Green Below Fontenelle July 13-16, 2023

Date / Time: July 13 evening, July 14, 15 all day, July 16 morning through early afternoon

Location: Green Below Fontenelle Slate to Dodge and Dam to Slate, July 15 New Fork Gas Wells to 351

The Characters: KK, Jason Curry, Dad

Weather: Sunny and mostly clear.

Water Temp: Gauge was high 50s through low 60s

Water Level: Around 1,400 cfs release, had just dropped on previous Monday.

Water Clarity/Quality: Clear

Moon Phase: New Moon July 17

Hatches: Sallies, Caddis, PMDs, Tricos

Best Flies: KK caddis, KK sally

Fishing: Had a long weekend figured out leaving Thursday evening staying through Sunday, dad joining Friday.

Evening 1: Got there with couple hours light Thursday after Jason had been camping since previous eve at Slate. Set up trailer and headed up to flat below Weeping Rock cliffs river right. Fish were on caddis sporadically and then as sun got low last hour they went good. I missed my opportunities at big fish and mostly got mid size cutties one or two big cutties. Didn’t land any good bows. All at the KK caddis in 16 or so.

Day 1 Friday, July 14: Next day floated from Slate to Dodge. No real serious hatch, caddis were coming off, some sallies, some PMDs. Only found isolated sippers mostly in the foam. Couple pods mostly with cutties, no real good risers going like crazy. Expected better after the water had just come down, but it wasn’t what I thought it would be. Water came down late since snowpack was bigger, so water temp had warmed before it dropped. I found one good pod in upper dodge river left area, missed all of the good fish went 2 for 7 and only landed a couple of 15 inch cutties. Maybe if we had gotten out and looked hard, would have found more. Headed out of there and back to camp to meet up with Dad.

Did a float from the dam with dad hoping for afternoon caddis with the breeze that had kicked up. Found risers along the seeps cliffs and worked on those for a while, but didn’t find anything else of significance.

Had dinner and headed back up for evening float from dam again. Was hoping for caddis going strong, but they were sporadic. Ended up down in same water below cliffs on left and fish went off again right at dark. Got some decent fish, don’t recall all the details nothing crazy. Dad had Jason’s rod we gave him at beginning of float and I noticed he wasn’t fishing back in the boat. He mentioned now that there was no leader, so I went back up and rigged him up kind of frustrated since fish were going that he didn’t mention it earlier. I think he got one mid sized brown ultimately, but he can’t see great. Instead of floating down, I suggested we pull the boat back up to weeping rock and Jason grab the car. Stupid idea as it was a lot of work and would have just been easier to push down although then we would have had to do a shuttle. Funny memory though I suppose.

Day 2 Saturday, July 15: Decided to go up to the New Fork for the day since it was busy down lower and curiosity about it being good up there was eating at me. Floated from Gas Wells to 351 and flows were good and still cool which is what was drawing me up there. We had been a few weeks previous for the 4th and it seemed like timing would still be good. Few drakes around at launch, but minimal bugs overall. Mosquitos weren’t really around at launch which is usually a warning sign. Conditions remained good for float, we threw the big dry with dad and Jason threw it some too. I threw the streamer here and there and it all wasn’t happening. We fished the mid sized dry on the drift and only got dinks, really micro dinks like 6 inchers max. Spotted one decent sipper bow in a back eddy as we got close to Remmick for Jason but couldn’t get the drift. I stuck it out on the mid sized dry for a bit, but nada. As I was cranking it up and got dad on the oars I spotted a good one and Jason jumped on the oars and worked us back up. It was a tough angle and with the private water we couldn’t anchor. Fish looked to be close to 20 and it rose a few times once we got into position. Casting up from behind was the wrong option and I put the fish down. After that found no more. We were on from 9-3 and caught nada, so should have just stayed at Fontenelle but curiosity was satisfied haha.

