Lower Provo River Fishing (November 23, 2011)

Went fishing on the Lower Provo river this morning and I couldn't believe how low the water levels were. The flow report said it was 95 cfs which in my opinion is not big enough for the size of the Lower Provo. The river beds were all very shallow with not deep holes to fish from. I tried using my jig without any success due to the low flow and shallow waters. I put on a Blue Fox spinner and fished for about 2 hours trying different parts of the river and was able to catch 2 small Browns. I was planning on fishing tomorrow morning as well but since the flow is so low I will go try the Middle Provo to see if it is better.

Lower Provo River Fishing (October 13, 2011)

It has been a few weeks since I have fished on the Lower Provo in the morning. The last time I was on the river there was enough light to start fishing at 6:45 am. This morning there was enough light to start fishing at 7:10 am. I fished using a jig and also a spinner. It was getting close to 7:50 am (which is when I need to leave so I can get to work on time) and I had not yet had a bite. With just 5 mins to spare I finally caught a 15" Brown. It wasn't the biggest fish but this one fish prevented me from getting skunked so I'm very happy about that. Since there is not that much light in the morning for me to fish before having to leave to work I think this will be my last fish before work experience until next year.

I will start finding a few hours in the evening to fish on weekdays. Until next time.

BIG FISH CHALLENGE - Green River (August 13, 2011)

GREEN RIVER 2011 BIG FISH CHALLENGE

Competition base camp was located at Flaming Gorge Recreation Services Conoco Station's RV Park. Registration check-in for the competition started bright and early at 6:30 am. By 9 am all of the contestants were checked in and out fishing. We had 16 participants total in the competition. Sections A and B are the allowed places to fish for this competition.

We setup a mid day result check-in at Little hole where we had drinks available for the contestants and where we could judge their catch results. We only had a few participants take advantage of this when the others stayed on the river and continued to fish

(here was our mid day top results)

We re-opened our base camp at 5 pm and shortly after we had some anglers showing up and the final judging began. By 6 pm the competition came to an end and shortly after we had found our top 2 winners.

Our first place winner was a surprising 13 year old twin by the name of Jace Garcia. He caught this very nice Brown trout that measured 21 3/4". Jace caught this monster fish on a Black Triple Double fly.

Prizes Won Hendrix Outdoors - Wader Fenwick Eagle GT Fly Rod Pflueger - Medalist 1492 ½ Fly Reel

Our second place winner was Chris Greenwood that caught this nice 17" Rainbow. Chris caught this fish using a Rainbow Dynamic Lure. Chris was also the second place prize winner on the Provo river were he won an assorted pack of Dynamic Lures were he recieved the lure that caught him this winning fish.

Prizes Won Assorted Dynamic Lures

There were a lot of great fish caught by our contestants one of the catches which was a surprise by me was this 25" Northern Pike caught by Thomas Huber. This competition was a trout only competition which disqualified this catch as the biggest catch but it was still a very nice catch one that I felt needed at least an honorable mention.

Here is the URL to see all of the final standings and fish caught by all of the participants:

http://bigfishchallenge.com/bfc/Results.aspx

Click here to see all of the photos for the competition:

https://picasaweb.google.com/104365580476403464204/BigFishChallengeGreenRiver2011#

Green River Fishing (September 23-24, 2011)

This is a delayed post but here is the fishing report of my Green River September 23-24 fishing trip.

---

September 23 (midnight to 2:30 am)

This is the 2nd annual couples fishing trip with Geno and Khirsten Hadley (good fishing friends). I have been on the pursuit of catching a 20" plus trout for along time. The information that I have gathered that I haven't yet had the opportunity of trying is that the big fish feed at night. The record Brown trout caught on the Green River caught by Mark Miller was caught at 2:30 am. I told this information to my buddy Geno and we both decided that we would give it a try. We got at the Little Hole parking lot around midnight, got our gear on and started to walk up the trail to Coney Island. The walk up to Coney Island was super spooky; it was pitch black out with no moon in sight. Being super dark out, in the middle of the night out in nature your mind starts playing tricks on you. After a 20 min walk we finally made it to Coney Island and started fishing. I fished for about an hour at this spot trying various jig colors with no luck. I happened to have some Blue Fox lures in my bag and I decided to give it a try because of the vibration that it puts off. I gave the new lure about 5 casts and finally caught my first fish. The fish wasn't the monster that I was hoping for but it was still a catch. I caught this 15" Brown trout.

