07-13-2007, 01:08 AM
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 2][#002850]For almost two years now, RILEYFISH (Mark), Bait_Caster, and myself have been making plans for a guided fishing trip on Flaming Gorge with Captain Jim Williams of [url "http://www.fishflaminggorge.com/"]Creative Fishing Adventures[/url]. After reading many posts of other guys who have already fished with Jim (several times for some of you), our excitement meters have been pretty much pegged in anticipation.
We drove up Wednesday morning and fished the Gorge for kokanee. Mark was showing me and BC the in’s and out’s of down riggers, kokanuts, and sling blades. We only fished for a couple of hours and didn’t catch any kokes but we did bring in a few nice rainbows.
Wednesday night, we stayed in a little cabin at the KOA campground there in Manilla. Not a bad place to hang your hat and get rested up for the next day’s events. After we got settled in, we went to dinner and then Mark drove us around to a few places in the area. As a boy, Mark spent many a day at Flaming gorge. Here is a picture from the Sheep Creek Bay overlook that he took us to:
[inline Sheep-Creek-bay-overlook-40.jpg]
Thursday morning, we met Capt. Jim at the Lucerne Bay Marina at 6:30. While there at the marina, we caught a glimpse of Don-In-Denver who was just heading out for a day of fishing too. While at the marina, we got our first lessons in rod grip, pole position, jig presentation, and what we should and should not do in general.
After a couple hours into the fishing, Mark hooked into his first fish of the day. Jim gave him a little coaching for the retrieve and helped show him how to hold the mack for a photo:
[inline Jim-coaching-17-400.jpg]
[inline Ready-for-photo-17-400.jpg]
The first nice mack weighed in at 17 lbs:
[inline Riley-w-17-400.jpg]
As we moved from hump to hump looking for “victims”, I took a snapshot of Jim’s sonar screen. Here are a few macks stacked up over a hump:
[inline Graph-400.jpg]
Another hour into to the fishing and Mark had a second mack on. This time his pole was doing the BIG bend-o and Jim was giving him a little coaching on bringing it in too:
[inline Pole-bend-on-38-400.jpg]
[inline Jim-coaching-38-400.jpg]
Needless to say, Mark was having a good day:
[inline 38-pole-bend-w-
-400.jpg]
When that monster got a little closer to the boat, even Capt. Jim got pretty excited:
[inline Jim-excited-too-400.jpg]
Once that mack was in the net, Mark had the opportunity to catch his breath and rest his arms:
[inline 38-thumbs-up-400.jpg]
It weighed in at a whopping 38 lbs!!!!!
[inline Weighing-the-38-400.jpg]
That was one hog of a fish:
[inline Hog-in-the-boat-400.jpg]
[inline Riley-holding-38-400.jpg]
And he had a pretty big head too! (So did the fish!):
[inline Big-head-400.jpg]
Wow, what a memorable event. It’s one I won’t soon forget.
BC and I had a few tick hits but were not able to stick the steel to them so we come home with no fish but a BUNCH of new things we have learned about mack fishing. Man, I thought I had a pretty good grasp on how to catch macks. Boy was I mistaken. The stuff Jim taught us was a whole new ball game. And I have a lot of new things to try at Bear Lake.
After all the mistakes I made out on Jim’s boat, I was surprised to hear him invite us to keep our same spot next year .... oh yea baby!
I would just like to say a thing or two about Captain Jim Williams; I had heard that he can be a bit of a hard driving, boot camp, kind of guy when giving lessons out there on the Gorge. That may be true but it is all because of his supper strong desire to get you to successfully hook up on the fish he works so hard to get and keep you over. Every time he set me straight on some technique that I wasn’t properly following (and there were many of those times) I realized that if I didn’t clean up my act, the negative impact would affect the success of the other two fishermen. It was truly a team effort. There are so many details that have to be kept in mind and followed to be successful at catching Gorge macks jigging that if he didn’t push you, you probably aren’t going to be nearly as successful. Jim truly has a passion for teaching his clients how to be successful.
I dare bet that BC, RileyFish, and myself have just scratched the surface when it comes to knowing how to mack fish on the Gorge. We hope to dig a little deeper again this time next year.[/#002850][/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 2][#002850][/#002850][/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 2][#002850]That trip to the Gorge with RileyFish and Bait_Caster FAR exceded my biggest dreams. They are great fishermen and great guys to hang out with.
