(Adam) coming up tonight on KSL Outdoors.
(Adam) Twenty? Woo! (high fives) Yeah baby!
(Audio only) anglers compete on the Green River to support Trout Unlimited.
(dog takes off) “Get them!”
(Adam) and crowning a top dog at this years National Shoot to Retrieve Associations Regional championship. I’m Adam Eakle (tonya) and I’m Tonya Kieffer. (adam) and this is KSL Outdoors.
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(Adam) Thanks for tuning into KSL Outdoors, I’m Adam Eakle. (tonya) and I’m Tonya Kieffer. (adam) you know Tonya, early September, a beautiful time to come down. The Green River beautiful fishing, the forth annual Single Fly event. (tonya) yeah and I’ve never been on a drift boat and so I’m really excited to try my hand at the old Green today. (adam) first time? Pretty exciting? (tonya) I’m so excited. (adam) it’s an event to benefit the water we are standing in, let’s meet some of the guys that helped put this together.
The Green River is no doubt the premier tail water fishery in Utah.
(Adam) Dude Look at the size of that fish.. Wow. (toss) Green River brown.
With a healthy population of big browns, hard fighting rainbows, and breathe taking scenery. It’s no wonder anglers marvel at this beautiful stretch of river below Flaming Gorge dam and believe that it is worth protecting.
This year at the Utah Single Fly, hosted by Trout Unlimited. Anglers from across the country are here to raise money to help support work to protect and restore stream flows in Utah. They also want to fight the spread of aquatic invasive species into Utah waters.
(Jordan Gillespie, Spinnerfalls Guide Service) “The biggest thing is keeping money in the area to be able to fight invasive species and possible threats like the Million Pipeline that wants to pump water out of the green. And more importantly to keep the green as pristine today for our future generations. Because it’s a very special place and we want everybody to enjoy.”
The Million Pipeline Jordan is referring to is a proposal by developer Aaron Million. The idea is to pipe water from the Green to the Front Range of Colorado. Anglers argue that the reduced flows could damage this world class fishery and drastically reduce the levels of Flaming Gorge. They also say the local communities and businesses that depend on outdoor recreation would also suffer.
(Dave Needham, Trout Unlimited, Board of Trustees) “I think the biggest problem we are all facing is who is helping manage population control and city control and water shed usage and farming practice usage. We are trying to be relatively agnostic on how it’s used, but we are making sure that the water that’s available is clean and good for both drinking and for the fishery. So that’s what really TU is trying to do.”
(Dave Kumlien, Dir. T.U. Aquatic Invasive Species Program) There are four person teams. We split them up and put on team on A and one on B. They get one fly to use for the day and if they loose it, they are done. The strategy on what fly to use I’m sure you’ve heard to use, what tippet, that’s all going on here, been going on for a couple of days.
(Bryan Anderson, Stonefly Society) Tungsten bead head, grey soft hackle with a little midge underbody. If the soft stuff wears off, i’ve got a bare midge to go with.
(Dave Kumlien) This year we added a little wrinkle to it, we put in an option for a mulligan.
(Dave Kumlien) there is only one mulligan in the boat though, so both guys can’t loose their fly and get back in, but if one guy looses a fly early, he can turn in his mulligan ticket and it’s another fund raiser, mulligan are another hundred dollars So raise a little bit more money, so that’s a little new wrinkle this year.
(Adam) How many fish so far? (Paul Messerschmidt, Guide) this is number four. (adam) number four huh? Right on.
The teams are given a point per fish and get to measure one fish and add that fishes length to their total. Paul Messerschmidt is guiding team Wyoming TU Bucking Fish. Every time we turned around, they seemed to be hooked up.
(Paul) 20! (adam) 20? Nice. (knuckles) yeah baby. (fish release) Thank you sweatheart.
Team Wyoming Bucking Fish, actually fished quite well, in fact they ended up scoring the second highest total for a boat. We’ll have more on the Green River Single Fly in a moment.
(Adam) Tonya eat your heart out.
Where Tonya and I will have a little competition of our own.
(net fish) done deal. (tonya screams) (jeff) done deal.
but first lets test your knowledge of the area in tonights Burt Brothers quiz question.
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(Tonya) this is the life right here. i could do this all day. (jeff) this is pretty sweet. (tonya) this is my first time you know. (laughs)
Jeff Taniguchi is Tonya’s guide. This is her first trip down the Green and she really wants to catch a fish, all by herself.
(Adam) poor Jeff. (jeff) She’s doing fine. (adam) Poor, poor Jeff. (tonya) that’s what I told him.
(Jeff Taniguchi) That’s a good drift, you are in his kitchen, you’re in his kitchen.
(Jeff) (tonya laughing) (jeff) I told you, you were in his kitchen. (laugh) Keep that rod high. (jeff) keep that rod high. Tonya) oh i love my life. (jeff) keep it high. Oh that makes my life so complete.
(Jeff) easy, easy, easy. (net fish) done deal. (tonya screams)
(fish jumps) (tonya) oh I love when it does that.
(Adam) good pull, definitely a quality fish, boy they are healthy this year.
(Adam) here he comes, let’s get him.
(jeff on Adam’s fish) that’s a nice fish. (tonya) that’s sexy.
(Adam) (net fish) oh nice fish. Thank you sir. Awesome. Buttery brown. (adam) yes he is, pretty.
