Seriously.
I picked him up at 3:00 am (should've been 2:30, but I'm a flake, what can I say?) and we hit the road to Flaming Gorge to slaughter anything with gills. The drive was uneventful other than the "lesson" I got from Archibald on Ancient Aliens and his latest hangover. We got to the launch site at 7ish and it was 36 degrees. Colder than a witches nipple in a tin bra, sho. The lake was calm and beautiful though, so it was all good.
I thought it was interesting that Archie has a lot of the same addict traits that I have, such as grabbing your rod first thing out of the car and fishing near the docks before you get your "real gear" out and set up. We both fished the docks for 15 minutes or so before getting set up. My first victim of the day came from a Blue Fox, silver, size 0:
Archibald was a hell of a lot quicker than me at getting his gear ready to roll and he was in the water fishing before I even had my tube set up. I approve.
The best part was that 15 minutes after he left me on shore, I heard him holler my name in terror and I watched him flopping around like his *** was on fire. It turns out, his air bladder came uncorked at the air intake and he started to sink in the middle of the lake. I wish I had been there with my camera, because it was hilarious. He actually saved the day by luckily having his blow up tube on hand and was able to cork the hole and get air back in before he sank to the bottom.
The idea for the day was to target Kokanee salmon on the fly, but as was pointed out to me by just about everyone that has ever fished the Gorge for Kokes, it would be nigh impossible to get them this time of year due to the fact that they are deep, and getting a fly presented correctly on a fly rod, from a float tube, is unlikely at best. Sad to say, they were right -- at least as far as I was concerned. Happy to say that Archibald proved them wrong, though, and in a big way:
All was not lost for me (or McKell) as the Rainbows and Smallmouth were more than happy to thump a fly, and they did so all day long:
Even got into a nice hatch of some sort of black bug that was making the trout go wild on top. Put a dozen Rainbows on my bed post throwing a big grey caddis, including this little fighter:
I also found it odd that The Thriller had been to that same stretch of lake that we were at, as was evidenced by several of the small mouths. It seems that the fish lived up to their names, so he made due elsewhere:
All in all, a great day on the water and we couldn't have asked for better weather, company, or compliant fish. The highlight of the trip, however, came when I realized I had to turn down Perry Winkle to get to his house, which is on "Sweet Pea Dive". So cute... you little homo, you.
To top it off, MLM found like fifty bucks in the weeds while he was trying to find a place to take a nap.
Lot's of fun was had... Who wants to go next? I've got all the gear you need, so let's go slaughter some fishies man@
I picked him up at 3:00 am (should've been 2:30, but I'm a flake, what can I say?) and we hit the road to Flaming Gorge to slaughter anything with gills. The drive was uneventful other than the "lesson" I got from Archibald on Ancient Aliens and his latest hangover. We got to the launch site at 7ish and it was 36 degrees. Colder than a witches nipple in a tin bra, sho. The lake was calm and beautiful though, so it was all good.


I thought it was interesting that Archie has a lot of the same addict traits that I have, such as grabbing your rod first thing out of the car and fishing near the docks before you get your "real gear" out and set up. We both fished the docks for 15 minutes or so before getting set up. My first victim of the day came from a Blue Fox, silver, size 0:

Archibald was a hell of a lot quicker than me at getting his gear ready to roll and he was in the water fishing before I even had my tube set up. I approve.

The best part was that 15 minutes after he left me on shore, I heard him holler my name in terror and I watched him flopping around like his *** was on fire. It turns out, his air bladder came uncorked at the air intake and he started to sink in the middle of the lake. I wish I had been there with my camera, because it was hilarious. He actually saved the day by luckily having his blow up tube on hand and was able to cork the hole and get air back in before he sank to the bottom.
The idea for the day was to target Kokanee salmon on the fly, but as was pointed out to me by just about everyone that has ever fished the Gorge for Kokes, it would be nigh impossible to get them this time of year due to the fact that they are deep, and getting a fly presented correctly on a fly rod, from a float tube, is unlikely at best. Sad to say, they were right -- at least as far as I was concerned. Happy to say that Archibald proved them wrong, though, and in a big way:

All was not lost for me (or McKell) as the Rainbows and Smallmouth were more than happy to thump a fly, and they did so all day long:


Even got into a nice hatch of some sort of black bug that was making the trout go wild on top. Put a dozen Rainbows on my bed post throwing a big grey caddis, including this little fighter:

I also found it odd that The Thriller had been to that same stretch of lake that we were at, as was evidenced by several of the small mouths. It seems that the fish lived up to their names, so he made due elsewhere:

All in all, a great day on the water and we couldn't have asked for better weather, company, or compliant fish. The highlight of the trip, however, came when I realized I had to turn down Perry Winkle to get to his house, which is on "Sweet Pea Dive". So cute... you little homo, you.

To top it off, MLM found like fifty bucks in the weeds while he was trying to find a place to take a nap.
Lot's of fun was had... Who wants to go next? I've got all the gear you need, so let's go slaughter some fishies man@