Returning the Favor

Fishing Time: 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Weather: Sunny, clear, 50's
Moon Phase: 65% Moon
Location: Price River
Bait: Orange glow bugs
Who Went: Rick, Kobe, Sheldon, Me

Back in the middle of September I took Rick Everson on a trip to Flaming Gorge to show him my technique on how to land big Lake Trout. Due to bad weather and inactive fish, we didn't land the big one we were looking for, but Rick was nice enough that even though we didn't get what we were looking for, he followed up on his end of the deal and took me on the river to see if we could find any big ole Brown Trout that might want to play. Rick brought an extra fly rod for me to use. Yes I said fly rod! I decided it would be fun to give it a try. I know I bag on it quite a bit and usually call them lint throwers, but I actually had a lot of fun doing it and might be purchasing a fly rod of my own very soon. We fished on the Price River right below the Dam at Scofield Reservoir. We hiked in about a mile and a half and then worked our way back to the dam hitting every promising looking hole on the way upstream. It was a fun way to fish as we all had polarized glasses and we were basically sight fishing. See a fish and cast to it trying to entice a bite. We were using glow bugs, which look like a big orange fish egg, as we were expecting the browns to be spawning. We seemed to have just missed the spawn, but the glow bugs were still working well. The first fish I tried to cast to made for quite the experience. I snagged about twelve bushes, tangled my line about ten times, and couldn't get the fly anywhere near the fish. After this first blunder of trying to get the fly fishing down, I felt I picked it up fairly quickly and didn't have many other problems, but that first attempt took a lot of patience from Rick and I think he thought he was in for a long day! Two other guys came with us and they were both fly fisherman as well. Kobe works with Rick and then Kobe's cousin Sheldon tagged along as well. Rick is a really good fly fisherman and landed the first fish we saw on the river. We soon found a hole that was stacked with fish and had some nice ones in the mix. We all started landing fish from this hole and this is where I caught my biggest of the day. Rick also caught fish out of this hole, including a new addition to the Price River, the Tiger Trout.

Sheldon got in the mix with a nice cutthroat...Then Kobe landed this nice brown... I continued to catch fish all the way up to the dam and had a great time. I made Rick take some actions shots of me fly fishing cause I told him my other fishing buddies would never believe I actually went lint throwing!

Rick took big fish honor for the day with this fat brown... I almost hit for the cycle on the river as I caught browns, cutthroats and a tiger trout. All I needed was a rainbow, but it wasn't to be. I had a lot of fun fly fishing and I could see me doing it once in awhile just to get out and walk the rivers. I don't spend enough time on the rivers now that I have my boat.