(Adam) Coming up tonight on KSL Outdoors, It’s black friday and the best deal around is monster rainbows, monster brown trout on the Green River.
(Ryan) the last 15 months the “B” Section has been probably the best we’ve ever seen it…well at least in the last 20 years.
(Toss) That’s the biggest brown I’ve ever caught.
(Adam) All that and more coming up next! Woo what a fight!
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(Adam intro) Thanks for tuning into KSL Outdoors, I’m Adam Eakle. Welcome to the beautiful, mighty Green River, Utah’s favorite tail water fishery. Well it’s the day after Thanksgiving, “Black Friday” as it’s always called. The ladies are out shopping, the guys we’ve got a whole crew, we are out for some of the best fishing the “Green” has to offer.
(Willis Mickles, Ogden Fisherman) How many fish is that this morning? (Willis) Oh it’s probably about six or seven. (adam) nice.
Fall fishing brings out not just the big fish, but the anglers who are willing to brave the cold to catch them. Today we don’t have that problem, it is down right beautiful.
(Rob Mukai, Adam’s Fishing buddy) not very crowded, and usually you do get some beautiful weather like this and although we’ve had snow.
(Adam) and these guys are saying big fish? (rob) yeah I’ve heard 20 plus, so we’ll see how we do.
We couldn’t get our gear ready fast enough, because every time we looked over Willis had another fish.
(Adam) Oh come on Willis, that’s the same fish! (laughs)
(Willis Mickles, Ogden Fisherman) (adam) how come you are not out shopping? (willis) that’s my wife’s part. I let her take care of that.
(Ryan Kelly, Flaming Gorge Resort Fishing Guide) It’s been fantastic, the last 15 months the “B” Section has been probably the best we’ve ever seen it…well at least in the last 20 years.
(Ryan Kelly) I’ve caught more big fish down here this year than probably the last five or six years combined.
(Kevin) there should be one right through here. (adam) right there. (hit and fish) rainbow.
(Ryan) alright here comes another beautiful specimen of a rainbow trout on the Green River. Look at that, nice colored up, football.
(Ryan) you can see this one is actually a spawning male. We’ve got a different strain in here now and we are actually getting some fall spawning off of rainbow trout too, so we’ll see probably see just as many rainbow trout on redds as we do brown trout.
(Ryan Mosley Utah D.W.R. Green River Project Leader) you know last year we had a really high flow event as a result of all that water.
(Ryan Mosley) and it had a really profound impact on the invertebrate base here, which is all the food base for all these trout. We’ve seen really healthy trout, condition increased dramatically as a result of that and this year the fish have been just so impressive.
(ryan sets hook) “that’s a fish!
(Ryan) A lot of spunk to them, not only are they beautiful to look at and really thick fish but they’ve got their fight back.
(Ryan) Geez, he’s got some pull to him.
(Kevin trying to land fish) (adam) need a longer net! (net fish) (ryan) nice. Need to bring the kokanee net.
Everyone keeps talking about these big trout, and all we keep landing are these cookie cutter 14-16 inch fish, they’re nice, but I want to see something huge. The guys kept telling me to be patient.
(Nat of toss hitting fish)
On the B section, you don’t normally catch as many fish as you do on the A section, but normally you catch bigger fish. Toss has found a riffle and he’s hogging the big fish!
(Adam) Dude Look at the size of that fish.. Wow. (toss) Green River brown.
(Toss Patterson, KSL Creative Director) how many fish have you been catching here? (toss) a ton. (adam) and you even had a straight hook there for awhile. (toss) I had five on and I couldn’t understand why they were getting off and he said “hey you better check your hook, because I think it’s straight” and it was. And just in the this run probably 10.
(Toss) and it’s almost a fish every cast. (measure fish) 21 (fish gets off) oh, see you later.
(Ryan) 21 nice job. (toss) thanks. (adam) that’s a pig! (toss) biggest brown I’ve ever caught.
(toss) There it is, nice. (laughs) (adam) Oh Toss describe this to people, what’s this like? Have you ever had something like this? (toss) Never. Fished a lot of places, but not this crazy. Coming back for sure. (adam) How many fish is that? (toss) Oh gosh, I’ve stopped counting. (laughs) (toss) all that I know is my wrist is getting sore. There he is.
(Adam tag) One thing to keep in mind when you are fishing here in November or December here on the Green or any river for that matter is to stay off the redds. That’s the spawning beds that the brown trout are fanning off, it will usually look like light colored gravel. You’ll want to stay off those so we ensure a future fishery, not only here on the Green River but any river across the state. Coming up on KSL Outdoors, some changes here on the green river starting January 1st, that in just a second, but first tonights quiz question.
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(Adam hook set) (casting and stripping and hit) (adam) oh yeah, big rainbow.
Welcome back to some fantastic fishing on the B section of the Green River. We’re finally starting to see some of those bigger fish, little did we know, by the end of the day, they would get even bigger.
(measure fish) (ryan) this guy without the tail folded sitting at 17 almost 17 and a half. (adam) 17, 17 and a quarter, nothing wrong with that fish. (ryan) no especially out of the Green. (adam) and Mosley I was giving you a hard time the other day saying there is no big rainbows in here. (ryan) yeah you were pretty disappointed in the quality of the fishery and I think it was all because you haven’t come! (adam) That’s probably it.
Every year Ryan and his crew conduct electrofishing samples here on the Green River to check the health of native and sport fish in the river. They are not only finding healthy trout, but they are also finding other fish they’d rather not see.
