Friday, May 8, 2009

One Last Float




I spent the day today floating the Green River from Warren Bridge to the Hatchery with good friend Chris Stump. He and his wife Melissa are expecting their first child, a baby boy, in just a couple of weeks. I persuaded Chris to sneak out for one last day of fishing before his life seriously changes! It was a cold, yet beautifully bright day on the river. The flows have been hovering around 475 cfs for the past week and the river has just a slight discoloration due to some of the heavy rains we received earlier in the week. With the South Fork in Idaho running at almost 17,000 cfs (and not fishing well), and the Snake getting higher by the day (4700 cfs at Moose), and getting dirtier, the Green is really the only game in town right now. Unfortunately, the fishing today on the Green was fairly slow. There was no dry fly action to speak of, and the nymphing was turning just a few small fish. We each netted a couple of larger browns on streamers, but only after hours of hard casting and lots of stripping. It was a great day, nonetheless. When driving through this part of Wyoming, you would never know that there is a world-class trout stream just off the road, hidden in a beautiful river bottom. In addition to the fishing, the birdwatching and views make these Green River floats very enjoyable. At one point, you could see the Wind River Mountains, the Gros Ventre Mountains and the Wyoming Range all in one view. The story of the day, though, was not fishing or wildlife related. When we got to the take-out, Chris could not find his car keys anywhere. Somehow, Chris inadvertently left them in the car with the shuttle keys. The car got shuttled to the takeout, but all the keys were then locked in. Without roadside assistance service, or the ability for us to break into the car, Chris finally called his extremely understanding wife, who drove down an extra set of keys to us, 80 miles south of Jackson! We certainly owe her one. I think his mind was elsewhere this morning...understandably so. It will be a great story to tell his son one day. Stay tuned!

3 comments:

Riverguide said...

I've gotta say I've never tried to get my keys out with a rod tip...guess it didn't work? lol

Have the days been warming up nicely?

Mark Fuller said...

The rod tip was the only thing we could think of to try, and it was nowhere close to working. Lesson: always keep a hide-a-key under the car somewhere. It's slowly warming, but not a lot.

Matt V said...

You should have called that guy who came and pulled out the tundra from that deeeeeep drift just upstream from the bridge that time. Big Beer belly hanging out, loaded .45 on the dashboard, a little scary, but we got pulled out.