Green Below Fontenelle Saturday May 4-5, 2019
Date / Time: Saturday, May 4 2019 8-5. Sunday, May 5, 2019 8-12 and a bit after
Location: Green Below Fontenelle. Some fishing around camp at Slate Creek, then float from Slate to Dodge. Day 2 wade fishing around Slate.
The Characters: KK
Weather: Nice, mostly sunny highs in the low 60s. Calm in am, then windy afternoon, gusty breezy though and not outrageous. Same weather both days.
Water Temp: Low 40’s took a couple temps earlier in the day
Water Level: Around 1,490 cfs per gauge, steady
Water Clarity/Quality: Greenish tint
Moon Phase: New Moon Saturday
Hatches: BWOs, midges
Best Flies: Fluoro pink tubing worm, chart eyed leech, wine zebra
Fishing: Day 1: Camped for weekend with the girls, arriving late Friday camped right at the ramp since it was the last campsite open.
Got up early Saturday and fished the streamer in area near the middle camps down to ramp, tried several flies and speeds no eats.
Tammy and Anna headed to Green River to visit Kat and kids and I put the boat in and floated with plan for her to pick me up at 5. I got going around 11:30 just as wind started to kick in. Pushed down a ways with goal of focusing on certain spots. Tried a few drops below the first small island and talked to a woman in that channel that had hit a giant brown on a hare’s ear. Only a couple of other folks around actually mostly floaters 3 boats that I saw. Ended up stopping at bend above Skunk camp and had the bobber rod rigged with the chart eyed leech with worm behind and zebra 3rd. Covered the lower deeper water and worked up, didn’t hit any initially but eventually as I got into the shallower water started hooking fish. Ultimately got into them pretty good all through the shallows and drops. Assume they were still hanging near the redds up there although I didn’t see fish on them. Got bows mostly but did get a few browns and at least one cutt. The brown slammed it when it landed so thought the streamer might work. Majority ate the worm, but some ate the leech and those were best fish. Also a couple on zebra, but worm was king. After sticking that fish I saved the very top and grabbed the streamer rod. Pounded it all through, again no grabs. Was fishing mostly bigger stuff so maybe the smaller would have worked considering the leech grab.
I moved on and saw Don Sears in the Seedskadee Islands and he mentioned he had been doing well on the purple baetis nymph. Pounded the island above the large sidechannel at upper Dodge but didn’t hook a single fish oddly. Made a short stop at the big drop where sidechannel comes back in and anchor fished for a bit hooking nothing although didn’t really spend time there and did not cover much of the water. Pushed down to long river left sidechannel and hit the drops top left around the boulders above but only hooked a couple whities. Floated through the sidechannel since two of the other boats went river main. I stopped above the drops and walked down through and ended up hooking several in the various drops mostly on the worm. Bows and one brown. Stopped above the big curve deep boulder area where I always get some and pounded the streamer again for nada. Hit one more drop and headed out. Good day overall, but fish weren’t in all spots. More mid sized fish it seems in recent seasons.
Fishing: Day 2: Got up early again and decided to fish the drop at island above campground and area around there. Rode bike up and fished up river right wailing wall for old memories. Got a decent brown in there on the worm and another cutt fouled. Nada in big pool above there other than a white and nothing in any other drops up. Saw a big ling along the shoreline with something in it’s mouth could have picked it up but was a bit timid. Waded all the way up to the pool to see if I could cross to fish down to the sidechannel and it looked like a no go but I went for it as the pool crested into the riffle and made it going downriver. I fished the pools and drops down the river left side and got some good bows that ripped. One almost into backing, only like an 18” bow but wild and fat and super hot. Got a few others too. Eventually ended up in the confluence of the sidechannel and main river and saw a few still remaining on the redds. Got several more in that area including a couple good ones and one bow that seemed to still be spawning. Think all on worm. Headed to camp after that.
Anna didn’t want to float so we messed around and had a bike ride. After lunch, I decided to go down and work some of the drops below the bridge. It wasn’t really happening without waders other than a few whities. However, I got to the new rip rap installed where the substation got built and was fishing through for nada. As I was walking up and dragging flies behind me, a fish grabbed the fly and I hooked into a giant brown. I managed to keep it on and land a beast brown about 24” on the leech! It was a sweet fish and excellent end to the trip!
