Monday, August 18, 2014

Fishing the Grey and Little Grey

We knew as soon as we first saw the Grey River, that it was unfishable. It was high and dirty and even one of those conditions would make fishing really tough. Too high and the flies would race past and too muddy and the fish would never see our offerings. So we continued up to its junction with the Little Grey.
The Little Grey appeared clear and low, and we were encouraged to see some other fly fisherman casting to the lower stretch. After driving further upriver we found a spot that was easily accessible and looked like it contained some deeper holes.
It always takes too long to put on ones waders and retie leaders and flies but eventually I headed down stream. Stripping some line I let my nymphs drag below me and as I waded across a fish hit my golden ribbed rabbits ear, ( a type of fly not actually a rabbits eaIt was a small fish but it was a fish. I really couldn't care about the size, I just like catching fish! A little further and I cast to several edges, of the current flow, and was soon rewarded with a larger fish. It made me feel good to have some success after my tough time on the Gros Ventre.
Reaching the first deep pocket I caught and released two nice Snake River cutthroat. They are a pretty fish, a subspecies really called the fin spotted Snake River cutthroat.  All the fish here are wild native stock and so I don't catch and kill only practice catch and release. Game and Fish get some of their brood stock from these waters and so the only fish I eat here are the numerous and seldom kept mountain whitefish.
Returning to the truck Val and George were up stream and so I rested before picking some service berries. I hope to try and make some service berry jam later on this summer.Going back to fishing I heard a strange sound behind me just as I set the hook on another fish. It was loud and of course I thought bear but Renita assured me that there was nothing behind me. Soon I heard the sound again and discovered it was a humming bird trying to feed on my bright red t-shirt sleeve. I might be a little jumpy about bears.
George and Val returned and talked of all the fish they had caught. Val uses dry flies and George told us she had out fished him ten to one, (all though he had caught the biggest fish a beautiful sixteen inch Snake River cutthroat.
Later that week we returned to the Little Grey as Bob and Nancy had never been there. The fish were still plentiful and I was able to add to my serviceberry stockpile. We did try to fish the clearer Grey but the water was still too fast and nothing  attacked our flies.
No matter really as it had been a fun two days up the Grey and Little Grey. They are both fun places to visit and fly fish! Clear skies

I have somehow misplaced some images and so am using old ones of Bob and George. Also we are currently at Flaming Gorge and do not have any internet connection so I am adding this post while we are in town. Ah the joys of living in Wyoming!

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