I continued to fish using the blue fox but didn't have any additional luck. After fishing in the middle of the night in pitch black for 2 hours and catching only 1 fish we decided it was best for us to go back to the cabin to get a few hours of sleep because we were planning on waking up early at 5:50 am to get an early start on the morning fishing.

---

September 23 (early morning 7am - 11 am)

After 3 hours of sleep the sound of an alarm clock comes way to early. Geno and I woke up at 5:50 am, got all of our gear ready and headed down to Little Hole again for round two. The girls didn't join us this morning because they wanted to sleep-in. We finally got on the river around 7 am and started to fish. This fishing was slower than I was use to on the Green River but the fish were biting enough to keep it interesting. We fished for 5 hours and during this time I caught 17 fish (mixed Rainbows and Browns).

My favorite catch of the morning was this 16" Brown. I liked it for its golden underbelly and great side markings.

During the morning fish I came across a section of the river that had hundreds of black and red fuzzy caterpillars. I also saw this cool yellow, blue and white banded caterpillar. The caterpillar on the left is called a "Wooly Bear Caterpillar" and the one on the right is a "Monarch Caterpillar".



---

September 23 (evening 6 pm - 8 pm)

Tonight Geno isn't feeling good so I will be fishing with my wife (Tammy) and Geno's wife (Khirsten). We parked at the upper parking lot at the Dam, collected our gear to walk down the trail. I felt something was missing and realized it was my fishing pole. I went to the back of the car, looked into the trunk and there wasn't an extra pole in there. My wife noticed that Khirsten was holding my "Cross Fire" rod. She mistook it for hers and then she realized that she left hers back at the cabin. We walked down the trail and made it to the river. Since I allready had the opportunity of fishing in the morning we lent one of the rods to Khirsten to use. It was a perfect night with a perfect temperature but the fishing was very slow. It didn't take long to chew up 2 hours of fishing and at the end of the day I think Khirsten caught 2 fish, my wife got skunked, and I did get a few chances to cast the line in for myself and caught 3 fish.

---

September 24 (7 am - 6:30 pm)

For a very long time I have always wanted to walk and fish the entire trail of section A. This morning we decided that we would walk the 7 mile trail from Little hole to the Dam and fish along the way. We dropped a car off at the dam and headed down to Little hole. We got to Little Hole and ready to start our morning of fishing at 7 am.

(Left to right: Brandon Pack, Geno Hadley, Khirsten Hadley, and Tammy Pack)

We walked up the trail about 100 yards when I did my first cast of the morning. On my first cast I caught a 15" brown. This gave me great hope that we would have a good day of fishing. We continued to walk the trail being very selective of the holes to fish in because we had 7 miles of river to cover.

In one of the first holes we came upon I caught this nice Rainbow Trout. This Rainbow really stood out to me because it was very stout with a long skinny bottom jaw not common on a Rainbow.

We continued to fish and work our way up the river and got to my favorite fishing hole above Little hole on Section A. This hole is called "Dripping Springs" but I call it "Fisherman's Relief" because there is an outhouse there.

I love the scenery at this place with the tall red rock canyon walls and the fishing here is always great.

Right above Dripping Springs I caught this Rainbow trout that was very unique because it had a yellow skin instead of the usual silvery white. I really like the middle picture with a cool sun spot.