Thanks much Captain Williams. Our trip was EXTREEMLY FANTASTIC.[/#002850][/size][/font]
[signature]
We drove up Wednesday morning and fished the Gorge for kokanee. Mark was showing me and BC the in’s and out’s of down riggers, kokanuts, and sling blades. We only fished for a couple of hours and didn’t catch any kokes but we did bring in a few nice rainbows.
Wednesday night, we stayed in a little cabin at the KOA campground there in Manilla. Not a bad place to hang your hat and get rested up for the next day’s events. After we got settled in, we went to dinner and then Mark drove us around to a few places in the area. As a boy, Mark spent many a day at Flaming gorge. Here is a picture from the Sheep Creek Bay overlook that he took us to:
[inline Sheep-Creek-bay-overlook-40.jpg]
Thursday morning, we met Capt. Jim at the Lucerne Bay Marina at 6:30. While there at the marina, we caught a glimpse of Don-In-Denver who was just heading out for a day of fishing too. While at the marina, we got our first lessons in rod grip, pole position, jig presentation, and what we should and should not do in general.
After a couple hours into the fishing, Mark hooked into his first fish of the day. Jim gave him a little coaching for the retrieve and helped show him how to hold the mack for a photo:
[inline Jim-coaching-17-400.jpg]
[inline Ready-for-photo-17-400.jpg]
The first nice mack weighed in at 17 lbs:
[inline Riley-w-17-400.jpg]
As we moved from hump to hump looking for “victims”, I took a snapshot of Jim’s sonar screen. Here are a few macks stacked up over a hump:
[inline Graph-400.jpg]
Another hour into to the fishing and Mark had a second mack on. This time his pole was doing the BIG bend-o and Jim was giving him a little coaching on bringing it in too:
[inline Pole-bend-on-38-400.jpg]
[inline Jim-coaching-38-400.jpg]
Needless to say, Mark was having a good day:
[inline 38-pole-bend-w-
-400.jpg] When that monster got a little closer to the boat, even Capt. Jim got pretty excited:
[inline Jim-excited-too-400.jpg]
Once that mack was in the net, Mark had the opportunity to catch his breath and rest his arms:
[inline 38-thumbs-up-400.jpg]
It weighed in at a whopping 38 lbs!!!!!
[inline Weighing-the-38-400.jpg]
That was one hog of a fish:
[inline Hog-in-the-boat-400.jpg]
[inline Riley-holding-38-400.jpg]
And he had a pretty big head too! (So did the fish!):
[inline Big-head-400.jpg]
Wow, what a memorable event. It’s one I won’t soon forget.
BC and I had a few tick hits but were not able to stick the steel to them so we come home with no fish but a BUNCH of new things we have learned about mack fishing. Man, I thought I had a pretty good grasp on how to catch macks. Boy was I mistaken. The stuff Jim taught us was a whole new ball game. And I have a lot of new things to try at Bear Lake.
After all the mistakes I made out on Jim’s boat, I was surprised to hear him invite us to keep our same spot next year .... oh yea baby!
I would just like to say a thing or two about Captain Jim Williams; I had heard that he can be a bit of a hard driving, boot camp, kind of guy when giving lessons out there on the Gorge. That may be true but it is all because of his supper strong desire to get you to successfully hook up on the fish he works so hard to get and keep you over. Every time he set me straight on some technique that I wasn’t properly following (and there were many of those times) I realized that if I didn’t clean up my act, the negative impact would affect the success of the other two fishermen. It was truly a team effort. There are so many details that have to be kept in mind and followed to be successful at catching Gorge macks jigging that if he didn’t push you, you probably aren’t going to be nearly as successful. Jim truly has a passion for teaching his clients how to be successful.
I dare bet that BC, RileyFish, and myself have just scratched the surface when it comes to knowing how to mack fish on the Gorge. We hope to dig a little deeper again this time next year.[/#002850][/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 2][#002850][/#002850][/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 2][#002850]That trip to the Gorge with RileyFish and Bait_Caster FAR exceded my biggest dreams. They are great fishermen and great guys to hang out with.
Thanks much Captain Williams. Our trip was EXTREEMLY FANTASTIC.[/#002850][/size][/font]
[signature]
]Leave it up to old Rileyfish to land the toad. Nice job Mark.