run off making it a little high and off color. We still hammered through the conditions and hooked on to a few good fish. Mostly Rainbow trout but Sean Boss hooked in to a nice 24" Brown to end the day. It was a fun trip but I would recommend giving that spot a few weeks for the river to calm down.
