Back to the Gorge

[Houndoc]

Last week was my annual Flaming Gorge fall fishing outing.

Drove up Wednesday morning, fished that evening, morning and evening Thursday & Friday morning. Always a fun area to drive around in between outings as well.

Wednesday evening fishing was a little slow:



My dad managed to snag a rock and bring it up from 60+feet down and we landed a few fish. We also had some friends in another boat next to us who landed a couple nice fish but no pictures of them.

 

[Houndoc]

Thursday morning was absolutely beautiful to be out on the water. Again okay but not spectacular fishing.



After getting back to the dock, my brother and I took a quick (real quick) swim. A sunny morning certainly made things nicer than would have been!

 

[Houndoc]

In the afternoon we drove up to the Red Canyon overlook. Great views but also heard some bighorns had been chillin' in the area:

View attachment ram 1.jpgView attachment RC 2.jpgView attachment RC 3.jpgView attachment RC 4.jpgView attachment RC tree.jpg


Sorry, the canyon photo with controlled burn smoke was actually from the deer hunt the week before.

 

[Houndoc]

Thursday evening more good fishing (I think the photos above of my dad in the brimmed hat are actually from Thursday evening as well):



Heck, who knows what photos are really in the right order!

Friday morning was some of the best fishing we have had there. I was on one boat, photos of catch below. The other boat I didn't get many photos of, but they landed around 15 fish as well.



And of course you can't run around the area without finding more than a few pronghorn. I was surprised to see a number of buck that had already shed their horn sheath (including one of the larger bucks I have seen.) But this guy posed well:

 

[Houndoc]

 

[jeep-N-montero]

Congrats on a nice catch, were you with a guide? And were you guys trolling or jigging? Lately there have been several people caught trying to snag the bigger macs using larger treble hooks and erratic jigging motions in plain daylight, did you notice any of this going on? A few weeks ago I was up there and the DNR guys were actually checking people on the water on the Utah side, this was a first for me and later found out about the snagging problem they were having.

 

[Shawn]

That is great!!

My most favorite lake.

 

[Houndoc]

Congrats on a nice catch, were you with a guide? And were you guys trolling or jigging? Lately there have been several people caught trying to snag the bigger macs using larger treble hooks and erratic jigging motions in plain daylight, did you notice any of this going on? A few weeks ago I was up there and the DNR guys were actually checking people on the water on the Utah side, this was a first for me and later found out about the snagging problem they were having.

We go out with a friend who is a guide.

Fishing this time of year is best jigging although we did talk to some other fishermen who had some good luck trolling.

As far as the snagging, I didn't see anyone using unusual sized hooks. Some of the fish are foul-hooked, no question about it (they attack the lures in a defensive attack, not eating at will basically body slam the jig.) It is illegal to keep any fish that are fouled.

I know from talking with my friend that it used to be a big problem of people using gigantic hooks to try and snag them. I think the DWR crack down has overcalled helped that.