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Literary accounts of fishouts in the recent past,
to make you sorry you didn't go.

Roostercomb Ranch Fishout 2004
By Cecilia Stipes

The 4th annual trip to Roostercomb Ranch proved to be one of the best years yet for bass fishing success. Everyone agreed the warmer weather conditions warmed the waters, activated the bass, and created lots of thrilling hook-ups in all the ponds. This year's roster of participants included Dougald and Virginia Scott, Pat Murray, Gil Santos, Elaine Cook, Lee Fitzsimmons, Kent Hull, Harry Petrakis, Richard Lyness, Jack and son, Max Lyness, Tom Pelikan, Dick and Cecilia Stipes and 2 grandsons, Sam (15) and Jeff (11). Our ranch host was Scott Wilkinson who was assisted by 3 friends: Brian, Dane, and Larry.

Our 20-mile drive into the ranch this time was not as dramatic as last year's when one of the vehicles buried its engine in deep water while crossing a seemingly benign creek. This year our caravan halted 3/4th into the journey for a rear wheel brake shoe repair on Harry's Chevy Tahoe. At the end of 2 days of fishing, the energy was high on the days' successes. Harry did well fishing nymphs from shore much of the time, reeling up many of the largest bass I've seen yet. Richard Lyness and cousin and nephew, Jack and Max, had fun riding about the ranch hills scaling the steep terrain in his little white Kia. At one point the Kia had to be rescued by Scott and Dane who towed it with their ATVs up a steep grade, which Richard likened the angle of incline to "climbing a ladder".(This is the second year Rich claimed his Kia had "limited 4WD"! Rich, I think it's time to retire the Kia.) Elaine reported, "more water in the ponds, more eager fish and they did seemed to grow since last year. Gil, our more than capable chauffeur, carted Lee, Pat and me from pond to pond over hill and dale. He dutifully listened to our stories that included Pat trying to do a swan dive into her new float tube that was leaking air, Lee's quandary of how she could possibly get in enough time for both hunting and fishing, and me going off about how each self-made popper successfully worked. What a foursome!"
Tom Pelikan couldn't say enough about the success he had using his white gurgler, which he attached to his "Hall of Fame" hat for only his best flies. Harry Petrakis surprised everyone at Mustang when he stripped down to swim trunks, goggles, snorkel and fins and took a refreshing swim searching for fish. What a sight! With each dive, his blue fins followed his body downward like sinking ships, or was that "water ballet", Harry? Tom saw a perfect photo opportunity and set up a humorous photo with his white gurgler in Harry's mouth, captioning it "You catch the darnedest things with a "gurgler"!
Dougald and Virginia balanced their Roostercomb visit with a blend of fishing, hiking and swimming. On Sunday they got an early start before the heat of the day reached its peak of 101-degrees. They hiked along the Roostercomb ridge overlooking the ranch then down along the Orestimba Creek where finally they cooled off in some deep, clear pools, rested and enjoyed some quiet reading time. On Sunday, I was guided up the canyon riding ATV with Scott, Dane, Brian and Larry. Led by Scott, the men escorted me up a narrow, steep canyon along a tiny creek leading to waterfalls and pools holding wild trout. Fortunately I had brought my new 3-wt. bamboo cane rod, a few blue-winged olives and Henryville caddis. It was physically demanding to climb some of these boulders but I had help from Scott and Dane who lifted and dragged me up the more difficult boulders. Scott promptly commented, "It wasn't a pretty sight, but you made it!" The effort was well worth it for the thrill to catch and release these beautiful small fish. The largest Rainbow was a hefty 12 inches. That was exciting!
Evening gatherings on the front porch were always fun, listening to the day's events, humorous tales, highlights and adventures. There was plenty of laughter, wonderful food, smoky barbecues and drink to go around, and then some! Finally, our full-moon evenings ended with serenades from the gentle music of Richard Lyness' concertina. This year was another great Roostercomb experience for all.

Sixteen brave members headed out for the annual trip to the Green River. We arrived on Saturday, May 8th, to shorts and T-shirt weather, the river flowing at 800 cfs., and many fish willing to play. After a quick stop at Trout Creek Flies to drop off gear and get Utah fishing licenses, we all headed to the river and caught fish. We thought we had it made until we found out that the water was going to be raised to 1500 cfs Saturday night, and another 1500 cfs Sunday night. That usually puts the fish out of their usual feeding spots and makes the fishing much harder.
Sunday the fishing was slow, so on Monday several of us fanned out to different waters. Dougald and Harry went up the Sheep Creek Loop, but couldn't get in to Brownie Lake because of a snow drift that was too high to get over. Pat and I went with our friend, Doug Burton, to Jones Hole Creek and had a lot of fun stalking fish to 17 inches in ankle to knee-deep water, in a very small stream. It was new country to us, in Dinosaur National Park, with beautiful canyons, the walls of which were painted with ancient Indian petroglyphs. Tony and Linda went to Flaming Gorge Lake, at the Mustang campground, and caught some nice rainbows, and had a couple of breakoffs that could have been cruising lake trout.

The fish settled down after a couple of days of high water and fishing perked up. There were blue wing olive hatches in the afternoons, and the fish started looking up and taking things off the surface. The days we did the drift trips were good; I learned a new nymphing technique, and the day Kathy and I went together, we had one of those days when you couldn't do anything wrong (except break a few fish off on 7X tippet-my bad!).
We stayed at Denny's Trout Creek Flies lodge, right down in Dutch John this year, instead of Flaming Gorge Lodge, and it worked out very well. Denny and Grace Breer went out of their way to make us comfortable, and even fed us dinner, which was special because their cafe usually closes at around 3:00 PM. We were much closer to the river and the rooms were larger and more comfortable. Scheduling the trip a week later than in years past, we had better weather than we have in the last five years, with just a touch of popcorn snow one morning, and very little rain during the whole week.
Everyone in the group got fish and usual, we all had a great time. It is always a learning experience, even for those of us who have been going for years.

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