On 8-Sep-2008, John wrote:

Last Friday I had had an espically crappy week at work. With the
shortened week, we are still expected to do five days of work in four
days, and to top it all off, one of my buddies from work was let go.
His contract was over and the fight to keep him on was lost. So
having put in my extra hours for the week, I bailed from work and
headed to a local river to forget for a while. Before heading out I
checked the river flows at th USGS and found they had dropped so I was
encouraged. At the mouth of Ogden Canyon the Ogden River flows down
the Ogden Canyon feed by the cool waters of Pineview Reservoir.
During the summer months, the flow flucuate wildly due to irrigation
needs, the people of Ogden have taken to cleaning up the river and
provided a riverfront walking path/dog trail that passes right by the
Eccles Dinosour Park. This park is dedicated to dinosours with
replications of the large beasts and recording of foot stomps, growls,
roars, and fights. The Ogden River gets planted regularly in this
stretch with slimers (rainbow), but sustains a healthy if not
overcrowded population of browns and this year planted tiger trout
(cross between a male brown and female brookie. Cool looking fish
that fight hard, grow fast, and are aggresive), along with a stray
albino rainbow.

I pulled up to my parking spot and the friday bait chucking crowd was
already starting. I suit up, check the river for top water action
(none at 3:30 pm), so I rig a tandem of a red copper john and beadhead
prince (both size 16 and start casting). This is a challenging river
to fish, both sides of the stream are choked with overhangs that are
reported to love flies and lures (I have quite and collection of
spinners, spoons, and rapalas from this river). Second cast I get a
flash on my prince but I am daydreaming and set the hook late. I feel
a quick tug and it is over. My hopes rise. The river is lower, but
slighly off color. I cast through a riffle behind a rock and the
indicator twitches. I set and so a quick battle with a slimer. Put
it to net and notice a piece of snelled monofiliment hanging from its
mouth. I open its mouth to see a rusting hook in its gullet. I
quickly release it and head up. Fishing was slow for the first half
hour, two fish (one rainbow one brown) and three long releases. I nip
off the copper john and tie on a pheasant tail. Around 4 a hatch
starts. Suddenly the river is alive. Every run has at least one
trout, every boulder has one as well. The last 50 yards of my first
stretch produces 10 fish including the afore mentioned tiger trout.
There is not better satisfaction that coming behind the bait chucking
and spinner crowd and pulling out fish from the holes they just
tried. One bait chucker watched from the bank as I hauled out a nice
14 inch brown from the hole he was just in. I exit the river and head
back down to a few more holes. Stopping at the car, three guys are
rigging up the worm harnesses. We talk about the river conditions and
I am vague about my luck. For some reason, tonight I don't feel like
sharing much. I step 30 yards down river to give them some space and
pick up another brown. One of them wonders down to watch just and I
get a very solid hit. My rod bends double and line starts peeling
off. The end of my rod is bobbing and weaving like a champion boxer.
The baiter behind me starts to get excited and gives me direction on
how to fish. The fish makes an appearance and the side of a 20" plus
brown is seen. They guy behind me starts yelling for his friends. It
was the largest fish he had ever seen. I am very annoyed by now. Can
he just leave me alone? Another flash, a jump to show off, and the
hook is thrown. I shake my head and vow a rematch and exit the river
to the baiter pumping me for information. I told him to try a prince
nymph and head down river. I look back and grin as I see him and his
buddies throwing worms through the run. "Good luck with that, that
brown is gone by now" I think.

Moving down river a little more, I find a nice run that is obscured by
bushed from the trial running along the river. Here I would play out
the rest of the day catching browns and rainbows until night time.
The run produces fish from 10 to 17 inches. One hits so hard as I
swing my prince through the run it breaks me off. Big fish. My cell
rings bringing me back from my thoughts. My wife and kids want to
take me to dinner. So I catch one more 14 inch dancing rainbow and
head back to the car. I will miss my friend at work, but my spirits
are lifted more now.

katghoti




Nice
Thanks for sharing
good reading w my Mon morning coffee far better than politics

Fred