Day One-2013

Yesterday was the first day I've fished up at the Dam this season. I've been putting it off and putting off but I showed up at the lodge and asked the clients where they've been and what they wanted and it since they are beginners, it just made sense. I hate the Dam. Yes, I know I've said it before but I really hate it and avoid it like the plague. With the water this season being as low as it has been and with not a lot of change in sight, we all may be up there way more than we want.

So here's the deal; there are a ton of fish up there, they are EASY to get to eat, and there are no weeds. So why wouldn't you want to fish up there, right? Because it's a cluster f... and with the water low, there are a million wade fishermen all the way from the Dam to Craig. When I first started guiding out here, everyone played nice and it didn't seem that bad. Now, even when there's not a ton of people up there people jump into the runs and mess it up for the boats that are giving each other space and playing nice.

We were doing a row-around yesterday on the grass flats when a boat of three guys pulls along the shoreline and they all get out and start wading. For those of you that don't know, a row-around is where you drift down a run a hundred yards or so and then pull into the bank out of the current and row back up to the top to do it again. On the grass flats, a dozen boats could be doing the row-around at a time and everyone catches fish; until someone drops the rock in the middle of the run or a wade-fisherman jumps in.

So these guys park their boat and jump into the run screwing it up for Dave and I and our clients. So Dave pushes his boat back up stream between the guys wading and the bank and then jumps in the boat and starts drifting past them. I followed suit. When both of my clients hooked up I stood up to net the fish. One breaks off and my guy gets tangled so I dropped anchor. I look over of one of the dudes wading and he's now chest deep trying to make it a point to get as far out from the bank as he can and then holds is hands out and give one of these, "WTF" looks.

"What?" I ask.

"Well, you're fishing my run." He responds.

"Hey, you guys saw us doing this row-around and you parked your boat and jumped in the run. You could have done what we were doing and everyone would be happy."

"How would you like someone to do that to you?" He asked and then throws about 75 feet of line and tries to hit my boat.

"Throw it one more time and you'll be donating some flies." I said. "You guys did do it. You did exactly what you're bitching at me for doing. You saw us catching fish so you parked your boat and jumped in the run."

I pulled up anchor and we continued to fish. I apologized to my clients for even saying anything but they were cool about it and were actually glad I did. We then rowed back up to the top taking the middle of the river this time and fished it again. And again, we doubled up right in front of the guy.

We headed down stream and kept catching fish. When we hit the Wolf Creek Bridge, we stopped and ate lunch. My newly acquainted friends drifted by. The guy yelling at me didn't look over at us but one of the older guys did and made some joke about chasing some fish over to us as the went by.

As we started fishing again, a group of tubers were putting in. There were people parked all over the river wading and fishing so we tried to push past some of them. This guy in a maggot boat, (a one-person pontoon boat-we call them maggot boats because you get dozens of them on that stretch and they clog everything up,) was parked on the riffle just down from the Little Prickly Pear. As he was fishing, these tubers started floating right into him.

Two of the tubers picked up their tubes and walked around him. One of the guys lifted up his hands and feet and starts screaming, "Woo woo!!!"

As he gets right next to the guy I hear him say, "Excuse me sir, who's the fishing?"

When the guy ignores him, he drifts right through the run the guy was fishing right in front of him only a few feet away.

My clients were like, "Holy shit, did you see that?"

"Yep, if he does that to the wrong guy he's going to get a knife in his tube."

We kept catching fish and in fact, the fishing was really good. But my guy says, "You know what, I think I like the lower river better."

Me too....Keep 'em where they live...