We were about 2 miles up from Little hole when my wife realized that she left the keys for the car that is parked at the top at the Dam in our car at Little hole. My wife and Khiresten decided to walk back down to Little hole to get the keys. While they were gone I slowly fished and waited for them to come back. The hike back down to Little hole and back added an extra 4 miles to their hike. It didn't take that long for them to quickly hike the 4 extra miles and joined back up with us. We continued our way up the river.

Here is a great view of the the bottom of the "Mother in-law" rapids.

Right above the "Mother in-law" rapids my wife caught here first fish. It was this Brown Trout. She was so proud of this fish but not proud enough to touch it. I held it up to her and took this picture.

Here is a nice Brown trout I caught right above "Mother in-law"

This is around mile 3 of 7 miles. I really like this view of the river.

Once we got to this point (mile marker 3) it was about 3:30 pm. We have been fishing for 8 and a half hours and have only covered 3 miles and had 4 more miles to go. We decided that we need to pick up the pace and start hustling out before it got to late. Because I was focused on fishing during the first 3 miles I really didn't pick up on the temperature nor was I tired from the hike. But once we took that fun out of the hike which was fishing and focused on just this hike I started to slowly feel the heat and started to feel my legs and feet wearing out.

Each mile we hiked I felt myself slowing down. Inside my waders right were the neoprene sock is sown to the canvas wader the seam was rubbing my leg and really started to hurt. At the bottom of my wading boots I have spikes and every spike was a pressure point on the bottom of my feet and they started to hurt. Hiking in waders and wading boots for a long period of time is not recommended. I felt myself really starting to wear out and was counting down the miles markers as we saw them. I was so excited to finally see this final mile marker.

With only 1 more mile to go I found some extra energy to finish the 7 mile stretch. During this final mile we started to see anglers fishing the river bank and they all were so friendly and chipper.

We finally made it to the dam and I was so grateful. We made it back to the dam at 6:30 pm and during our 11 and a half hours of fishing I only caught 10 fish. This was the slowest day I have ever had fishing the Green River. Even though the fishing was slow, my legs were gashed open from my waders and my feet hurt due to the studs on the bottom, but I was still very grateful that I had just fished and walked 7 miles along side my favorite river.

There is a saying that the Japanese say about hiking Mount Fuji and that is: "You are a fool for not hiking to the top of Mount Fuji in your lifetime but even a bigger fool doing it more than once". I feel this to be the same as this 7 mile stretch. I would recommend that you have the chance of doing it once but then never doing it again.

Weber River Fishing (October 10, 2011)

This morning I went fishing on the Weber River. I had the great honor to fish with Thomas Huber and Chris Greenwood (competitors and winners of the 2011 Big Fish Challenge). Thomas and Chris fished all three rivers of the competition and proved that they are Rock Star River Anglers. Today is my chance to fish with them and finally get to see them in action.

We got on the river around 7:15 am. Within a few casts Chris caught the first catch of the day which was a monster 20 3/4" Brown (biggest fish caught for the day), what a great way to start the morning.

I started doing what I know best and that is jig fishing. I jigged for the first 20-30 mins of the morning and quickly realized that my form of fishing on the Weber is not as effective as Chris and Tom's because I hadn't caught anything nor had a bite. At this point Chris and Tom had caught at least 5 fish each. "When in Rome do as the Romans do" came to mind so I took off my jig and tied up the spinner that Tom and Chris were using. I started fishing alongside them trying to learn their technique. Both Chris and Tom were very helpful and started to teach me. I felt like a golfer that was changing his golf swing. To me everything was off and at first it was hard to adjust. With some time I started to catch some fish and was slowly figuring things out. Often Chris and Tom caught fish at the same time.

These guys like to keep it fair so whenever they get into a good looking fishing hole they will do a 1,2,3 count and all cast at the same time. One time I remember all three of us doing this and all three of us caught a fish at the same time.

We got to about 3/4 of the way up river when I felt like I had finally figured it out and started catching fish close to the masters. Within 30 mins I had doubled my catch total and was looking for more. This is about the time I caught my biggest fish for the day.

