Flaming Gorge Bust

Fishing Time: 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Weather: WINDY! partly cloudy, warm high 40's
Moon Phase: 43% Moon
Location: Flaming Gorge Reservoir
Bait: Tube jigs tipped with minnow
Who Went: Rick, MeI was very excited to head up to the gorge this weekend and fish for trophy lake trout. Rick Everson and I got to the hotel in Green River, Wyoming on Friday night, and stayed up late rigging poles and arranging gear, so we could be ready bright and early in the morning. We only had two hours to dream about monster macks coming through our ice holes before the alarm clock went off, and the journey became reality. I wanted to fish Linwood Bay, but the reports said there was no ice that far south on the lake, so we settled on fishing a good looking hump near Buckboard Marina. We walked out onto the ice in the dark following the light of the gps. We carefully chose a spot on a topography map the night before and entered the gps coordinates in order to put ourselves in the exact area we wanted to fish. After a little over a mile walk we arrived, and started drilling holes and gearing up when a four wheeler came and stopped to talk. He asked how we found this spot and why we were there. I couldn't believe the arrogance in his voice and my blood started boiling. Long story short he ended up fishing right next to us. He was a local from Green River and actually ended up being a pretty nice guy, but I still wish he wouldn't have imposed on us. His fish finder started causing interference with Rick's fish finder and he kept trying to talk to me during the earliest part of the morning when fishing for big fish is the best! All I wanted to do was concentrate on fishing! You drive 3 hours to spend the night in a crappy hotel that costs you 60 bucks a night, and pay a lot of gas money for about 4 hours of prime time fishing! You have to take advantage of every minute of those 4 hours, so when someone drives their four wheeler over a mile out onto the ice just to shoot the breeze, it's hard not to be rude, but this seemed to be the omen for the trip. at 11:00 a.m. the wind came up and hit 20-30 mph and didn't stop the rest of the trip. Rick and I were stuck sitting in his ice shack all day long. Any time we tried to get out, the wind would start to blow the whole shack away! When evening hit, the wind died down to a nice breezy 20 mph and my patience was starting to run thin. It also just happened to be the weekend that the burbot bash was going on. The burbot bash is an event sponsored by BigFishTackle.com and they all came up to catch some burbot, barbecue and have a good time. There was close to 300 people and they were all probably as disappointed as we were with the weather. Rick and I wanted to fish for burbot, so we toughed it out and joined the burbot bashers. We caught a bunch of small lake trout, and only one small burbot! The trip was so miserable that the picture of the burbot is the only picture we took all trip! I don't call many trips to Flaming Gorge miserable, even when the weather is bad, but this trip took the cake. If you have ever been in true 30 mph winds then you know how miserable we were! Can't wait for a nice summer day up there with no wind at all!