The Flaming Gorge finally thaws out. 04/10/24

[TaBASSco]

Last week was the last holdout for ice in the Flaming Gorge. Everything below and above Little Firehole was open water.

Finally, towards the end of last week, temperatures climbed enough for the last icy holdout to melt away. I decided to give it a go, yesterday afternoon. It is one of the closest and most reliable spots to catch fish near me. Even when the action is slow, I have never been skunked....and Little Firehole can always hold a surprise catch....like last November, when I caught my first cutthroat trout from there.
But it was no surprise that I fished for an hour, before getting my first bite yesterday. It felt like a lake trout, not much of a thump, and pulling drag pretty steadily, but then the fish jumped. It was pretty far off the shoreline, and from here it looked a bit like a rainbow. It just didn't fight like one. As it came in, I could see the rusty red spots on it's body, and I was wondering what it could be.
Well....it was a brown trout. I have learned that browns don't always look like the picture perfect ones I am used to seeing in California. I caught a brown of Big Sandy last fall that I almost mistook for some sort of weird rainbow. I ended up dubbing it a brownbow. This fish that I caught yesterday, exhibited the same pale body, but had reddish spots all over him I dubbed him a "strawberry brownie". He was long, lean....maybe a little TOO lean. It must have been a hard winter for him. Anyway, he weighed in at 3.31 pounds, but seemed like he should have weighed double that, if he'd had a good winter.


After releasing Mr. Brownie back into the water, I managed to catch 3 more small rainbow trout and one small lake trout. No trophy size fish during that session, but a respectable day on the shoreline.
Looking for a couple more days of good fishing before another cold front(and hopefully, the last one) comes through for the season. Then summer weather should start to creep in, and it will be time to head to the Uinta mountains for some brookies, tiger trout and grayling.

[blackcloud9]

Great report and that's one crazy looking pink brown! Glad that you had fun at Flaming Gorge.

Do you ever fish below the dam on the Green River? That's some of the best trout fishing in the U.S. and can be good year-round!! There are up to 15,000 trout per mile along there.

I used to fly out there from SoCal often and camp for a week, and catch dozens of trout daily on the Green River, A section, just hiking and fishing pools usually, and sight fishing to 18+ inchers. On stormy, cloudy or breezy days, light spinning tackle using any small (barbless) crappie jigs in black/brown/olive. Use a small float to fish the other sides of the pools, especially the big area just below the dam above the launch that drift boats can't fish. Fished there for decades, and never bothered with the lake!

Drifted with guides and fly rods a few times to see the hot spots, but much preferred the self-guided hiking days.

[Midnightpass]

Big head and tail, with not much between… And even a skinny 3.31# trout would get my blood boiling… Nice fishing… And I enjoy your post… So thanks..
Butch

[TaBASSco]

Great report and that's one crazy looking pink brown! Glad that you had fun at Flaming Gorge.

Do you ever fish below the dam on the Green River? That's some of the best trout fishing in the U.S. and can be good year-round!! There are up to 15,000 trout per mile along there.

I used to fly out there from SoCal often and camp for a week, and catch dozens of trout daily on the Green River, A section, just hiking and fishing pools usually, and sight fishing to 18+ inchers. On stormy, cloudy or breezy days, light spinning tackle using any small (barbless) crappie jigs in black/brown/olive. Use a small float to fish the other sides of the pools, especially the big area just below the dam above the launch that drift boats can't fish. Fished there for decades, and never bothered with the lake!

Drifted with guides and fly rods a few times to see the hot spots, but much preferred the self-guided hiking days.

I fished below the dam, one day a while back. Hiked down a cliff and walked the river. I didn't catch anything, but felt a few bumps and saw a couple of follows. I plan to go back before the summer tourist season arrives. THE BEST place to be in the summer is in the Uintas though. Not nearly as many tourists up there, and the fishing is just crazy.

[monstahfish]

Trout in big reservoirs will often take on a sea run like appearance. In the case of browns, they start to look more like a landlocked atlantic salmon which they are related to. In some areas where they share watersheds in the northeast, there are even signs to help people tell the difference. Rainbows will start to look like steelhead too. Browns and rainbows cannot interbreed if anyone was wondering. Browns can spawn with brook trout to create sterile tiger trout but those are mostly created in a hatchery and rare naturally. Brookies can also mix with lake trout and create splake.

[blackcloud9]

Uintas for trout will be quantity over quality and provide much better mountain outdoors solitude for sure. I get it.

[Midnightpass]

Trout in big reservoirs will often take on a sea run like appearance. In the case of browns, they start to look more like a landlocked atlantic salmon which they are related to. In some areas where they share watersheds in the northeast, there are even signs to help people tell the difference. Rainbows will start to look like steelhead too. Browns and rainbows cannot interbreed if anyone was wondering. Browns can spawn with brook trout to create sterile tiger trout but those are mostly created in a hatchery and rare naturally. Brookies can also mix with lake trout and create splake.

I assume Lake and browns mix as well?… I would also assume that they could get pretty large?..
Butch

[monstahfish]

Uintas for trout will be quantity over quality and provide much better mountain outdoors solitude for sure. I get it.

There's some really cool high elevation hikes up there where you can find lakes with tigers and even Arctic grayling! Lots of brookies in the creeks too and if you're lucky you'll find cutthroat.

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I assume Lake and browns mix as well?… I would also assume that they could get pretty large?..
Butch
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Interesting thought as lakers and brookies are both char and a brookie and a brown can make a tiger trout. I did some searching and it's called a brake or braker. A brake trout is a female brown trout x male lake trout. The survival rate of these are not high and they seem to have been bred but given up on as a stocking option.
They were also able to cross a brown and rainbow but 95% developed cataracts in their eyes.
Apparently there are also browns mixing with mountain whitefish on the madison river.
I had never heard of these before your question. My understanding had always been these fishes were too genetically divergent to crossbreed and they probably shouldn't given the defects, though their sterility would eliminate them spreading and taking over a river system, I would think their triploid genetics, growth rates would create a predation issue for native fish.