(Ryan Mosley) one thing that we’ve started noticing in the Green River even up as far as we are today here at Little Hole. We are seeing catfish. We are actually picking up catfish in our electrofishing samples. So catfish are now unlimited in the Green River.
Ryan has also gotten anecdotal reports from anglers who are catching Northern Pike, walleye and smallmouth bass through Brown’s Park.
(Ryan) so that will make it smallmouth bass, burbot, walleye and Northern Pike must kill on the Green River and unlimited catfish in the Green River.
The DWR used to stock as many as thirty thousand, eight inch rainbows each year. Lately they’ve reduced that number to ten thousand, but they are stocking rainbows at a larger size, upwards of 9 and a half inches.
(Ryan) so we’re making some changes on the green, and we are also working with the Bureau of Reclamation to operate the temperature withdrawal system on the dam a little bit different. Especially in the fall. We are keeping the pin stop gates up higher to keep the river warmer as long as possible which is going to have some positive impacts on trout growth too.
(Ryan) In the coming years we are also going to be stocking Colorado River cutthroat. So that will be another opportunity for anglers. Anglers used to catch a lot of cutthroat here, we used to stock Snake River cutts and they were pretty happy with those and now we are going to put Colorado’s in and they are actually native to this drainage so it will be a real neat component to the fishery.
(ryan) another thing that anglers in the Green River can take advantage of next year is your going to be able to use three lures or flies per line. So anglers will be able to tie up three different presentations on their fly rigs and fish those in the coming years. That start January 1st, 2013 and that’s a statewide change not just the Green River, that was something that was pushed statewide.
(ryan hits fish) there he is!
You don’t have to be a fly fisherman to come and enjoy the Green, Ryan was hooking as many fish on this rapala as he was on the fly and Tristen was schooling us all with his white tube jig.
(Greg) That’s a big fish. (net fish) (tristen) yeah! (adam) nothing wrong with him.
(ryan) another fun fish on a rapala.
(Ryan) It’s just like bass fishing, but we are floating. Nice Ranger Dory
(Ryan) This is just a stock standard bow down here right now. It’s been pretty awesome, we’ve caught a handful of these guys today. (adam) and that gave that five weight everything it wanted. (ryan) yeah they are real feisty, they run hard. You know the division put in this strain a couple of years back and they have just been incredible. (adam) wow, if you want to come up here, you’d be surprised at how few people are up here, how beautiful the weather can be in November or early December and how many fish you can catch. Just check out Kevin and the guys at Flaming Gorge Resort, they’ll put you on some beautiful fish. Hey coming up on KSL Outdoors.
(greg) net it….Oh no my rod broke! (laughing)
We latch into fish big enough to break our fly rods and we find the best Black Friday deal is right here for a winter trip on the Green.
(adam) that in just a moment, but first let’s head back to the guys at Fish Tech for tonights fishing report.
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(Adam) Looks like a good one Mosley, is it? (ryan) pretty good fish.
(Adam) Oh! (nets fish) thanks Kevin.
(Adam) nice. 21, not quite there? (ryan) not quite there, 21, still an awesome fish.
We’re fishing right in the middle of the spawn and according to Kevin Clegg there’s still time for guys to come out and experience this great fishing. And because of the season, it might be the most affordable time of year to do it.
(Kevin Clegg, Manager, Flaming Gorge Resort) we offer a winter off-season rate. Which goes from Nov 1st through March 31st. You can get a fishing and lodging package for $375.00.
That’s a guided trip and lodging two people, not a bad way to spend a weekend and all the amenities that Flaming Gorge Resort has to offer from their restaurant to their fly shop are open year round.
(Kevin Clegg) it’s an underutilized resource in the wintertime in my opinion, that’s for sure.
(Adam) there it is! (hook set) Oh that’s her. (greg) wow dude.
Greg has hooked up with a huge rainbow, as his son Tristen tries to the land the fish, his five weight gives out.
(Greg) Oh! The rod broke! (adam) oh no!
(net fish) get it, yeah! (adam) what happened? (greg) we just snapped our 5 weight rod on a fish we should have been fishing for with a 7 weight. (Tristen) Broke my rod! (greg with fish) Yeah man! Holy Crap that’s a pig.
Greg was on fire, hooking and landing not just his huge bow, but now he’s into a nice brown.
(Greg Branin, Fly fishing buddy) yeah we were just throwing on this redd right here, this gravel bar right here, really shallow water. (adam) is that a brown? (greg) i think this is a brown not a rainbow. (line screaming out) (greg) wow he is pulling.
(Adam) what do you think? (greg) this is what I think. (hold fish to camera) wow! look at that pig dude.
(adam laughing at camera) This is nuts! (fish runs) woo…come on baby.
All of us ended up latching into big fish, it was a couple of days, I’ll never forget.
(Adam) that is why you come to the Green River, look at that, beautiful fish, big rainbow. that is probably one of the best rainbows I’ve ever caught in Utah. I went all the way to New Zealand one time to catch fish this big and you can do it right here in your back yard.
(Ryan) this is it, I’m done. (adam) Your wrist hurts? (ryan) my wrist hurts. I’ve had easier days catching 30 pound lake trout. (net fish)
(Ryan) man, i’m worn out, we’ve caught a lot of fish today boys.
(pick some kind of nat off of I-phone video)
If you want a chance at this spectacular fishery, even in the winter, give Kevin a call, I guarantee, you won’t be disappointed.
(Adam) look at that fish! That is a beautiful buck rainbow courtesy of our DWR, look how thick that fish is. my biggest in a long time.
Time now to take a closer look at the rainbow trout as we dive into our Utah Field Guide.
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