07-14-2006, 05:42 PM
Well,
Let me start off by saying that Hookjaw Brimhall and I were very dissapointed with the Gorge. We started out early trolling for Kokes. Tried EVERYTHING we knew. Humdingers, Crippalures, wedding rings, Koke-E-Nuts, small spoons, etc. We tried, greens, pinks, oranges, reds, etc. We used dodgers, nothing... even resorted to pop gear. COULD NOT GET A KOKE. We had a finder and saw plenty of fish schooled at 40-50ft over 70-100ft of water, but we couldn't get em. They must have been kokes. Just don't know what we were doing wrong. We did manage a thousand[
] rainbows in the process. Most were small, but we managed a few nice ones. We decided to go jig for Macks. Well, just as we found a few fish in 80 ft of water between an island and a point, the W came up hard and was blowing us around hard. VERY HARD to keep us over the fish, with my inexperienced boat control skills. We did have a few on using green and white tubes, but we long released them all. One of them felt pretty damned hefty to say the least. Just as we were getting completely discouraged, I hooked into a nice heavy fish. The weird thing was is that it was just that.. heavy. I reeled it up, and I caught myself a nice downrigging ball and about 60ft of wire. [
]
We decided to troll around a little more, and we managed several more bows. We did make one stop to pitch some plastics at the smallies and caught about 20 dinks. I saw fish under me on the finder in 25ft of water so I dropped my mackinaw tube right down on them, and had a nice smallie on for about 30 seconds. It got off, but I would guess it was about 19". He was a good looking fish too. Nice smallie for the Utah side of the Gorge.
All of this Gorge fishing took place on our second day there. I wanted to save the best for last. [
]
We arrived at the Green on Saturday afternoon. Tons of people there. They are doing some kind of construction on both sides of the river at Little Hole. Hate seeing that. To get away from the crowds a little bit we walked up about a mile before doing any serious fishing. Man was the fishing hot! We were spin fishing, and were getting one about every 3rd or 4th cast for about 2 hours. We caught some really nice browns. The biggest went 21", but the average was about 17". We also managed several bows and a few hybrids as well. A lot of fish, and a lot of fun! []
Well, on 7/9 after our trolling for 8 hours on the Gorge gave only fair results, we decided to go back to the Green for some more afternoon fishing. Neither Hookjaw nor I had fished from the 1st parking lot just below the dam for a mile or 2 below. So we parked there, and took that STEEP trail down. I knew it was gonna be a mother comin back up after fishing, but we were excited to give it a try. We got down to the river, and started walking down. We walked down about 2 miles or so, and started making our way back up as we fished. Along the way we ran into several fisherman, both spin and fly, that said fishing was horrible, and we might as well start at Little Hole. We weren't phased. Good thing too, because the fishing was just as good, if not better, than the day before. Again we caught fish after fish. Biggest one on day 2 was a fat 20" brown. MAN IT WAS FUN! Normally the fish on the Green know the drill when they are hooked, and they don't put up the greatest fight. We found quite a few that knew how to tussle with the best of them. The green is usually a fairly tough river with lots of smart fish. We always catch our fair share, but this was easy. It also felt nice to wade a little, because we had forgot the sunscreen, and looked like a couple of lobsters from our trolling around the lake.
As we neered the parking lot we saw a decent 17" brown with about a 11" bow in his mouth. The bow was still alive, and thrashing like crazy. It was a very cool sight as we saw the struggle come to an end, and the brown find a little deeper water as e tried to swallow the bow.
On our way back we saw a ton of wildlife including a spike elk right off the road. We also saw a couple nice 4 points all still in velvet of course.
Although the Gorge fishing wasn't up to standard, it was really nice to get outta the crib I call my house. All in all good fishing and good company. When I get a chance I will post some pics from the green, and some of the wildlife.
[signature]
Let me start off by saying that Hookjaw Brimhall and I were very dissapointed with the Gorge. We started out early trolling for Kokes. Tried EVERYTHING we knew. Humdingers, Crippalures, wedding rings, Koke-E-Nuts, small spoons, etc. We tried, greens, pinks, oranges, reds, etc. We used dodgers, nothing... even resorted to pop gear. COULD NOT GET A KOKE. We had a finder and saw plenty of fish schooled at 40-50ft over 70-100ft of water, but we couldn't get em. They must have been kokes. Just don't know what we were doing wrong. We did manage a thousand[
] rainbows in the process. Most were small, but we managed a few nice ones. We decided to go jig for Macks. Well, just as we found a few fish in 80 ft of water between an island and a point, the W came up hard and was blowing us around hard. VERY HARD to keep us over the fish, with my inexperienced boat control skills. We did have a few on using green and white tubes, but we long released them all. One of them felt pretty damned hefty to say the least. Just as we were getting completely discouraged, I hooked into a nice heavy fish. The weird thing was is that it was just that.. heavy. I reeled it up, and I caught myself a nice downrigging ball and about 60ft of wire. [] We decided to troll around a little more, and we managed several more bows. We did make one stop to pitch some plastics at the smallies and caught about 20 dinks. I saw fish under me on the finder in 25ft of water so I dropped my mackinaw tube right down on them, and had a nice smallie on for about 30 seconds. It got off, but I would guess it was about 19". He was a good looking fish too. Nice smallie for the Utah side of the Gorge.
All of this Gorge fishing took place on our second day there. I wanted to save the best for last. [
] We arrived at the Green on Saturday afternoon. Tons of people there. They are doing some kind of construction on both sides of the river at Little Hole. Hate seeing that. To get away from the crowds a little bit we walked up about a mile before doing any serious fishing. Man was the fishing hot! We were spin fishing, and were getting one about every 3rd or 4th cast for about 2 hours. We caught some really nice browns. The biggest went 21", but the average was about 17". We also managed several bows and a few hybrids as well. A lot of fish, and a lot of fun! [
] Well, on 7/9 after our trolling for 8 hours on the Gorge gave only fair results, we decided to go back to the Green for some more afternoon fishing. Neither Hookjaw nor I had fished from the 1st parking lot just below the dam for a mile or 2 below. So we parked there, and took that STEEP trail down. I knew it was gonna be a mother comin back up after fishing, but we were excited to give it a try. We got down to the river, and started walking down. We walked down about 2 miles or so, and started making our way back up as we fished. Along the way we ran into several fisherman, both spin and fly, that said fishing was horrible, and we might as well start at Little Hole. We weren't phased. Good thing too, because the fishing was just as good, if not better, than the day before. Again we caught fish after fish. Biggest one on day 2 was a fat 20" brown. MAN IT WAS FUN! Normally the fish on the Green know the drill when they are hooked, and they don't put up the greatest fight. We found quite a few that knew how to tussle with the best of them. The green is usually a fairly tough river with lots of smart fish. We always catch our fair share, but this was easy. It also felt nice to wade a little, because we had forgot the sunscreen, and looked like a couple of lobsters from our trolling around the lake.
As we neered the parking lot we saw a decent 17" brown with about a 11" bow in his mouth. The bow was still alive, and thrashing like crazy. It was a very cool sight as we saw the struggle come to an end, and the brown find a little deeper water as e tried to swallow the bow.
On our way back we saw a ton of wildlife including a spike elk right off the road. We also saw a couple nice 4 points all still in velvet of course.
Although the Gorge fishing wasn't up to standard, it was really nice to get outta the crib I call my house. All in all good fishing and good company. When I get a chance I will post some pics from the green, and some of the wildlife.
[signature]