18th day Fly Fishing – June 11th, 2024. – Green River, Flaming Gorge, Little Hole solo trip wading, 950cfs
“Spiritual growth does not take place on the yoga mat, or in meditation. It takes place when you are confronted with anger or disappointment and in how you choose to respond to that. The hardest lessons are experiences because the test happens first and the lesson follows.”
– Nicole, (my yoga teacher today)
The quote above really helped me to come to terms with my day of fishing yesterday, at the absolutely stunning Flaming Gorge of the Green River. So in a nutshell, this is going to be a rather philosophical post. Hopefully, it will resonate, if not feel free to move on.
My relationship with the Green is complicated. Similar to other pressured rivers, the fish are incredibly well trained, disciplined and very wary. What do I mean by disciplined? Similar to the Provo River, the fish get laser focused on a particular size and type of fly and also presentation. And true to all rivers, there are days that fish and days that just aren’t that great.
Mind + Set = Mindset
Interesting word isn’t it? I approach each day with a particular Mindset. You create a set of expectations and then you create a game plan that maps to those expectations. Your mindset dictates how you see the river and the opportunity to catch fish on that day. Mindset can vary based upon mood, conditions and other factors. But prior experience at that location is a huge driver as well. Your mind is always looking at prior experience. On this day I felt that conditions should support a hatch and that based upon that, we would have an opportunity to fish dry flies. A dry fly day is always my first priority! I was hoping for caddis, but after a quick stop at the shop, they mentioned BWOs and the ever present midges, but not caddis.
At the water my mindset told me to be prepared for baetis (BWO, PMD, etc.), caddis and if there were no fish rising, swinging soft hackles and perhaps a few small streamers. My 4wt Scott G2 is my utility rod for this, so rigged it and headed for the river. So there were a few fish rising and I cast and cast and cast and cast. No luck! Change flies, cast, cast, cast. No Luck! Change flies, etc, etc, etc. Perhaps I was stuck in my mindset but it took me forever to realize that they were just sipping tiny midges and were refusing everything else. And of course my midge box was back at the car. Then I figured, OK I will swing soft hackles. After another hour or so of wading all over, nothing! Oh, I did get one eat near the surface, but did not connect.
The Highlight of My Day
We are lucky to fish in some really beautiful places! This day I got a big surprise when this creature decided to stop by and hang out for a few minutes!
Great to have an experience like the one above! Especially when the fishing was slow. Later, I learned that fish were caught on very small nymphs. Something that I was totally unprepared for. My mindset caught me again. Well fish and learn as they say! 😏
