Weather: No wind, hot-90's
Moon Phase: 98% Moon
Location: Flaming Gorge - Linwood Bay
Water Temp: 66 degrees
Bait: 7-inch rainbow tube jig
Method: Inch-jig
Who Went: Bobber John, Rick, Me
After coming home from Flaming Gorge and flaunting the pictures of the lake trout we caught a couple weeks ago, my friends did everything they could to get me back up there and show them how it’s done. With limited time and conflicting schedules the only remedy was to do an extreme all day and one night trip. We left at 2:15 a.m. on Saturday morning and were on the lake by 6 a.m. With it being the 24th of July weekend I knew it was going to be busy, but I never expected the amount of fishing boats that were actually on the water. Luckily we got there early enough to get a head start on them. Just as it was starting to get busy, John landed the first lake trout he’s ever caught with a nice 24 pounder.
He was ecstatic with the catch and is now addicted to lake trout fishing the same way I am. It took him 15-20 minutes to reel in and this is probably about 10 minutes longer than the normal fight for a 24 pound lake trout, so I thought it was going to be a 30+ pound fish, but it wasn’t to be. Either way it was a great fish and especially for your first lake trout ever!
About an hour later John hooked up again and landed another lake trout, but this one was smaller at around 8 pounds!
The presentation we used on this trip is what I call the inch-jig method and was taught to me by Captain Jim Williams. Jim is the best fishing guide Flaming Gorge has to offer and has taught me more about the big lake trout up there than I could have learned in a lifetime of fishing there. They are truly a difficult species to catch consistently, and I am not there yet, but I seem to get a little better each time I go. We finished the rest of the day without getting another hit and unfortunately Rick still hasn’t been lucky enough to enjoy the feeling of a big laker on the end of his line, but it will happen! The barrage of fishing boats on Flaming Gorge over the 24th is what I think killed the fishing, and I now realize why Captain Jim always tells me to run as far away from Flaming Gorge as you possibly can on a holiday weekend. Unfortunately for me, I have to go when I get the chance and can’t be picky choosy like he has the luxury of being! There was a considerable difference in the mood of the fish below us in the early morning hours on Saturday, compared to later in the day when there were 50 other boats dropping jigs on them.
The fish showed no interest in our jigs once the clan of other fisherman showed up. Live and learn I suppose! We woke up early on Sunday and fished for 2 hours before we had to be home for other commitments, but the fish were still in a cranky mood and again I think it had to do with all the fishing pressure from the day before. We loaded up and were off the lake by 8 a.m. and home by 11:30. Now I’m being tortured everyday with the thought of when I will get back up there. I just hope it’s sooner rather than later!
He was ecstatic with the catch and is now addicted to lake trout fishing the same way I am. It took him 15-20 minutes to reel in and this is probably about 10 minutes longer than the normal fight for a 24 pound lake trout, so I thought it was going to be a 30+ pound fish, but it wasn’t to be. Either way it was a great fish and especially for your first lake trout ever! About an hour later John hooked up again and landed another lake trout, but this one was smaller at around 8 pounds! The presentation we used on this trip is what I call the inch-jig method and was taught to me by Captain Jim Williams. Jim is the best fishing guide Flaming Gorge has to offer and has taught me more about the big lake trout up there than I could have learned in a lifetime of fishing there. They are truly a difficult species to catch consistently, and I am not there yet, but I seem to get a little better each time I go. We finished the rest of the day without getting another hit and unfortunately Rick still hasn’t been lucky enough to enjoy the feeling of a big laker on the end of his line, but it will happen! The barrage of fishing boats on Flaming Gorge over the 24th is what I think killed the fishing, and I now realize why Captain Jim always tells me to run as far away from Flaming Gorge as you possibly can on a holiday weekend. Unfortunately for me, I have to go when I get the chance and can’t be picky choosy like he has the luxury of being! There was a considerable difference in the mood of the fish below us in the early morning hours on Saturday, compared to later in the day when there were 50 other boats dropping jigs on them. The fish showed no interest in our jigs once the clan of other fisherman showed up. Live and learn I suppose! We woke up early on Sunday and fished for 2 hours before we had to be home for other commitments, but the fish were still in a cranky mood and again I think it had to do with all the fishing pressure from the day before. We loaded up and were off the lake by 8 a.m. and home by 11:30. Now I’m being tortured everyday with the thought of when I will get back up there. I just hope it’s sooner rather than later! 
