The Blue Wing Olives did not dissapoint on our perrenial trip to the Green River in Dutch John, Utah. With above freezing temperatures at night and warm, sunny days well into the mid to upper 50’s you couldn’t have scripted a better scenario for this particular hatch. The water in the “B section” starting @ mile 7 down from The Flaming Gorge Dam is also a few degrees warmer than that of the “A section” and so this is typically where you will find the BWO hatch begin in earnest!
For the 1st half of our trip(we floated the “A section” for 4 days and the “B section” for 2 days)we used Scott G2 5wt fly rods strung w 9′ 6X fluorocarbon leaders and tippets with double dry fly rigs w # 20-22 adult midges(either single, cluster or cripple patterns) and BWO emergers, typically # 18-20 Beefus para-emergers to dupe these magnificent German brown trout. As the week progressed, the weather steadily warmed and the BWO hatch really came into its own! Like clock work from 12 noon until 3 pm #16 BWO adults would come off the H2O and boy did those fish respond in kind!! No double dry fly rigs here!! Just about every single adult BWO pattern in our boxes worked as these fish were super aggressive. If you looked a 100 yards down stream you would see trout gleefully sipping, actually gulping down may flies! For a minute there we thought we were in the middle of a Montauk striped bass blitz, it was that crazy!!
The fish of note for the week were an 18 and a 19″ German brown brought to hand by yours truly! You’ll see the 18″ fish in the 1st segment of the “HD Flip” video. The majority of the fish caught were browns in the 13-15″ range. Most of the mature rainbow trout were on the spawn but we did manage a few jacks in the mix. We also caught a few fish on #12 goldilox streamers and Richard “the nymphomaniac” that he, is did well on Barr’s emergers and Juju bee patterns while waiting for the topwater action to heat up.
If your arm got too tired from bailing fish, the scenery and surrounding wildlife on the Green didn’t dissapoint either! The birdlife was stunning as we saw(and heard)golden and bald eagles, ospreys, great blue herons, great horned owls, turkey vultures, the bluest of bluebirds(one of my favorite’s), the ubiquitous water ouzel, common goldeneye ducks, and common mergansers to name a few! On the mammalian side we saw herds of elk, mule deer, prong horn antelope, river otters and muskrats.
We were saddened to hear that “the old sage” Emmett Heath had retired from the Trout Creek Outfitter’s flyshop. We always looked forward to hearing his advice and a tale or two about his earlier days guiding on the Green. I must say a much younger but just as capable salesman and part time guide, Curtis, was there to fill the void! He reminded me that double dry fly rigs, not triple dry fly rigs, were allowed on the river and gave “the nymphomaniac” some advice on dredging the depths of the Green. Be sure and stop in to say hi to the gang at Trout Creek Outfitter’s(http://www.fishgreenriver.com/). They won’t steer you wrong whether its fly selection or booking a day walking and wading or floating the magnificent Green river!
That about sums up our trip on the Green. I hate to leave the “sweet H2O” behind but its time I turned my attention towards the salt. Lookout “Mr. Pajamas” here I come!! Enjoy the “HD Flip” video! I’m finally getting the hang of this editing thing!!
PS: As I write this lengthy report there have already been a few stripers and blues caught in my local waters of the East End here in the Hamptons. No cinder worms yet but alewives, squid, sand eels and grass shrimp seem to be on the menu as the H2O temps begin to creep northwards! I plan to unwrap my skiff shortly as I will be taking out customers in early May. Catch’em up folks!!