Fishing Forum

First of all I would like to thank Steelfisher for taking me in his drift boat on a really exciting and fun if not gruelling adventure.[cool]

We intended to put in at cottonwood and float to byington on Thursday morning. As we went up the road to cottonwood we realized that the road was still blocked and closed going to cottonwood. As it turned out someone was looking after us because it would have added another four or five miles to our float. Wolf flats to Byington was too short of a float so we found a place where the road went up next to the river and slid the drift boat down a steep bank into the water.

I was tricked into believing that winter was over however our float proved that blizzards should be expected on April 1st. The wind blew up river most of the day and we had to oar down stream the whole time. We did anchor in some nice spots. The howling wind made it almost impossible to flyfish. Steelfisher tried streamer fishing for a while but we couldn't get anything to go. We did see a couple of pods of cutts taking midges but my hands had turned to blocks of ice by that time and I did not feel like tying on small flies and then messing with the wind.

We ended up catching around a dozen beautiful cutts and browns on Jacksonlakers minnow set up. (Thanks for the information).[cool] All of our fish were between 15-18." No giants today, but some beautiful fish all the same. Hopefully Steelfisher will post some of our pics.

Steelfisher will not like me relating this story but...We found ourselves working really hard against the wind and not gaining any ground. I gave Steelfisher a break at the oars and rowed my guts out to not make any head way. We almost gave up and we thought about hitching a ride to the truck, and then we realized that we had the anchor down for the last 200 yrds and 1/2 hour of work.[laugh] Although the wind still made it hard it was much easier with the anchor up.

Anyway thanks again for a strangely beautiful trip. I didn't realize how cold my hands were until I took a shower and my hands unthawed. Wow, what we do for a few fish.

Windriver
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Sounds like a great time besides the anchor lol [laugh]I'm really looking forward to getting back up there and try the new drift boat [cool]
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lol![laugh]
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Sounds like a great time. Some of the more challenging trips are the best and the ones you remember the longest. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Jim
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That reminds me of the old story where the boat wouldn't go fast and they found the trailer still strapped under it.
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what? details!
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What I am saying is that some of my most memorable fishing trips are the ones that the weather or mechanical malfunctions have changed the outcome. (Example)

I had a 17 foot tracker flat bottom boat . A few years back about this same time of year a buddy and i thought lets go to gem lake and see what we can catch. we were only fishing for about maybe 1 hour and the sky started to darken. We were not to worried because we were not to far from the boat lanch. So we sat there fishing and the wind started to really pick up. Then the rain started in. By the time we started to go there were 3 to 4 foot white caps on the water the wind was howling and was raining like cats and dogs. As we were heading back to the ramp it was like someone was standing on the front of the boat tossing buckets of water in our faces. We could not have gotten any wetter if we had jumped in. I had the bilge pump on and there was still a foot and a half of water in the bottom of the boat.


After what seemed like a hour we were finally back at the ramp and were freezing. I left the bilge pump on tied the boat to the dock and ran for the truck. I thought if the boat sunk at least I could find it. So we sat in the truck for about a hour with the heater going full blast just to get warm. As we sat there the boat was getting a little lower and lower. we finally warmed up and got the boat out.

We only fished for about a hour and a half and did not catch anything. Now every time I cross the bridge at gem lake or the weather starts to get nasty I think of that trip. I am sure everyone has at least a few stories like this. Maybe we should start a new post where everyone could share there interesting trips. I don't want to hijack this one. Maybe I got a little to detailed sorry sometimes i cant shut up[crazy]

jim
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We had a great time even with the bad weather. I don't think I have ever been on the river with the drift boat when conditions were that tough.

One thing Windriver failed to mention was he brought his 5 year old boy and although his boys are tough he had to call his wife to come and meet us to rescue the poor lad. I should have taken a picture of him sleeping on the front floor of the drift boat wrapped up in my insulated bibs and rain jacket.

Attached are a few pictures from our adventure.
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Nice fish, but you are certainly braver than I am. I have gotten to be a real whimp anymore. I like fishing, but not THAT much.

Forgetting the anchor in that weather is called hypothermia![laugh]

All around it sounds like a trip you will remember and laugh about for a lot of years!
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Fun report WR! Thanks for the good read and the anchor reminder~
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Very nice pics. It looks almost as cold as I remember it. Ya, I must have been frozen to forget the fact that my son was with us and had to be picked up.

Its good that my wife was close enough to take care of him.

Windriver
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