Quit because of the wind, started blowing pretty
good and I was starting to get blown over. Standing in cold water for
three hours the legs don’t move as fast as they used too. If I have been in the
same place for a while or just been inching along I often get my walking stick
out before making any big moves. Having that third leg makes a big difference
when walking on slippery rocks in moving water. By the way the river flow is twice
the normal flow, last year it was at normal.
Slept in this morning and did not get to the river until after 10:00.
Got 9 fish, things have really slowed
down.
In the afternoon I did some coach things:
Used the $9.99 Harbor Freight angle grinder plus
$1.99 grinding wheel to get a lock off the solar panel. The locks I bought for
this panel can get the combination changed really easy when the lock is open.
This is the second time this has happened. The first time I figured out the new
combination. This time I got new locks and a grinder to get the lock off the
panel. We will be using the solar panel while at the Balloon Fiesta and I
did not want to leave it out unsecured.
At 3:00 when I start to go fishing a large
thunderstorm was building to the south. I decided to set and watch it come to
us and it did, we have now had three storms blow though. The second one had at
least 40 mph winds with it and was raising the large slide topper up a foot.
Went fishing early this morning, at the river
7:45. Slow fishing got 13 small fish
Afternoon went up the river to the BLM area on
the “Quality Water” area. Got one fish and had a nice fish on for a while
before it got off. All the drift boats were commenting about how slow it was
today.
We went into Farmington early this morning and we are now proud owns of a brand new generator carburetor. It has not been running very well when it first starts since we were in Montana this spring. A couple of times I was not sure it was going to start and stay running. After couple of minutes when it warmed up it would run fine. I changed the spark plugs while we were at the big house and it started right up and ran fine. Our first stop after leaving the big house was at Salmon Cove just off a Chinook Pass. It had trouble starting and ran rich and stumbled for several minutes just like in Montana. The problem has continued so we are going to the Cummins/Onan Service facility in Farmington. The service manager said they called Onan and Onan said to check the electric chock. The chock is supposed recover after 2 ½ minutes and ours was over 5 minutes also the altitude adjustment is not working. The chock Spring is not available by itself thus we have a new carburetor.
It was a challenge to get to Farmington. Last night’s thunderstorm left the two miles of dirt road from the state park to the main highway a bit iffy. We got up at 6:00 and I drive two blocks to just outside of the campground area to check out a flash flood area. It was still dark and all I could see was water and mud. I had decided I couldn’t tell how deep the water was and we would miss our appointment to check out the generator. Then a pickup came into the park and showed the water was not very deep. I drove the pickup the two miles out to the main road and the hills were not too slippery.
5 fish in afternoon. Rain storm came through in the afternoon big time rain. I had stopped to put on my raincoat so I just fished through the rain, everybody else left, 5 people. I did get out of the river when I heard thunder. Never did see any lightning but called it a day anyway.
Fished after Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me. 11:30 – 3:00 23 to the net many more strikes and a few more hooked and got off Many in the 10 to 12 inch range and one 16 inch brown.
This trout is 16 inches long. It is hard to tell the length of the fish because I am taking the picture with the webbing of the net hanging down from the net frame. The black mark on the frame in the top left side of the picture is 12 inches from the handle and the net frame is 16 inches from the inside of the net frame at the handle to the outside of the net frame at the length of the net.
A 16 inch brown on a three weight rod takes a while to get to the net. On the third cast after the brown I caught a 10 inch rainbow, as I was reaching into the net to unhook this fish the knot on the hook gave out and came untied. I almost lost that big brown.
I have sure learned a lot about setting the hook
while fly fishing. With this Euro Nymphing/Tight Line Nymphing you have a
length colored line (sighter line) as part of the leader so you can better see
your line. The sighter line is tied in the leader with blood knots with inch
and a half to two inch tails. This makes
it a little easier to see the colored line You cast up stream and let the nymph
drift with the river flow. When the line makes any movement you wouldn’t
expect to be part of the normal river flow you give a short hook set. The
unexpected movement may have been a stick in the water or bumping the bottom of
the river, OR it is amazing how many times it is a fish. On one drift the
sighter line moved a couple of inches toward the middle of the river rather
then flowing to the right down river, a quick rise of the rod tip about a foot
of rise and the line instantly starts running off the reel out across the
river, 16 inch brown on a three weight rod.
Got this year’s fishing license and finally got
out on the river at 2:00
The river flow is double the normal level for this time of year. That guy at the fly shop where I got my license said it is because of all the snow in Colorado last winter. That this water level should be good for fishing.
Got a fish on my first cast. I am using my new 3 weight 10 foot rod I bought for Euro nymphing. Then got a fish on my 3rd cast, ended the day with 25 to the net another 10+ fish on that got off. Truly an amazing day.
Last winter Jean had seen a flying class
advertised at Green River Community College which is two blocks from the big
house. One of the classes was scheduled on July 27 right after we
returned from the spring fishing/birthday trip. It was a two part class one at
the school and one a couple of days later on the Cedar River. During the river
part of the class I actually caught a 10 inch trout. Well that got me
“hooked” and I bought an Orvis 10 foot 3 weight Recon rod. So far it has worked
out really really well.
My fish pictures are not the best in the world as a matter of fact many are really bad. When I take a fish picture my goal is to not have the fish out of the water for very long and remember I am holding a camera, flopping fish in a net and fly rod while standing in the river not wanting to drop any of the three.
We had a stiff side wind for an hour then turned left and it turned into tail wind. The road surface was not level tipping the coach side to side most of the day, made for a long day of travel. 338 miles.
Stopped at Cummins in Farmington and got an appointment for 8:00 on Monday September 16 for their generator guy to look at the coach. The service manager said he would actually look at the generator at 8:00 to figure out what is wrong. It ran great at home after I changed the spark plugs but when we get up in the mountains it started acting up again. Runs on one cylinder and rich for 1 to 2 minutes before smoothing out and then runs good the rest of the time.
Stopped at Walmart for grocery shopping and in
Aztec for laundry.
Got to Cottonwood Campground at 6:30, by the time I got the car unhooked, dumped and settled into site 5 it was 7:30. This is the same site we had last year.
