Flaming Gorge 6/16-6/19

[Downrigger]

The Gorge has to be my absolute favorite place to fish. Aside from a small lake in southwestern Montana, there is no place I would rather be. For the last 5 years, these have been my happy places, these have been the places on my mind as I fell asleep, these are the places that I dream about.

We (Mr. Downrigger and I - Mister Downrigger "is my dad dude") arrived at the place I like to call "Where the boat leaves from" at around 6:30. It was pouring. It looked like Memorial day all over again. But, not to be dissuaded, we prepped the boat and got it ready to put in the water. Mother nature was not impressed by our seeming willingness to get wet to put the boat in the water and threw a heavier rain at us. We decided that dinner was the better part of valor, threw the cover back on the boat and retreated to the truck for some cold Quiznos sandwiches. Not exactly my usual birthday dinner but if that was the price to pay for being where I was, so be it. This is not what we arrived to:

As soon as the rain trickled off a little, we made a run for the ramp. It was raining lightly as we backed down the ramp and there were a few people that watched us from the inside of their trucks. You could tell by the looks on our faces, they thought we were crazy. We arrived at Hideout at about 8:00 and had camp set up by 9:30.

I have caught a fish on my birthday every year since 2002 and I was not to be denied on this night either. We set out at 9:30 to continue my streak and trolled in front of the "wall" at Hideout until 10:45.

We didn't catch a thing. We returned to the dock where I set out for the old reliable backup. Crawdads. Last year was a crawdad birthday too since we arrived at hideout at 11:30 pm on June 16. But, since I've counted crabs when I've crab fished on my birthday, I figure it counts. If I need a license to catch something, I'll count it. We retired for the night glad to be sleeping in a tent.

The following morning, we ran north into Wyoming to fish just north of the Pipeline area. I dropped one rigger to 40 feet and the other to 25 to start out for the morning. We trolled for a few minutes until I had my first catch of the day on a double glow pink RMT hoochie about 14 inches behind a Fusion RMT dodger.

 

[Downrigger]

The fishing wasn't rapid fire, but it was consistent. Throughout the day we had 4 that came in weighing anywhere from 3 to 4+ pounds.

After about noon, the fishing had dropped off so we decided to move over closer to one of our favorite afternoon spots, near some cliffs. As we started the trek over to the cliffs from our morning fishing area at between 1.5 and 1.6 mph, I had my first lake trout drop by.

As we got a little closer to the cliffs, Mr. Downrigger's rod started going nuts. He jumped on it to bring it in. As he started to reel in, I saw my rod bend in the rigger. We had a double! Mr. Downrigger reeled as fast as he could to get his line in so he could come help me. He was able to reel and get the net at the same time. He fought his fish up to the boat and got it in.

 

[Downrigger]

As he cleared his fish from the net, I felt my fish shake his head. Kokanee don't usually head shake, they feel very tuggy. I knew instantly that this was a mac, he was grumpy, and he was going to be a decent size. Since he was only 38 feet down to begin with and my Avet SX reel is geared pretty high, he was at the surface pretty quickly. I saw the flash of gold in the green water and saw my quarry for the first time. A moment after I saw him flash his belly, he ran for the bottom. He pulled about 10 yards worth of line as I backed my drag off a little bit. I kept reeling on him and got him close to the boat. As soon as he saw the boat, he took off for the bottom again. ZZZZZZZZZ!!!!! All the progress I made was gone. I pulled him back to the surface and a little closer to the boat. ZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!! He was gone, back to the depths from whence he came. Not to be beaten, I winched him back up from the depths. He came to the surface and burped as Mr. Downrigger got him in the net. I know that the Gorge has much better fish than this, but this is my biggest to date.

He taped out between 23 and 24, so my 3rd biggest trout of all time. Even more exciting for me was that I took over the title for biggest fish ever in our boat and I took it from my brother who is on an LDS mission in Bangkok, Thailand and can't defend his lost title for 23 more months. 8) This fish was probably 5-6 pounds. I was pretty pumped over this fish even though I know people pull fish that are 7 times as big out of the lake on a regular basis.

We continued to troll and had some smaller Kokanees come to play as we trolled south back towards the pipe. We wrapped up our fishing about 6:30, went to Lucerne to fill up our gas tank, and headed to Sheep Creek to pick up Mrs. Downrigger who drove up after work.

Being totally satisfied for the day, we decided to get Mrs. Downrigger set up in camp and cook some pork chops in mushroom soup mix instead of going out fishing. Friday the 17th was probably the best day I've ever had at Flaming Gorge. As I dropped off to sleep, I was already excited to head to Wyoming the next morning to find some more kokanees.

We were up fairly early and on our way. We arrived after about 30 miles on the lake to the same spot as the previous day. I dropped the downrigger and in less than 20 seconds I had a hit.