Flaming Gorge is probably one of my favorite lakes to fish, camp and boat. Lake Powell has always been number one in my heart, but Flaming Gorge is making a good push for the lead. One year ago in August my buddy JJ's dad Ed called me and asked if I knew any good guides for Lake Trout at Flaming Gorge. It was an easy question to answer as there is only one guide at Flamining Gorge I would recommend to anybody and that is Captain Jim Williams. No one knows lake trout at Flaming Gorge like he does. I asked Ed why he was inquiring of a guide service and he told me that he was going to book him as a Christmas present to surprise JJ with. I told him that was a great idea and left it at that. Christmas morning I woke up and went through the usual hoopla of gift exchanging and spending time with family when I got a phone call from JJ. I answered the phone and said "Merry Christmas, I bet it was a good one for you,"and he replied back and said, "it's about to be for you too!" I asked him what he meant and he told me that his dad paid for an extra spot on the boat with the guide so that JJ could invite a buddy to go with him. I was that buddy! It was a long wait but we finally made it to that magical date of Monday July 12, 2010. Of course we had to go up early and spend the weekend fishing before going out with the guide on Monday. We got there Friday night and within 5 minutes of being at camp we were already on the water.
Friday was more of a find fish evening and no lake trout were landed, but we did get a good idea on where they were hanging out. Saturday was just one of those days that stick in your craw for awhile because we didn't get a hit all day long. We saw tons of fish and had them interested but they just wouldn't take the bait! By Saturday night I was pretty bummed out and I gave my dad a call to give him the report. He did his best to keep me in good spirits by telling me it was just one of those days and that tomorrow would be better. He helped my confidence by telling me he knew I could catch them because I have helped him and his buddy Mike catch them last year. It revived me a bit and I got a good nights rest and we were on the water again by 6:00 a.m. Sunday morning started just like Saturday with no bites and by 9:00 a.m. my hopes began to fade. Then I saw a racing mackinaw on my fish finder coming straight for my jig, I prepared for him to do as the rest of them had done and come up fast to take a look and then head on back down to the bottom, but this time he hammered my jig and I set the hook. JJ was taking a nap and I yelled fish on! It was a good but short fight until I landed this 9 pound mack.
Soon after letting the 9 pounder go I got hit again and pulled in a small 3-4 pound lake trout. This was it for the day, but at least we didn't get lake trout skunked. We did get to spend some time bass fishing, but I mostly caught rainbows. I put on a small crankbait and couldn't keep the rainbows off. They were nice healthy 17 inchers and fought well.
We caught a few bass as well, but with all the storms rolling in and out all day I think it effected the bass fishing drastically.
JJ began to wonder if we would even catch lake trout with our guide and I laughed at him and said, "you haven't met Captain Jim Williams!" This guy has spent 30 years perfecting techniques that will catch big lake trout at Flaming Gorge. JJ was biteless for lake trout for the entire weekend and he was pretty discouraged about it. Monday morning came around and I promised him that this was his day to land a big laker! He said all he wanted was a bite! We got on the water with the guide and we instantly started seeing fish everywhere! This guide knows exactly where to go and where the fish are at all times of the year. Ed was the first to get hit, and in fact he got 3 hits in a row, but couldn't quite put anything in the boat. I was the next to get hit and landed this 18 pound lake trout.
It was 10:00 a.m. by this time and we had two nice fish in the boat. Captain Jim is unbelievable at how he has you sitting on top of fish all morning long. I think that is the biggest difference between him and myself. I can master the methods needed to land them, but he knows the lake so well and always has you sitting on top of fish, while I have to do a little more searching in order to find them. I guess thats the advantage he has being out there everyday, and doing this for 30 years! It was a good trip as usual at the gorge and all I can think about is when I get to go back. I will leave you with pictures of all the storms we endured over the weekend. We never did get to much rain or wind so the storms were nice as they kept it cool and bearable.
