Green Above Fontenelle Sun. September 18, 2022
Date / Time: Sunday 11-4
Location: Green Hwy 351 to Ferry Island
The Characters: KK, BK
Weather: Sunny and mostly clear.
Water Temp: Guessing high 50s, didn’t take temp
Water Level: Around 660 at La Barge cfs. New Fork near Big Piney around 300. Both had about doubled in previous days from rain which I didn’t pay enough attention to.
Water Clarity/Quality: Lower river coming into Fontenelle was chocolate milk. We continued driving up and it was reasonably clear at Ferry Island so we launched and floated to there. When we arrived at New Fork confluence, it was milky with some moss on the drift.
Moon Phase: Few days after Last Quarter
Hatches: Minimal
Best Flies: Black articulated sculpin, yellow dungeon
Fishing: We had planned to float the Strawberry below starvation either in Brian’s Puma raft or the skiff since I had been the previous week and it was high and ideal for floating. However, when we checked flows they had dropped it 100 cfs, so we bailed on that idea and I couldn’t decide where to go. Ultimately we decided to go above Fontenelle and decide when we got up there. Brian forgot oars, so it delayed us by about an hour. When we saw the river was chocolate we decided to continue up until it was clear enough. We looked at the Fear Access bridge below Ferry Island and it was in much better shape so we went for it. We wanted to float this section anyway since we had yet to see it. I had wanted to see where the Piney Creeks came in which were on this section.
We launched at 351 bridge on the Green and the water there was in pretty good shape, low and slight tint but mostly clear. Anticipation was high and we were set to throw streamers looking for aggressive pre-spawn browns. By the time we finally launched it was about 11 a.m. despite leaving my house in Salt Lake at 6 a.m. We had a 10 mile float ahead so went at a pretty good pace. Brian fished first throwing various streamers and finally got a grab on a yellow dungeon but it was a lot of time through good water before we had any action. He got another grab, but didn’t connect to either of these. Ultimately he handed the rod to me and I pounded the banks for a while. As we came to the confluence with the New Fork, it was quite off color much more than we had anticipated. There was also moss on the drift and after pounding water for a couple hours for only a few grabs, our hopes of some good streamer action waned. I pounded the water and eventually had a grab or two and missed them. These were on darker flies. At one point above a bridge, I was fishing up and across and untangling and hooked a decent fish deep trolling but lost it.
As we continued down, the water slightly cleared but was still off color and moss on the drift was causing issues occasionally. I hooked one other pretty nice fish and lost that one as well. Had another grab or two but it was a lot of work for little reward. Brian got back up and pounded it as we moved quickly toward the takeout.
Ultimately we got to the takeout without a fish to the boat, one of the first skunks either of us had in a long time. It was a fun float to get on water we hadn’t fished before but the rain blowing out the rivers made for poor fishing. This section has long slow stretches with limited structure. There are some cool braids in spots and I’d like to fish it again with better conditions.