Saturday the 18th was slower than Friday and the fish seemed to be a little more spread out. We trolled a little faster, up to 2.2 mph, on Saturday and found that all we were getting were rainbows and kokanees. There was no Lake Trout action, probably because we sped up. But, we consistently caught Kokanees throughout the day. We made one stop at Holmes Crossing for Mrs. Downrigger's benefit and trolled through most of the day. Mrs. Downriggerr used her red Avet SX reel that I got her for Valentine's Day and the rod that I made for her to land her "humpy," as she called it, salmon visitor.

 

[Downrigger]

Note the Empire Strikes Back t-shirt. Yes, I got a good one.

Mr. Downrigger and I landed a few more Kokes. We ended up keeping 6 between us that were pushing or above 4 pounds.

 

[Downrigger]

We headed back south to gas up and go fish in the canyon.

We trolled through Red Cliffs and down the north arm around Kingfisher Island. Mr. Downrigger caught a small kokanee that got the hook into its gills. So, even though he was maybe 10 inches, he went in the box. We trolled all the way back to the no-wake-zone at Hideout.

We had pan fried steaks for dinner and some of my mom's famous chocolate caramel brownies for desert. I fell asleep dreaming about Sunday morning mac fishing in Linwood Bay. I was coming for the big ones.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Taptaptaptaptaptaptaptap. The second I woke up on Sunday morning I knew I wasn't going to be going for macs that day. Mr. Downrigger and Mrs. Downrigger aren't the type to fish in the rain after 2 days of fishing in perfect weather. We made a huge breakfast that we didn't have time to cook on the previous days and got ourselves packed up to hit the road. It's a lot of work to boat in to Hideout to camp but it is beautiful. And, hauling all of the stuff down the hill is better than hauling it all up the hill.

I was disappointed that we were done fishing but given the success that we had, I could hardly be upset. It was a memorable trip and I was glad to have been on the Gorge for a few days. The beauty of the landscape makes just being there as pleasurable as the fishing. There is nothing like it, in the world. One more reason I am glad to be home sweet home.

 

[Petty4life]

this has got to be the report of the year, lots of great detail and pictures. thanks downriggerawesomereport

 

[jacksonlaker]

Great report, Why are your faces distorted?? Is there something your not telling us ?? Anyway, if you read my report Sunday in the rain was awesome. I still cant beleive my wife was into it. Nothing is sexier than a woman reeling in a Kokanee in a downpour and enjying it ! You just gotta work on that. Anyway love the pics, it really tells the story and I know what cha mean about the Gorge. I live 30 minutes from Jackson Lake in Grand Teton...one of the most beautiful lakes in the world...but I would still rather drive 3.5 hours to fish Flaming. As for the macs, if you stay right on the bottom, you will catch more and bigger fish. Again, nice report. TomJL

 

[Code4]

Great report and pics! Nice job101goodpost101

 

[Downrigger]

Great report, Why are your faces distorted?? Is there something your not telling us ?? Anyway, if you read my report Sunday in the rain was awesome. I still cant beleive my wife was into it. Nothing is sexier than a woman reeling in a Kokanee in a downpour and enjying it ! You just gotta work on that. Anyway love the pics, it really tells the story and I know what cha mean about the Gorge. I live 30 minutes from Jackson Lake in Grand Teton...one of the most beautiful lakes in the world...but I would still rather drive 3.5 hours to fish Flaming. As for the macs, if you stay right on the bottom, you will catch more and bigger fish. Again, nice report. TomJL

I forgot to mention. I've got a fairly in depth background check going and I'd prefer to remain anonymous to the internet for the time being.

I did read your report from Sunday and I immediately regretted not going out anyway. I think I would have been keelhauled by my mutinous crew but as long as they did it at about 2.2 mph, or less, I could hold on to a rod at least.

If my brother would have been there, we would have gone out Sunday morning.

I've been home a day and I already can't wait to go back.

 

[fishinfrenzy]

What an awsome reporting job, absolutely one of the best that also describes why I love the Gorge as well. Kudos as well for all the pictures, I think I recognize most of the locations. It's really no wonder whyso many of us all enjoy this place as much as we do.

 

[Bduck]

What an awsome reporting job, absolutely one of the best that also describes why I love the Gorge as well. Kudos as well for all the pictures, I think I recognize most of the locations. It's really no wonder whyso many of us all enjoy this place as much as we do.

+1..... The Gorge is a beautiful place. Going into the canyons provide a safe haven when very windy conditions are lurking out in the open such as Linwood Bay or up in the Wyoming side. There is always some place to drop a line in and you can avoid rough conditions.

 

[jekern1015]

Damn! Now I really want to go back up. Here's my dilema gas in the motor home to get to the gorge or vacation along the Oregon coast in a months time. Some day I hope to have a report like that, great job.