I caught a Brown Trout measuring 18 3/4" (look at that sweet hooked jaw).

Tom caught the second biggest fish of the day and it was this nice 19 3/4" Brown.

Tom and Chris continued to catch nice fish and proved to me that these guys are master river anglers. It has been a long time since I have been out-fished (I was schooled and served up a nice slice of humble pie).

Tom and Chris, thank you so much for an awesome fishing day on the Weber River!

Lower Provo River Fishing (September 15, 2011)

I finally was able to get up early and go fishing on the Lower Provo River. I have had a few friends that have fished the Provo between the last time I went out and they had a hard time catching fish. This scared me a bit wondering if things have slowed down so this morning I wanted to see what how I would do.

It was light enough to fish at around 6:35 am but I didn't get on the river until about 6:50 am. The morning started out slow it was looking like I was going to follow my friend's footsteps until I hooked the first fish which was a nice 15" Rainbow. I continued to fish and caught another 15" Rainbow then I caught the catch of the morning a rare 20" Walleye (shown below). This fish hit hard and hunkered down on the bottom of the river holding strong. I finally got him to the banks and couldn't believe my catch. With his big mouth he swallowed my jig deep and I was barely able to grab the head of the jig with my fingers to get it out. After I caught the Walleye I caught one additional 15" Rainbow and this finished out my 1 hour of morning fishing before I had to get to work. This morning was a good morning of fishing. Before today I have only seen one other Walleye caught and that was by my 10 year old son earlier in the season.

Green River Fishing (August 12, 2011)

A friend and I got to Little Hole parking lot around 5:15 am. It was still dark and we were the first ones to park. We got all of our gear ready and took the upper trail that leads you on a 45 minute hike down section B to Grasshopper Island. We made it to Grasshopper Island a little after 6 am and waded across the river to access the tip. The good fishing waters is from the tip of the Island working the right side bank on down to the bottom. We fished this stretch of water for about 2.5 hours and I caught 17 fish. The fish were all Brown trout but a few and all were under 16 1/2". I was surprised that out of 17 fish not one of them was over 17".

We waded back across the river and started working our way back up river to little hole around 9 am. The Green river is funny that if you are fishing from the banks from 9 am onto 5 pm it is like someone turns the fish catching light switch off. From 9 am - 12:30 pm we continued to fish various holes back up to little hole and I had 5 additional fish on the line but didn't land a single one.

From this experience and many others like it I won't typically fish from the banks between 9 am - 5 pm. Fishing will pick back up from the banks after 5 pm - dusk.

I would really like to know why fishing from the banks dies off between 9 am and 5 pm. One theory is that when the sun comes out and the water heats up the fish move from the middle of the river and work their way to the banks. This is why wade fishing is bad between these times but if you are fishing from a boat you will continue to have success because you can cast out to either bank and work the lure back to the boat primarily catching most of the fish from the banks.

Lower Provo River Fishing (August 24, 2011)

I got up to the Lower Provo River this morning early at around 5:40 and it was still dark. I got my line setup and gear ready and walked down to the fishing hole. It was still very dark and hard to see. I first started with the jig and it was hard to see what I was doing and I casted about 8 times with the jig and caught nothing. I did bring an extra spin rod with a Silver Blue Fox spinner on it so I tried it out. I figured in the dark it would do good because it puts of a vibration. On my first cast I caught a fish. I reeled the fish to the banks near my feet and as soon as it got close to me it came off my line and it was still dark that I never got to see what it was. I continued to cast with the spinner and hooked a fish on my 5th cast and it got off then on about my 8th cast it got snagged on the bottom of the river which I couldn't get undone so I lost my spinner. At this point it was 6:20 am and now it is finally light enough to see the jig so I went to my jigging rod and started again. It didn't take long until I caught my first fish and it was a 16" Rainbow.

