Flaming Gorge Report - bank tangling

[Cowboypirate]

There are not many things in fishing that I consider a sure thing, but our annual spring run to the Gorge, to fill the smoker with big rainbows, is about as close to sure as I would venture to bet on. I mean Cookie Cove or Rainbow Bay (family names for our spots) has yielded limits of big bows in April/May for as long as I have fished them....

Not yesterday. I had two chases in on spinners, one false strike on a jig, and Cookie caught one on powerbait.

Maybe they just were off after the storm. Maybe I spilled gas on my hands at the pump station. Maybe my German Shepard splashing a bit put them off this time? Maybe I just got cocky. I would bet a dozen Krispy Creams that I could go today and limit out and I would not want to discourage anyone from going, after all this is prime time for shore cruising bruisers at the Gorge, and offers bank tanglers a real shot at some big bows and pup lakers, but it was not our day yesterday.

Now as I eat my humble pie and plan where to attend my GSF (Got Skunked Fishing) recovery meeting, I hope the rest of you out at the Gorge exact revenge in my name and fill your smokers full.

cheers

[Nallman4]

Not asking for your secret spots or anything but I was wondering if you had any info for a first time shore fisherman at the Gorge. Any help would be awesome, thanks!

[a_bow_nut]

If you are looking for rainbows then fish arond the boat ramps. When they plant fish they just back down the ramp and dump them in. The rainbows will move back to those areas this time of year for their spawn cycle.

[Cowboypirate]

Not asking for your secret spots or anything but I was wondering if you had any info for a first time shore fisherman at the Gorge. Any help would be awesome, thanks!

My friend you do realize you just asked a guy for advice who posted a skunk.....Just kidding , I will be happy to help as best I can but there are others on here so much more skilled than I who may pitch in with advice - that is what I love about this group..

Spring, IMO, is an incredible time to chase big Bows off the shore at the Gorge and it can be red hot April-May a until the temps in Juneish start start to push them deeper.

If you want to learn about how to target them, my first piece of advice is find some coves with a high overlook bank, grab your lawn chair, a bag of jerky, a cold coke, and jam some AC/DC or Alabama (depending on how you roll) and watch them cruise around in the shallows, watch where they enter deep again, if they are following bait, if they are following structure, or maybe thermocline, or if love makn is on their mind. Figure out that pattern (Binocs help) and you will be amazed at what you learn and how to place your bait or run your gear later.

If you don't have time to do the scouting (most of us don't) or you cant see them...do the following....look for coves that have a transition of deep to shallow. Fish that edge. Or fish the point between two coves as it will funnel them a bit. Don't be suprised to find them up pretty shallow too, especially if they are feeling amorous (which is just strating up).

Now where can you find good structure, coves and points - luckily the Gorge has a ton of roads that lead to these places. Get the Flaming Gorge map from Sportsman, its a great help, or you can look at Google earth. I pasted an example below of the area called the pipeline and put some indicators to areas that have this this type of structure and good road access. Any of the areas I indicated will have bows. But don't just focus on these spots, look at the map and use it to find your own secret honey hole. Exploring is half the fun.

How: My wife use powerbait and a lawn chair and outfishes me two to one. She uses the glitter garlic on a Carolinian rig so she can adjust depth or if she is fishing shallow will just pin the hook with split shot 12" up. She runs two poles and cast one short and one long to cover two areas of depth and thermocline. Once she finds the pattern she hones in and stay in that depth till it goes cold. I usually set up deeper on the transition and run a spinner one one pole and a tube jig or marabou jig on the other (Jigs are a newer skill I am learning at the Gorge for shallow bows but man it can be a hoot). Spinners I use are very traditional: jakes, mepps, roster tails, blue fox, and panther martins. I start with silver with red spots (jake) every time and switch around if I don't get action from there. The tube jigs I use are white, and black tipped with sucker meat as I am hoping to target pup lakers in a bit deeper water around the transition. I also use a green color to mimics crawdads and fish that shallow and deep. If the craws (or other bait) are active, pup lakers will come pretty shallow to chow. (search youtube for a video by Don Allphin about fishing the Gorge with Jigs from the shore, he does a great jog of teaching it). Jigs can be killer fun.

I have a video on youtube last year if you search for cookie and the cowboy. It was end of April on one of these transition spots. If you ignore my nonsense and joking around and watch where we are and what we are doing you will see this in action.

Good luck to you. It is a phenominial fishery and we are very lucky to have it close by. It offers something all year long for the boat and the bank. heck you can even go up the the confluence and catch cats or drop shot smallies in the rocks.

Feel free to PM me for more info and please let us know how you do.

cheers

[Nallman4]

Wow guys, thank you so much for the info, really appreciate it. Hope to make it out there in the next week. I'll let you know how it goes. 

Be safe and good luck!