Flaming Gorge trip

[dubob]

Day 1

While this may be a few days late in posting, I hope you enjoy the report. I made my first trip to Flaming Gorge in way too many years. While there weren’t any real reports on any of the boards I monitor daily, I was hearing by word-of-mouth that the kokanee were hungry. So I loaded the camper, hitched up the boat, and left home for the Gorge on Monday, 2 June.

When I arrived on Monday afternoon, the afternoon wind was whipping up the water too much for an adventure that day, so I took my time and off-loaded the camper and set up camp at Lucerne Bay Campground. There was hardly anybody there and site choices were many. I set up in Loop D, Site 4; right next to the showers.

Day 2

I took my time getting up and about on Tuesday and drove over to Sheep Creek Bay for the launch. I headed around to the channel on the east side of Kingfisher Island and had my lines down at 9:45 AM. Fifteen minutes later it was FISH ON. It turned out to be a healthy 18” koke at 2 lb, 3 oz.



The next fish didn’t come to play until 12 Noon and it was a 13” rainbow that was immediately released.



At 1:10 PM the final fish of the day was hooked and boated; a respectable 16” koke at 1 lb, 11oz.



At this point in time the afternoon wind was starting to get its speed up so I called it quits for the day.

Cont'd below

[dubob]

Day 3

On Wednesday, I woke up at 5:00 AM to the smell of freshly brewed java and got breakfast and lunch preparation done early. I launched at Lucerne and headed for the pipeline. I had the lines down at 6:50 AM. A little over an hour later at 8:05 AM it was FISH ON with a chunky 18”, 2lb, 3 oz rainbow.



This one went into the box. I kept trolling in the pipeline area for another 2 hours and had nada hits. I didn’t see any retrieves on the other 2 boats working the area either.

I could see several boats working the big bay south of me, so a little before 10:00 AM I headed down that way along the cliff wall along the east side and south of the pipeline. As soon as I got to the point that turns towards swim beach it was FISH ON with a 18”, 2 lb, 1 oz kokanee.



This was at 10:10 AM. The next koke came at 10:53 AM off that same point: 18”, 2 lb even.



Then at about 11:30, BANG, BANG – a double on. Picked up the right rod and landed number 1 at 11:32 AM; 18” plus and 2 lb, 7 oz.



After pictures and measurements, I picked up the left rod – fish still on – and landed number 2 at 11:35 AM.

Took his picture and released without measuring, but he has pretty much like the first 3 caught.

At this time, with my full limit of trout/kokanee in the box, I changed lures and went deep – 90 feet – to try for whatever was showing up on the sonar at that depth. At 1:05, I had a hit on the J-plug/dodger set-up and was thinking ‘mack.’ Nope! Kokanee #5 – on a J-plug no less.

Released and continued for about another 30 minutes when I noticed the wind was REALLY starting to blow and making it very difficult to control the boat at trolling speed. Called it quits for the day and made the very wet return to Lucerne.



Cont'd below

[dubob]

Day 4

On Thursday, I again awoke to coffee smells at 5:00 AM and was launched at Lucerne and headed over to Horseshoe Canyon for a look see. Lines were down at 7:10 and the only fish came at 8:45 AM – a 13” mack at 13oz. Since there didn’t seem to be any more reason to stay in Horseshoe, I pulled the lines and went back over to the east side of Kingfisher Island. This time, I just stayed in the channel entrance near the dock on the east side of the island and landed my biggest koke of the trip – 19” at 2 lb, 9 oz.



I had two more hook-ups and LDR’d both of them. I called it a day at 11:47 and headed back to Lucerne.

On the trip back to home, I had the left wheel bearing on my boat trailer disintegrate on me just coming into Evanston. Damnit! I made it to the Big-O in Evanston about 4:30 and they said they could get to it sometime on Friday. So I dropped it off there and headed home. They were able to get it fixed good enough to get me home, but I have a scored spindle on the left side and the drum on that side was warped by the excess heat caused by the bearing failure. I drove back up to Evanston on Saturday and got it back home with no further problems and I have it scheduled for a complete evaluation by TJ Trailer in Ogden on June 16th. But I should be able to use it for a couple of local trips (like maybe Willard or Hyrum) before then.

So there you have it; a very nice adventure at the Gorge with a not so nice ending. Life is STILL good.

[jekern1015]

Sounds like you had a great time, I'm trying to go back up in a couple of weeks. Great report.

[berrykoka]

What a killer report! Nice pics!