I continued to fish and caught a fish right in the middle of the river deep off the bottom. The fish stayed low in the water and wasn't moving much at this point I know that it was a big fish. I started to reel in the fish and he continued to stay at the bottom of the river and held his own as I started to get him closer to the river bank he started to fight. After a little bit of work I managed to get the fish out of the water and it was a really nice 18 1/4" Rainbow.

It was a good morning fishing. Between the times of 6:00 am - 7:45 am I ended up catching 9 fish total (7 Rainbows and 2 Browns).

Lower Provo River Fishing (August 11, 2011)

This morning I went fishing with a friend (Jason) from my neighborhood along with his father (DK) and brother (Aaron). We parked at the river around 5:50 am and with a little bit of training we got on the river with our first cast at around 6:15 am. I was surprised how much colder it is getting in the morning and I can see my breath. The fishing started and ended slow for us. Between me working with each angler and fishing some of my own I was able to catch two fish one nice 16 1/2" Rainbow and a small Brown. DK was able to catch a nice 17" Rainbow and Aaron had 5 on his line but was not able to land them. We were fishing with barbless hooks and it takes some time getting familiar with the technique of how to keep the fish on. The morning was a slow fishing morning but still a good one. I will be heading up the the Green River Thursday afternoon and will be fishing Friday all-day and some on Saturday. Saturday is the Big Fish Challenge Green River event.

Lower Provo River Fishing (August 5, 2011)

I went back to where I left off yesterday. I parked my car at about 5:55 am and started walking down to the hole. This hole on the river looked ideal for jigging. I had a fish hit the jig hard and pulled my tip down I tried to set the hook and release my drag and after doing all of that it was off. I was upset with the fish coming off because I felt from how it hit and ran that it was big. I fished this spot for over an hour and only caught a 10" German Brown. I had 30 minutes before I had to take off for work so I went to a familiar spot on the river and caught 3 fish in 15 mins. I caught one 17 1/2" Brown and two 17" plus rainbows.

I got some good photos and a video of the Brown trout that I caught.

Lower Provo River Fishing (August 4, 2011)

Another morning on the Lower Provo River. I got on the river about 5:45 am and the fishing started out slow. On about my 10th cast I hooked a fish but wasn't able to land it. I continued to fish and hooked another but couldn't bring it to shore. About 15 mins on the river I finally hooked and landed a 17" Rainbow. I continued to fish and caught and landed 2 additional Rainbows between 16"-17".

I started moving down river to some other spots and caught the catch of the morning. This fish fought hard and took the line down river. I walked down the river banks following the fish down so it wouldn't break my line or get away. I caught up with the fish and was able to bring it to shore. This fish was fat with some good length to it. The fish measured just under 18" and I wish I had a scale to measure its weight. This fish got my adrenalin running and was great to catch.

(18" Rainbow and me with a goofy smile)

I ended up hooking 8 fish and landed 5 Rainbows. I packed up and got back into my car and moved down the road. I walked down the trail for about 250 yards and found a really nice hole. I fished this hole for the remaining time and hooked 2 but didn't land any. Maybe next time I get out to fish I will have to ignore my favorite spot and start here first because I know that there will be some great fish to catch here in the future. Until next time, Happy Fishing!

Lower Provo River Fishing (July 30, 2011)

This morning is Saturday and this day I will be fishing with my son (Bryton), a friend from work and his two boys. My friend and his boys are new to river fishing so today I will be their guide. First I worked on teaching them the philosophy and fishing technique of jig fishing. After a little bit of work they all figured it out and started to catch fish. We worked one section for about 2 hours and we ended up catching 10 fish. One of the fish that I caught came as a suprise to me when I saw it was a small mouth bass. I have heard of small mouth bass being in this river but I have never caught one. This is a bad photo but still you can see it is a smallmouth bass from the red in the eye.

