Flaming Gorge!!

Dave, Matt, and I just got back from our camping trip to Flaming Gorge. It was a very fun and exciting trip. We left on Tuesday morning and headed for the gorge. We got up at around 4:00. We stopped in at the bait shop to ask what was working best and to find a good place to fish from shore. We drove around to a place called antelope flats. We found a really cool camp ground and set up camp. After that we went to find a place to inflate the raft that we brought hoping to catch some giant lunkers. After we struggled for about an hour to blow this thing up we finally got it on the water. We quickly realized there was a pretty good hole in the boat and matt's and my feet were under water. We paddled out to deeper water in hope to find the fish, but the raft was just too small for three guys. It was rocking back and forth and I felt like we were all gonna go overboard. Plus it was very difficult to cast and reel. After about 15 minutes on the water we decided to head back and just fish from shore. What a waste of time! We started fishing from shore, but werent really getting any action. We moved around a lot and tried some different areas. At around 8:30 the fish started to rise everywhere, but the problem was they were about 100 yards out and we couldnt get to them. Matt pulled in a really nice 19 inch rainbow that fed almost all of us and a small mouth bass. It was a good thing too, because dave forgot his dinner and matt didnt bring one wanting to eat his catch. After it got too dark we headed in, but as we gt to the car, I saw a bunch of fish jumping near the shore. We started to investigate and heard more and more fish splashing in inches of water. As we got closer, we could see hundreds of fish in the water just a couple of feet from shore. Ar first we couldnt tell what they were and we threw a bunch of different lures and jigs at them to see of we could get them to bite. No chance. We realized they were spawning and they werent hungry one bit. Then we decided that the only way to catch them was to try and net them. After many failed attempts I was able to get close enough to two of them spawning and i quickly netted two at once!! It was awesome. As I got them out we realized they were CARP!! What a disappointment.

The next morning we got up really early to get fishing. We found some really deep water and the fishing was on. We all started catching fish right away and there were some big ones. It started to rain on us, but we kept fishing because we were catching fish consistently. After the morning rush, we decided to go try the famous green river. We got there and could see hundreds of fish just sitting in the river. It was incredible. We threw everything we had at them, but nothing was biting. It was a beautiful place, but the fish we not willing to play. I was the only one who was able to land just one fish on the green, kinda disappointing, but worth the trip. Overall, it was an awesome trip and we had a blast.