To make this event a success, TU needs all the volunteers, sponsors and anglers they can get. Twenty guides volunteered their boats and their time. Red Canyon Lodge was the site of dinner and a social. Whereas Flaming Gorge Resort hosted breakfast and the anglers for a night at their lodge.
(Craig Collett, Flaming Gorge Resort) (adam) why do you guys support these guys? (craig) well TU does a great thing as far as improving habitat and protecting some of our resources and that’s what we are interested in also so we love to support the organization, we do whatever we can to do that.
The cost is 250 dollars for each angler, but when you consider they get two dinners, a breakfast, lunch, a night at the lodge and a guide for an entire day. It’s actually a great bargain. So next year, get a team together and come and support our Utah waters.
(Matt Hyde, Hyde Drift Boats) You know the green river is such a neat river and that’s the thing we look at. There’s a lot of rivers that are farm land, but the green river is a beautiful river. We need to protect the fish and more people to see it, the better off it is.
(Jeff Taniguchi, President of T.U. High Desert Anglers) you know we’ve got river otters on the river, osprey, we’ve got 19K fish per mile. Great dry fly fishing, it fishes year round. It has great hatches. You tell me another place in the US that has all of those things and you better fish it.
(Adam tag) oh there we go, another nice little fish. I’ll tell you what if you’ve never been up to the Green River, you’ve got to come up and experience it. Some of the best fall fishing can be had right here. If you’ve never tried it, come up and give our buddies Craig Collett and Kevin a call from the Flaming Gorge Resort, they’ll show you a good time. Hey speaking of fish, let’s head back to the guys at Fish Tech for tonights fishing report.
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(Intro) (adam) “Welcome back to KSL Outdoors, I’m Adam Eakle. Well we’ve moved over to the National Shoot to Retrieve Associations field trial, here just outside the town of Vernal. 22 hounds from across the state are all here vying to be the top dog.”
(Art with Diesel) “that a boy, come on, find the birds, come on boy.”
(Kipp Bottomley, N.A.S.T.R.A. Regional President) “N.A.S.T.R.A. began with the formation of a club by guys who like to get their dogs out and hunt. They wanted to continue the hunting season.”
(Art Trujillo, S. Dakota) “Our hunting seasons are so small.”
(Lance Neilson, Roosevelt) “A lot of dogs sit in the kennels year round and this is a good way to get them out and get them on some birds, very inexpensive. For thirty five dollars you can shoot six, seven birds and have a good time, with good people, eat some good food.”
National Shoot to Retrieve Association members are bird hunters that love their bird dogs. NSTRA holds trials all year long. Today is the last of the year, and they’re holding their Regional Elimination trial, where they’ll crown a Regional Champion and a High Point Dog of the Year.
(Kipp) “The scoring is set up so the dog has to point.”
(Judge yells) “Point!”
(Kipp) He has to retrieve the bird once it gets shot.”
(nats of bird getting up and shot)
(Kipp) “Has to bring it back within three feet.
(Retrieve) “Come on, good girl.”
(Kipp) “They also get scored on their ground coverage, they get scored on their obedience and whether or not they back another dog, they get additional points that way.”
(Maureen Goodrich, Owner, 8 year old Britney named Bailey) “Conditioning is my biggest and obedience other than that you just try to let the dog do what they are bred to do.”
(Judge) “Release your dogs!”
(dog takes off) “Get them!”
(Kipp) “It’s all on foot, the judges ride four wheelers or horses, the birds are planted five at a time in the field.”
(Kipp) “Two dogs enter the field they have thirty minutes to try and find as many birds as they can and get as high as score as they can.”
(Bird takes off, two shots) (judge) “Is he going to save you. (hunter) I’ve got to hit it.”
(Art) and of course the fun part is, you’ve also got to shoot the bird to get the retrieve.
(Hunter) “First bird I’ve ever missed…ever. (laughs)
Today the scenting conditions were far from perfect, the hot dry air is making it tough for the dogs to pick up a scent. but after all the elimination races were done, it was down to two. Art, his dog Bron and Utah State duck calling champion, Brett Wonnacott with his dog Tic.
(Brett Wonnacott, Utah State Duck Calling Champion) “This is the end of my second full year. Yeah, I’m pretty new. I really enjoy it, it’s a lot of fun and it’s really pushed me as a handler to get better and to train my dogs to a little bit higher level.
(Art Trujillo) “Yeah it’s very fulfilling, there’s nothing like these dogs, they are a part of your life, just like our kids, grandchildren or whatever, we just love them.”
The last two dogs, Bron, and Tic, fought it out in an hour long brace to decide the champion. When the scores were tallied Bret’s and his dog Tic were crowned Region Champions. Tic was also given the High point dog honour for having accumulated the most points during the season.
(Brett Wonnocatt, N.A.S.T.R.A. Regional Champion!) ” The people at NSTRA have been some of the best I’ve ever met. These guys just took me under their wing, helped me ever step of the way and it’s been just amazing.”
(TAG) “That’s a good dog Tic, that’s a good dog. Hey if you have a dog or even if you don’t and you want to learn more about these guys and their hounds. Go ahead and check out their website at NSTRA.org from there you can link to the Utah site. Time now to check out this week’s Utah Field Guide. What do you think about that huh?
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