(Smallmouth Bass)

We got in our cars and went down to another spot on the river. I specifically brought my friend and his boys to this spot just to teach them how to read river patterns. This spot was a great example of a river seam and I explained to them to look for these seams because fish will be sitting next to them in the calmer part of the river looking into the seam waiting for food to float through. I told them to cast their jig just past the seam into the swifter section on the river and then float the jig down the seam. We stayed at this spot for about 30 mins but didn't catch anything.

We got back into our cars and moved further down river. We fished this new section for about an hour and the fishing was slow but one of my friend's son caught a Brown and I was able to catch 3 Browns. We had a good morning fishing and were able to catch 14 fish total. Even though I spent most of the time working with them and watching their technique I was still able to catch half of the total fish caught.

Lower Provo River Fishing (Sculpin Discovery) - July 29, 2011

This morning I started my day were I left off on July 23. The fishing was slow but I know I would be able to catch some fish here. I hooked 7 and landed 4 German Browns. All of the fish were visibly less than 15" so I didn't even bother with measuring them on the Hawg Trough. I did try and take a picture of one but by the time I got the camera out and ready he came off my line.

I did discover something very interesting worth reporting. When I was wading through the river I noticed a small dead fish on the bottom of the river. The fish looked different from a small trout so my curiosity was peeked and I reached into the water and pulled it out.

Here are some pictures that I took of it:

At first glance I thought this was a baby catfish due to the wide head and mouth. But, I didn't think that catfish existed in the Provo River so my second guess was a Sculpin.

Just a few weeks ago I went fishing to a lake between Vernal and Flaming Gorge called Caulder Lake. My friend Jordan Gallespie took me there. Jordan is a fly fisherman and guides on Utah Rivers and I have always been curious to what bug a jig mimiked so I asked him. He told me that it wasn't a bug that it mimiked but a fish called a Sculpin that lives in Utah waterways.

So from this new information that I had learned about a Sculpin I wondered if this was a Sculpin that I found. When I got back to a computer I did a google search on Sculpins and found this really good resource that proved to me that this fish that I found dead at the bottom of the river was in fact Sculpin.

---

http://www.flyfishusa.com/flies/sculpins.htm

Sculpins are small bottom dwelling fish that inhabit most trout streams. There are dozens of fresh water species in North America. Locally, there are three species, which are native to the Sandy River basin and several others that are native to the Deschutes basin. Size and color varies by specie and habitat. Mature freshwater Sculpins are usually from 1 1/2" to 4" in length and range through most of the shades of tan, brown and olive.

Sculpins have large flat heads. The eyes are set rather close together on top of the skull. Body conformation is long and narrow. All of the fins, including the tail are rounded. The pectoral fins are unusually large.

Body coloration is dappled to camouflage with the streambed. Sculpins are chameleon-like and change color quickly to match their surroundings.

Sculpins do not have air bladders, so they are confined to the bottom. Here they hunt and hide in near lizard-like fashion. They eat a variety of aquatic organisms, but are specifically designed to raid other fish's redds. They enjoy wriggling down between the stones to capture eggs and fry. The result is kind of like the lion/hyena wars. Trout probably grow up hating Sculpins. Some larger trout become Sculpin killers and will often eat them. In our region larger individuals of cutthroat, brown trout, rainbow trout and bull trout will eat Sculpins. Both summer and winter steelhead have been known to dine on fillet of Sculpin. Big resident rainbows in Alaska and Russia's Kamchatka eat large numbers of Sculpins.

The next time you wade your favorite trout stream, look for dead Sculpins on the bottom; possible evidence of a big trout killing spree. Or better yet fish a Sculpin pattern with a very fast sinking fly line. You may find some larger than average trout.

Lower Provo River fishing (July 23, 2011)

Another good morning fishing the Lower Provo River. It is Saturday and my son Bryton came along with me. It is always good to have a fishing buddy especially if that buddy is your son.

We started the morning early getting on the river early at 5:45 am. The fishing wasn't as hot as it was on July 21st but still we had some great results. I caught 7 fish at this spot. The fish in total were not as big as the ones I caught the other day but I think I caught the fattest 16 1/2" Rainbow in my fishing history. This fish was so fat I really had a hard time holding the fish in one hand for this photo.

