Green River Below Fontenelle, Wyoming: July 19-24, 2010

Date / Time: 7/19-7/24/2010 Location: Green River below Fontenelle The Characters: Kory Kapaloski, Tammy Stevenson, Brian Kapaloski Weather: Variable Water Temp: low to mid 50s Water Level / Tide: Moderately high for time of year 1700 Hatches: Caddis, PMDs, Sallies, Tricos Water Clarity/Quality: Clear with some moss drifting Moon Phase: First quarter through full Fishing: After getting back from Europe 5 week mega trip we looked for apts for two days in slc and then i got restless so we headed first to LC for a few days and then to Fontenelle. First afternoon on way in stopped at dodge and looked at sidechannel below boat ramp. Spotted a big fish, threw on a dropper and caught that one and two more large rainbows up to 22 inches or so, good start also got one cutty. Dropper they ate was a size 14 copper tungsten drake nymph i had tied for the Duchesne a few years before and never really done well with, but they liked it here. Fished above weeping rock for evening and although caddis were thick but only sporadic risers. Ended up hitting a pig about 20-21 brown that ripped into backing and one other small brown. Day 2: Went below camp in sidechannel near conveyor. Fish were up in section of the channel above where they normally are in a section that typically is dry this time of year. Spotted a big rainbow chowing everything in site. Got into position, made one cast that drifted over him with P.A. and he engulfed it. He ripped me up and I landed him and did a self pose photo. There were several more fish in the calm part of the pool so I worked on them. Couldn’t ever get them to eat except a mid size cutty. There was a giant rainbow that would rise in circles and I tried for over an hour to no avail. There were pmd spinners, caddis and tricos but I couldn’t figure em out. Fished again later in the afternoon, crossed at conveyor walked all the way down to left sidechannel then back up to island and around and never saw shit rise despite tons of bugs. Threw on the dropper and fished up and hooked a couple of good fish but fouled one and didn’t land the other. Went back to the ultraselectors in the channel and they were still there. I fished to em for a bit with no luck and headed back. Fished the evening on the main bank below and got a decent brown and had some others eat without landing. Went up into the lower sidechannel and spotted a couple in the tailout but put em down. After that, didn’t find much and called it. Day 3: This day was somewhat of a bust. I had Tam drop me off at dodge bottoms while she went to Green River to visit her sister. I walked around looking for risers and didn’t find much so fished the dropper up the big eddy and through the mid river drop above the ramp a quarter mile or so. Got a few mid size and smaller fish on droppers and then a nice brown about 18-19 on the dry. Fat albert was the dry with the same copper dropper and also switched up with sally nymphs. Went over to the sidechannel as the t storms were building. Found a few risers, but put them down and ducks pretty much spooked the upstream game. T storms started moving in and so i needed to find shelter since of course i left the rainjacket. Crawled under some dense bushes and that worked for a bit until the true torrential monsoon came and soaked through. I ended up getting soaked and two flash flood streams surrounded the bush I was under. It was pretty sketchy. Storm passed and I tried to dry out and fished the dropper again, but the river blew out and so I bailed to meet Tam. Can’t remember if I fished the evening, think i might have but not much happening. Day 4: Headed to Ham’s for the day and met BK. Fishing was decent with sporadic PMDs and sallies. Not a ton of fish rising. Tam fished with me for a bit and then BK showed up. I hooked a giant at the upper boundary on goldie hawn that ripped into my backing straight upstream into the big pool. Had BK come and get a photo. Probably about 23 inches or so, super thick awesome fish. We made our way back down and found a few here and there and managed to get a couple of decent fish, but nothing spectacular. We decided to head back and float into camp. Back on the Green the caddis were super thick as it was a calm, warm evening. We worked down and spotted a decent looking fish, I made a few casts with the small pmx, he ate and the battle was on ripping me all over. It ended up being a little bigger fish around 19-20, brown and ridiculously fat. We found another above this one and BK got that one about 18-19 inch fatty brown. We moved down into the bottom right where i had been the night before. There were some pigs rising and I ended up getting a monster about 24 inches and another silly fat smaller fish. It was an awesome evening! Day 5: Floated the big distance from camp to hay farm. Found some risers on the bank of the weeping rocks and hooked  a few but it was tough to not put them down out of the boat. BK hooked a good fish that ripped into backing and then got fouled and came off. After that didn’t see many risers for a while so went to the Dry Dropper. Got down to the private land on the right with the islands about a mile and a half or so down and stopped to cover with the dropper. Got into quite a few decent fish mostly on that big copper head drake nymph thing that I had been fishing. BK was having a tough go. Fished down and went to the bottom of the sidechannel on river left above the private house. Walked up in and BK spotted a good riser on the far bank. He stalked it and I filmed. He ended up getting it and it ripped him. It was a sweet 19-20” Brown. We moved on and fished the dropper here and there and I got a couple of nice fish on the same dropper. Looked for risers and found one big cutty along Slate Creek camp that we couldn’t get. Found a pig silver surfer mid river below the bridge and i missed it several times until it wouldn’t eat and went down…bummer it was a pig. After that fished the dry drop and hit fish here and there, don’t remember a lot of it. Got a pig in the riff raff channel at the top right. I think we got some other good fish through there but don’t remember. Great day, but hit and miss for risers.