Utah & Wyoming '06
When my Dad told me that he'd like to do something different this year, little did I know what we'd find out. I snooped around on the web and found a site that told of fishing the Green River in Wyoming. The 2 day float trip was sponsored and guided by Four Seasons Fly Fishers in Heber City, Utah. So I gave Mark at Four Seasons a call. He described the area we'd fish, the wildlife we might see and the best part - the fish we'd catch.
I'm a firm believer in using the lightest tackle possible, my fly rod of choice is a St. Croix 4 wt. Mark told me that I'd break that rod and that I should bring no lighter than a 5 wt., 6 wt. is preferable. I've hooked up with many fish 3-5 pounds on 3 and 4 wt. fly gear, so I had trouble believing this.
We booked the trip. We was scheduled to meet our guide at 7:30 am, June 28 in front of the Kum & Go, a 7-11 like store.
Since we were leaving on Saturday the 24th, we had to fill Sunday through Tuesday. Having never been in Utah; and years since I'd been in Wyoming, this was going to be a treat.
My cousin and his wife live in Park City, Utah and invited us to stay with them for a couple of days. I had not seen my cousin in about 10 years and never met his wife, so I was really looking forward to this.
We left Saturday morning, June 24 just before 5:00 am. Driving out the 15 freeway through the desert to Las Vegas is a bit boring. From there, keep on the 15 through the corner of Arizona & the Virgin River Canyon (gorgeous) and then into Utah. An hour stop for a nice sit down lunch and then the trek, heading north through Utah.
We head off on highway 189 to Provo. Provo is a beautiful college town and we found it quite nice, driving through. Just north of Provo, we headed directly through the mountains. High mountains on both sides and the view was incredible. On the other side, we enter the Heber Valley, right along the Provo River.
A quick call to Scott @ Four Seasons and we had directions to the shop. We stopped in there, chatted with Scott and paid for the float trip. Four Seasons does guide
trips all over northern Utah and southern Wyoming. If you're looking to do a trip like this, give Mark, Matt or Scott a call - 800-498-5440 or click this
link http://www.fourseasonsflyfishers.com/. They will take care of you.
**ADENDUM 2020 - Four Seasons went under several years ago. The place to go in Heber City now is Fish Heads - see our 2016 trip.**
Another 30 minute drive and we're in beautiful Park City. A quick call to my cousin and they talked us up to their house. They live up in the mountain near Park City proper and the view from their back porch is amazing.
Sunday morning we woke to a nice breakfast and a friendly visit from a local moose. Church down in the valley and a church bbq lunch afterwards. Tasty! Don and Janet chauffered us around, showing us all the sights. Park City and the surrounding area is very nice and worth a visit. Lounge around, relax and visit rounded out Sunday afternoon and evening.
Monday, a pleasant drive down to Four Seasons for some hints on where to fish. We settled on the Upper Provo in the Uintah Mountains. Just over an hour later, we were fishing the upper reaches of the Provo River. It was quite picturesque. The water was quite cool, but we wet-waded. It was very invigorating. Both Pop and I had several nice brook trout during the morning.
We had lunch, sitting in deep grass in the shade of several big pine trees. The air temp was maybe 75. It doesn't get too much better than that. After lunch, we decided to head further upstream for some more fishing.
Fishing around some small water falls, turned out to be the ticket. The interesting thing about fishing here was that all the fish caught were rainbows. A large storm blew in, brining with it wind and rain. We decided to head home.
Tuesday, after a nice breakfast and two days of wonderful visit with Don & Janet, we decided to head to Kemmerer, Wyoming and hit the Green River. The drive is about 2 hours, basically you're driving through high desert. We both commented that we hadn't seen any antelope (deer, moose, etc. yes, but no antelope). As soon as we crossed the border into Wyoming, we started seeing them. Go figure.
We checked into the Fossil Butte Motel in Kemmerer, Wyoming. It's a nice, quaint little hotel in town. After lunch, we decided to see if we could find the Green River. After about 1 1/2 hours of driving around, we found it. We put on our waders and gave it a try with our fly rods. Not knowing what flies to use, we tried several flies that seemed to match the bugs around the river. No luck. That would all change tomorrow........
Wednesday and Thursday were the best! Steve, our guide, not only showed us where to fish, but supplied the flies, drinks and even a most excellent lunch. I had never fished with a dropper fly, so that (and the fact that I was excited) made me lose several fish the first day. Small fish on the Green are 12-14 inches; average fish are 18-22 inches and, of course, then there are the big ones (use your imagination!).
In all my years of fishing, and having caught tons of fish ranging from 4 inches to 4 feet, I've never had any fish fight like the Green River trout do! Even big pike didn't fight and run this hard. Even the little ones (12"-14") hit hard and then took off for a good run. There were no fish that you just hooked and reeled in. The big ones were even better.
The typical fly reel has 80-90 feet of fly line and then 75-100 yards of backing. I hooked up with one that had me into the backing by 25 feet or so - that's 110 feet of line out. 20 minutes to fight him. What a kick in the pants!
Take a look at the pictures and if they look interesting.....give Four Seasons a call and book your trip. You'll be glad you did.