11th Day Fly Fishing – Aprill 19th 2024, Little Hole, streamflow 950 cfs
The reports were in. a warm day with cloudy skies were expected for Friday and miraculously, my calendar was open. Each year I try to get to the world famous Flaming Gorge of the Green River during the spring BWO hatch. One of my best days EVER was fishing ideal conditions on the Green during one of these April trips many years ago. Three of us, myself and my friends Greg and MIke had the perfect day at Little Hole. It was dark overcast with intermittent showers and the BWO hatch was huge! We each had 25-35 fish and they were all nice sized. The fish were so engaged, the water was boiling like a hot tub! So to this day, I am still trying to recreate that incredible day. But to be honest, I have not been able to recreate the conditions. Yesterday was no exception. It was supposed to be cloudy all day, but unfortunately, the sun was out much more than expected. WInds were supposed to be light, but after 2pm, the wind picked up and it was sporadically windy the rest of the day, changing from light wind to heavy wind, to no wind. The winds were strong enough to put the fish down. And, even though the hatch never really materialized, there were heads popping up all day, except during these reallly windy times.
So if the the BWO hatch never really materialized, what were they coming up to eat? Best I could tell is they were eating dead midges. Whatever they were they were small and difficult to see. My experience tells me that when you can’t match the hatch, any eats you get are just random and typically few and far between. Yesterday was no exception. Refusals ruled the day. Lots of fly changes and tippet adds. Another point, the daytime streamflows dropped to 950cfs from 1750cfs the day before. Not sure if this change impacted fish or fly hatching behavior, but worth noting.
As I was rigging in the parking lot the question came up: Do I want to haul around multiple rods? Or should I chose a rod that will work for nymphing and dry fly fishing, and whatever else? Remember, I have a new Euro rig now that has seen very little action. However in spring I’m all about thedry fly and yesterday was no exception, new gear or no new gear. So if I were exclusively going dry fly, I would rig my 3wt Scott G2 which also has a new Cutthroat furled leader on it, raring to go. But then I thought, what if the hatch is only an houur, or doesn’t materialize at all? What then? So, I rigged my 4wt Scott G2. It has a new Galvan Torque fly reel which I absolutely love! The standard 9′ tapered leader on that rig is relatively new, in great shape and can be re-rigged for nymphing, streamers or soft hackle swinging. Ok, that was going to be the ticket for the day.
As I was rigging, it dawned on me how busy the place was. This was a Friday and the Flaming Gorge is a 3 1/2 hour drive from the Salt Lake City area. Very few crazies are like me, driving out and back the same day. Most will have lodging there. But I noticed a lot of drift boat trailers in the parking lot! Tons of cars and trucks representing the waders like me. So strange. This place just gets more crowded each year! Oh well, it is just a reality of fly fihing everywhere. It has become such a popular sport!
As I set out, the flows were low enough, that I could easily cross. There were two guys in kayaks doing the same thing. They were obviously expecting higher water levels. At around 6pm, they do raise the flows and one thing I do is keep an eye on my watch and also I will take a rock by the shoreline that is partially exposed by 2-3″ and keep an eye on it. If the rock becomes completely submerged, I know it is time to head back across. It was crazy though, by noon there were fishermen everywhere.
Starting with my favorite BWO dry fly pattern, the adult BWO with a CDC wing in size 18, I began working the water, casting to rising trout. Unfortuately, the rises were extremely sporadic and I may have had an eat or two, but nothing stuck, At around noon, I decided to swing a soft hackle and went with the green body in a size 16. It had a small glass bead, so it would stay high in the film. After about 15 minutes and not action, I was ready to change it out, when I got an eat. It was a nice brown!
At around 1pm, the rises became more regular, even out in the middle of the river. Thanks to the low flows, most of the river was accessible. Still, I dd manage to get in trouble a couple of times, with the water level up above my waist. Rookie mistake, I had a top layer which was a heavy top, which I had planned to remove once it warmed. SInce it was outside my waders, the bottom third of that top was completely drenched in the deeper water. And guess what? It never got warm! The winds picked up around 2pm and stayed variable the rest of the day. During this period, several fish rose to my fly but I was not able to connect. At this point, I was making a lot of fly changes. I was just trying to figure it out. The BWO’s were extremely sparse and in my mind, that was not what they were targeting. The most plentiful fly on the surface was very small dead midges. At some point I need to research what flies best imitate the dead midge on the surface. There was one fish about eight feet away from me who was just gulping fly after fly and he was not intimidated by my presence in the least. I made fly change after fly change and dangled each in front of hime. He refused me every time! Finally, I did get an eat by a fish rising nearby. It was a nice fish and as I was reaching for my net, he popped off.
There would only be one more fish landed by me yesterday. A really nice sized brown. It was on my “go to” size 18 BWO. He was hooked in the eye socket. Not sure how I was able to hook him there, but thankfully, it missed the eyeball and it looked to me that there was no damage.
More wind and fewer fish rising made it a wrap. It was approaching 6pm and that rock was almost submerged, so I felt I was better off calling it. One consideration on any trip to the Green is all the deer that come out and cross the highway before dark. I really like driving through that area before dusk and yesterday I was able to pull that off by leaving when I did.
Not sure that I will ever recreate that day when I landed 25+ fish in two hours, but each year I will be looking for those conditions and taking my shot. 25 fish or 2 fish, the Green is a very special fishery which is why it is one of “the 50 Places to Fly Fish Before You Die”. This will be a place I fish every year until I’m no longer able or no longer here.