Here are a few extra photos of some of the fish caught below the dam.

We went down river to try out some other spots and didn't have any luck. One thing that I learned that I thought was interesting was I found a pretty decent stream flowing into the Provo just above the Tunnel. I can see that this really changed the flow for the river below its input. I'm not sure what this stream is called but I need to find out its name.

The river up river from this stream looked perfect for jigging so we finished out the morning there. We spent about 1 hour fishing this spot and was surprised that we didn't catch anything. I thought for sure we would have caught some fish here because the flow and depth of the water is ideal for jigging. We tried different jig color patterns with no luck. I know that this spot will produce some good catches in the future so I will be back later to try it again.

Lower Provo River Fishing (July 21, 2011)

This morning I fished the Lower Provo River. In the first hour of fishing I hooked 13 fish and landed 10. All of the fish were nothing but rainbows. I couldn't believe their sizes. All of them were 16" or bigger and the biggest one was this 19" beauty.

I spent the next hour trying out some different waters and hooked 3 and finally landed a nice German Brown. Catching 10 Rainbows and 1 Brown is a great way to start a day.

BIG FISH CHALLENGE - Provo River (July 16, 2011)

PROVO RIVER 2011 BIG FISH CHALLENGE

Saturday July 16 we had our first competition on the Provo River. Our base camp was located at Nunns Park Pavilion 1. The competition was an all day event from 7 am - 6 pm. The allowed fishing zone was from Deer Creek dam down to Olsmstead diversion (6 miles of river).

The weather was perfect a little cold in the morning but warmed up to a 90 degrees by the afternoon. The river flows all season has been crazy but this day they were perfect at around 490 cfs.

Winders Farms sponsored the breakfast that morning and right after the fisherman checked-in the grabbed a bit to eat they quickly headed out to start the day of fishing on the river. All of the participants checked in before 8 am. We had 10 participants total.

(Thank you Winder Farms for the breakfast!!)

After everyone had checked in and were out fishing I didn't hear from anyone else for hours. Around 10 am  one angler (Matt Landheim) checked back in around 10 am and he had caught a 14 1/4" brown and since he was the only one with results he instantly became the leader. Unfortunately he had to leave the competition early so he could get back home to help with an AC guy.

(Matt Landheim 14 1/4" Brown)

Around 11:30 am the fisherman started to check back in and by noon we had Pie Hole pizza delivered and it was delicious. During lunch we downloaded the images from the cameras and judged the results. After we had reviewed all of the results we had a change in leadership.

(Chris Greenwood 17 1/2" Rainbow)

(Thomas Huber 17 1/4" Rainbow)

After lunch the fisherman went back onto the river to finish out the competition. Up until 5:30 pm things were quit at base camp. During this time we found things to keep us entertained like playing cards. I had a great volunteer support group and I was very grateful for their help.

Around 5:30 pm fisherman started to come back and the final judging began. After we had reviewed all of the final results the leader board changed once again.

Tomas Huber caught the biggest fish of the competition. He caught a 18 1/4" Rainbow. This catch won Thomas a Hendrix Outdoors Wader, Fenwick Eagle GT Fly Rod and a Plueger Medalist 1492 1/2 Fly Reel.

Chris Greenwood caught the second biggest fish. He caught a 17 1/2" Brown. This catch won Chris an assortment pack of Dynamic Lures.

The competition was a big success and everyone that participated told me how much fun they had. I thank all of the fisherman that participated in the event. I also want to thank all of the volunteers and sponsors.  I couldn't have done with competition without them.

Click here to see all of the final results of all of the participants:
http://bigfishchallenge.com/bfc/Results.aspx

Our next event will be Aug 13 at the Green River (Dutch John, UT). At this event we will fish The Green River's sections A-B and will allow the use of a boat. I'm really looking forward to this event.