32nd Day of Fly Fishing – June 12th 2025
There are sections of the Green River in Wyoming that are closer to the Salt Lake City area, by about an hour in each direction, than the Flaming Gorge. Last Thursday, Ron, Kim and I decided to float a section of the Green below the Fontenelle dam. It was the first time for me. Although I had waded below the dam several times, this was my first experience floating it.
We arrived at the put-in at 10:15am, got our rods rigged and our gear organized and were underway by 10:30am. The plan was to be there a tad earlier, but we had a couple of stops including the boat inspection station as we entered Wyoming on I80 near Evanston.
Ron and Kim are members of my fly fishing club and Ron and I did a lot of winter fishing on the middle Provo RIver earlier this year. Kim and I are really just getting to know one another but he has a ton of experience and fly fishing savy so I was excited to get out on the water. Kim has prior experience on this section and he was also able to arrange the shuttle. We were in my boat, the Hyde Montana Skiff, which was perfectly suited to this stretch of river.
At the moment we launched, we had caddis activity on the far bank. Ron had his rod rigged and ready and began making casts as soon as I maneuvered the boat into position. He had a couple of eats and missed a couple of hook sets, but ultimately brought a small cutthroat to the net.
As much as we wanted it to be a dry fly day, it really was a nymphing day. I ended up throwing streamers a fair amount when Kim was rowing and didn’t even get a bump. Both Kim and Ron focused on the nymph rig and we had to make a number of fly changes along the way. In some runs, just like floating the Flaming Gorge up by the dam, our rigs weren’t getting us as deep as we needed to go. In a couple of places where we did hook up, we were able to do a few row-arounds as well. But for the most part, it was all new water for me and I struggled somewhat with managing the float. The pace of the river was fairly slow in many spots and as the day wore on, I wasn’t sure when we were going to arrive at the take out, which turned out to be about 6:30. The week before, John and I floated the canyon section of the South Fork which was 20 miles, or more than double the distance, but it only took an hour longer. The difference was clearly the pace of the river.
The two memorable moments on this float were when Kim caught a really stunning cutthroat on a green copper john and when Ron got his big brown. On a squirmy wormy, no less!
Great shot of Kim below, holding his magnificent Cutthroat! :
When it came down to landing Ron’s brown, it was really a team effort. This fish was massive, and it was not his first rodeo. Right after he was hooked the fish made a beeline down stream and almost had Ron in his backing. We realized that fish was in a run and he was using the current to his advantage. So as Ron was reeling back some of his fly line, KIm, who was on the sticks, was back rowing us into a calmer section of the river. But the fish wasn’t done either. He made several more runs, but Ron had his drag dialed in and was able to keep the fish on. Eventually, the fish began to tire and I grabbed the net, but each time the fish saw me and the net, he spooked and took off. He circled the boat a few times. Finally, with a big swoop I was able to net him and bring him up over the side.
Ron’s big, beautiful brown!:
The photo above does not do this fish justice. In addition to being measured at 22″, he also had a wide girth and a huge paddle for a tail.
The rest of the float was a bit uneventful. We caught whitefish in addition to trout, and one was quite large. Ron had the best day, but he fished the entire time too. He scored a slam with two Browns, a couple of rainbows, a cutthroat and a few whitefish.
It was a good day!
One that could only have gotten better with experience. We will likely get out more on the Wyoming Green this fall and perhaps try a few other sections. Ron’s big brown did make this a day to remember!