It’s late June and I just barely made my first trip to 
The state record is 43 inches long and 24 pounds. Either way it was a fish of a lifetime and I was very excited to say the least. We took a bunch of photos with me and the pike and then let him swim away for others to enjoy.
Many people have asked me how I let a fish of that magnitude swim away and not bring it home, and the answer to that question is easy. A fish that old and big is not going to be worth eating because the meat is tough and it will taste very poor, but the number one reason I 
We landed quite a few channel catfish and Rick had the hot hand of the evening.
He landed his largest catfish ever which was a very nice 10 lb female whose belly looked like it was going to explode!
The waves got so bad that 
Also staying with Hunt’s family was his Grandpa Ray who is 90 years old and has the health of a 70 year old. He came on our fishing trip and stayed step for step with us the whole time, it was amazing and he was an awesome guy with great stories. The Hunt family all made it a very enjoyable stay in San Antonio. The next morning Hunt’s Uncle John and Nephew Luke were at the house by 8:00 a.m. We ate a great breakfast made by Donna, while overlooking the lake (just flooded and thats why it's so brown) on the back of their house and then we took a drive up the road to check the other lakes around town to look at what the flooding had damaged.
We also stopped at the bait shop to take a look at their live bait selection. Only in texas would you find this...
On the way to the other lake we noticed a sweet little Texas hunting vehicle that we couldn't resist getting a picture of. Imagine that there was empty Miller Lite cans all over in the back!
The only damage we could find on any of the lakes was a few bent light poles and this dry docked pontoon boat. 
We all caravanned in Uncle John’s Chevy Suburban and I spent the whole 3 hour drive in the back seat with Luke who is 12 years old. I don’t think my ears ever got a rest as he talked to me about fishing the whole time. I’ve never met a 12 year old kid with so much enthusiasm about fishing and hunting, and I hope that my kids will share this same attitude towards the outdoors as Luke does. We arrived in the town of Del Rio three hours later and stayed in a rundown hotel right next to Lake Amistad. I took pictures of our room and the two dead scorpions that were on the bathroom floor. 
It made you think twice about using the restroom in the middle of the night. Before checking in to our room we went straight to the tackle shop that was next door to the hotel and I was amazed at the selection of bass fishing plastics they offer in Texas. Everything was 3 times the size of gear we use in Utah. This is when I realized there must be some big bass in this lake. I took a picture of a plastic worm that I use in Utah compared to the ones they use in Texas and it blew my mind! See for yourself…
The next morning we were on the lake at sun up and met our guide for the day. Of course my bad weather luck followed me from Utah and the lake was socked in with rain clouds and wind.
It’s a different kind of rain than what I’m used to in Utah, the rain was more of a mist and the temperature was still around 80 degrees, so it had no chance of keeping us from fishing. The guide was upfront and explained how this cold front would affect fishing, but we would just had to fight through it and find the fish! We started motoring out into the lake and the first thing that jumped out to me was how much cover was in this lake. There was grass everywhere and the whole lake was full of underwater bushes and trees. The only way to fish this lake is weedless and we started off fishing topwater poppers, but didn’t have any success. We then switched to a super fluke rigged weedless of course, but still could not put anything in the boat. We made our way back into a bay full of cover and tree lined shores where we rigged a monster senko worm like shown in the picture above and this is when Hunt showed that he was going to have the hot hand of the trip. He started putting small largemouth bass in the boat right away. I started my trip off by landing one of the smallest bass I have ever caught. Not exactly what I dreamed about fishing in Texas, but it was a start. We caught quite a few bass in this cove and we had a great time.
Our guide had the strongest southern accent I have ever heard and loved to tell stories. When I could understand what he was saying the stories were pretty good, but I was mainly focusing on the fishing.
Later in the day our guide took us to a place where our chances increased to land bigger bass and that’s exactly what happened. I had a hit that about pulled my pole into the water and I had thoughts of pulling an 8 pound largemouth to the boat. I was shocked when I pulled in the feistiest 2 pound bass I have ever caught. I will tell you that the bass in this lake fought with a vengeance and put Utah bass to shame.