After dinner, decided to float dam to camp again. Ran into Aaron and Andy Grant rigging up at the cliffs and BS’d for a bit. We launched at Weeping Rock with the intention of fishing the evening hatch down lower. So instead of working on the same fish, we moved through that area and looked for risers here and there. Found a good one in the big slow area above the trailers on the right that I rowed Jason into, 18” rainbow or so. After that, moved slowly through tailout but not much happening. As we got into the riffle river left of the campers private land which I was looking to hit for the evening since it would be looking into the sun, I saw a fish working and jumped out. I put a freshly tied 14 KK caddis on it and it chowed it instantly. Hot 16” bow. Fish were going off all down the way from there so worked them as I went down and had a great evening. Worked down into the slow water hoping for bigger browns and sure enough got an 18” brown and then a really good one maybe low 20s or so. Dad was up higher in boat but had a tough time with low light, he said he got a small brown and a whitey. At 79, he’s not as mobile as he used to be but casting well.

Day 3 Sunday, July 16: Figured on the last day we would go where I knew it was likely the best, the dam to camp right in mid day. I had been avoiding doing it because it is where I have spent so many days and most of my time in recent years during the good times. I don’t get a lot of days at this time of my life as I try to spend as much time with my daughter while she’s young as I can. So when I get out, it’s usually after the peak fishing and when the water has warmed so I wanted to fish lower river while it was still fishable. After the previous days of bouncing around, I thought it was best to do the known good stretch and after seeing how good it was I realized we should have just been fishing there the whole time. Classic Kory avoiding where I know it’s good to try and fish other spots and get lucky.

We launched at the dam early around 8. Found a few fish in the first slow stretch, but they were sporadic and didn’t get any. Worked down through the big flat below the islands and only found a few sippers river right that we ended up putting down. Ultimately ended up at the cliffs and spotted a few good ones off the little rock pile river right. Jumped out and thought it best to work with dad to try and get one. We snuck up to them and threw the caddis at them, no dice, then threw the PA after seeing piles of tricos, no dice. Dad never did get one to eat, and after 30 minutes or so I decided to walk up and look for others. Only fish were at the rock pile, so I waded out and worked them from the outside while dad still was below. I got one after a drift or two on the caddis, big CO River cutty. Eventually we left those fish as they were pretty keyed in on the Tricos which I didn’t want to deal with.

Jason was working some fish below on the right in the shallows, so we went over to the cliffs in the boat to try and get dad a fish. Sallies were coming off pretty decent by then and of course there were fish up along the edge. I rigged dad up with one of my 200r sallies and we worked a fish and he stuck a good one. He played it for a bit and it came unbuttoned unfortunately, so we moved to another. Got another good one hooked up and also lost. Looked at the hook and it was broken…found a firehole stick version in the box and tied that on. Spotted a good one in the shallows and worked with dad to get the drift. He eventually got it and stuck the fish, and it raced into the rocks. He battled it for a while and I saw it was a good brown. We worked it and slid into the shallows and got the fish landed, both stoked! Got some pics and released the fish and went to pick up Jason.

Jason’s fish were up and he said he didn’t have his sally box. I saw a few of them rising still so jumped out, made one drift with a sally and stuck a big cutty and landed it. Left those fish alone with Jason and walked down scanning. Didn’t see much on river right, but ultimately got into the riffle and spotted one. Sallies were going strong but PMDs were also coming off and it looked like this fish was on PMDs but I left the sally on and worked a few drifts and stuck a big silver bullet. It was a heavy battle and I eventually landed a solid super fat chrome 19-20 and was stoked. Worked around in there for a while as the other boats showed up and fish were rising decently through there including the pmd chasers that roam around in there. Jason got a giant, but dad never could get another to eat. I got a few cutties on the far side shallows to eat but didn’t land them. Ran into AA walking up, and he said he and Andy Grant had done well. We stayed in this area for a while because the boats were catching us and we had fish around. Eventually we left around 1-2ish and headed down. After this session, we never did find anything else of significance and made our way to the takeout.