Fishing Time: January 9-10 (Thursday and Friday)
Weather: Cold, single digit temperatures, snow
on Thursday morning, Friday was calm and mostly clear skies. No ice found from Sheep Creek up to Upper
Marsh Bay
Moon Phase: 85% Moon
Location: Flaming Gorge (Sheep Creek up to Anvil
Point)
Water Temp: 38 degrees
Best Bait: 7-inch Rainbow Tube Jig
Who Went: Bobber John, Rick Everson, Dunc
I received a
phone call from Bobber John that he was coming into town to attend an event so
naturally we turned it into a fishing trip.
He came in a few days early and Rick joined us for a few days up at
Flaming Gorge.
Day one we woke
up to a half inch of snow in the boat and it continued snowing lightly most the
morning. Why do we do this? Mainly
because it’s the only time of year there isn’t a million boats fishing all the
lake trout areas. However, it’s getting hard,
and my boat was frozen, wouldn’t start, and a million other issues the cold
brings with trying to launch a boat.
We talked to
Captain Jim, the main fishing guide at Gorge, on the boat ramp, and he said the
fish have been hard to find. We started
south and found out quick that Captain Jim was right. No fish anywhere. We moved north checking all the usual haunts
and didn’t find fish until my last spot which was miles north in Wyoming. Unfortunately, by the time we found fish it
was 10:30 am and they weren’t very active.
We still fished hard for a few hours, but didn’t get one bite. We were slightly demoralized, but had hopes
that the next morning they would bite.
The highlight of the trip was the thermo-scoped rifle and binoculars that Everson brought on the trip. It was the first time I've seen this technology and wow! It was incredible and made for a couple fun nights chasing bunnies in the sage brush.
Day two we ran straight back to where we left fish, and they were there waiting for us. We fished hard and had a lot of great looks, but for whatever reason just couldn’t buy a bite. Later in the day we headed back south and tried to find some new fish. We didn’t find many, but luckily at Antelope Flats, Bobber John was able to coax the only bite of the trip and landed one decent fish. We didn’t weigh the fish, but it was in the 10–15-pound range. That ended our day.
Day three we woke up to 20-25 mph winds and 30-40 mph gusts. After dealing with two days straight of freezing cold this was the breaking point and we packed up and drove home.