Then Hunt had a good hit and put a 5 pound largemouth right next to the boat before the bass graciously spit the hook back at him and went back down to the bottom of the lake. Our first day out was full of adventure and good times with quite a few bass caught, but no Texas monsters. At the end of the day we probed our guide for information about where to fish from shore later that evening and what to use. He gave us some good info and that night is what made our trip. We only landed one fish from his shoreline spot, but it was the biggest freshwater fish that Hunt has ever caught, excluding sturgeon. After a long drawn out fight and some close calls we were able to land Hunt’s 6 pound largemouth!
Hunt was very excited and I was thinking to myself, this is what we came to Texas for! The next day on the water we had better weather and were in high spirits to catch something big. It didn’t end up happening, but we did put about 12 bass in the boat.
We only fished for half a day and then we were off towards the coast in Galveston where Uncle John had a 26 foot waiting for us to fish the Gulf of Mexico. We dropped Hunt’s dad and Grandpa Ray off in San Antonio and rented a car to drive the rest of the 7 hour road trip to the coast.
Hunt being single now, couldn’t resist spitting his charm with the girl at Enterprise so I took a picture of his game in action.
He forgot to look at her left ring finger because it was decorated with a lovely diamond ring, so we left Christi at Enterprise and headed out on the open roads of the biggest state in the lower 48. The drive across Texas was very flat with bass ponds and BBQ joints every 100 yards. We drove through downtown Houston as I had never been there and then made our way on to Galveston and checked into our room. After checking in, Hunt drove me around the town of Galveston showing me all the torn up buildings that occurred from Hurricane Ike back in 2008. The town was not the quaint little coastal town that I had pictured in my mind. It had been hit hard by the hurricane and the buildings were in bad shape. It’s also a town known for oil and there were refineries everywhere which doesn’t do much for scenery, but the gulf was there and I was ready to fish. We met Uncle John and Luke down at the docks early the next morning with thoughts of running offshore up to 60 miles to get into some good ocean fishing, but my bad weather luck followed me as usual and the gulf had 5-8 foot swells making it impossible to go too far in a 26 foot boat.
We did what we could, but only made it about 20 miles offshore to fish a few of the many oil rig platforms that sit off the coast of Galveston.
This time it was my turn with the hot hand as I started landing 3 foot blacktip sharks on almost every cast.
Hunt and Luke got in on the action with a couple sharks as well.
Then I laid into what I could tell was a good fish. It took me about 15 minutes of fighting until we had a 5 foot shark next to the boat. Uncle John tried 5 times to get this thing in the boat, but the shark wasn’t having it. On the fifth try the shark bit right through my steel leader and swam off into the ocean. I didn’t get my picture with a 5 foot shark, but Luke did film me fighting it and Hunt snapped a few photos of the shark while it was on the side of the boat.
We finally got bored catching shark and decided to go on a search for different species of fish, but it was a tough day on the water. It didn’t matter because I was happy as I landed the biggest fish I have ever caught!
Once we got off the boat from ocean fishing I realized how hard on the body ocean fishing is. You’re constantly fighting to keep your balance in the rough seas, and the saltwater and hot sun takes it all out of you. We all took a quick shower back at our hotel and went to dinner at a nice seafood restaurant right on the beach, Uncle John’s treat! Hunt’s family was unbelievable and treated me to a trip that I will never forget. Hunt and I were so beat from the day that we didn’t even have the energy to go out on our last night of the trip and were in bed by 10:30. We woke up the next morning and made the 4 hour drive back to San Antonio Airport, but not before we stopped to eat barbecue one last time. It was one of the funnest trips I have ever been on and I can’t thank Hunt and his family enough. Hunt used his skymiles to get me there and his family took care of me every minute I was there. I spent 400 dollars on a trip that would have cost me a couple grand easy. I spent 4 days in Texas with two of those days being guided on one of the best bass fishing lakes Texas has to offer! Then I got to spend another day on the Gulf of Mexico fishing the ocean guided by Uncle John. It was a trip that can’t be beat, but hey, I will try! Hey Hunt where we going next year ha ha!