09-08-2008, 01:46 PM
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 fed 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 do 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 no 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 wanders 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. (This annoys me, but he is excited) 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" (later when I am done, he is still working the hole over with worms with no luck. Got to admire his determination).
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
[signature]
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 do 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 no 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 wanders 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. (This annoys me, but he is excited) 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" (later when I am done, he is still working the hole over with worms with no luck. Got to admire his determination).
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
[signature]