I'm just glad it wasn't me

A certified Toad caught by Jerry

So the bad news is that neither Frank nor Bob has done much in the last few days to provide much entertaining blog material, the good news is that Jerry has.  So first we’ll catch you up on the trip.  We fished the Grey’s river from top to bottom with just OK results.  We all caught fish, but nothing really worth bragging about.  So we headed south and on a tip from a friend, went to a small river in southern Wyoming.  The countryside in that area is not much to look at and the towns have a real rough feel to them.  To give you a taste for the local towns, after going over the 5000 mile mark for the trip, the truck was in need of service so we pulled into the GMC dealer on Wednesday in Kimmerer to see if we could get the oil changed and we where told that if we could leave the truck with them, they could pull it off by Friday!  So we headed to the local restaurant for some lunch and the waitress decided to multitask and get the place vacuumed while we were having our lunch.  Needless to say, you don't Kimmerer for the service. Based on our not so warm reception we almost decided to go to one of our old standby rivers, the Green, just south of the Flaming Gorge.  We had all fished the Green before and thought it was worth fishing again, but after we had a look at this new stream, we decided to give it a try and it turned out to be a great decision.  We ended up fishing there for two days and it was wonderful.  We caught numerous big fish on dry flies and practically nobody else was fishing there.

Bob fishing the evening hatch.  Thanks for the tip Allan!

As time is starting to run short on our trip, we had to leave our new honey hole and keep heading south, so Friday morning we packed up to head out again.  While packing, Frank noticed that Jerry had left some of his fishing gear in the back of the truck and offered to pack it is his bag, an offer declined Jerry.  We continued to pack things up and then at some point Bob noticed that Jerry had left some of his fishing gear in the back of the truck and offered to pack them away in his bag and again Jerry declined. 

Small but colorful

So we headed down the road through some of the most barren landscape in the US that only an antelope could love.  The kind of place that begs the question, ”Who would choose to live here?”  As it turns out, we would soon meet some of those folks.  We just happened to be in a place where we had some cell phone coverage and Jerry’s phone rang.  It was his wife Shelia and she started to explain that someone named Ron had called and had found some of his fishing gear.  Jerry’s first thought was that he must have left something on the stream and that was now 2 hours behind us, but soon learned that it had been found in the middle of the road about 20 miles back.  Bob and Frank high fived and celebrated the new blog material.  Frank was especially moved and said to Bob, “Man, I’m so glad we have something to put in the blog and I’m jacked that it isn’t about me!”

The post office in beautiful down town Opal

So we made plans to meet up with Ron at the post office in Opal (pronounced O-Pal) to collect Jerry’s gear.  He said we could pick out the post office because it was the only building with a flag.  He was right, we circled the whole town in 35 seconds, and it was the only building with a flag.  Inside we found Ron conversing with his sister-in-law who was the postmaster.  Ron said he was happy to help and didn’t want anything for his trouble, but then decided $50 would cover it.

Jerry with Ron.  Thanks Ron.

With half of his gear recovered (there is a brand new set of waders somewhere near Kemmerer if you need a set) we headed on to Glenwood Springs.  We made it to Rock Springs for lunch and shopping for supplies.  A quick inspection of the trailer reveled a tire problem that required a replacement.  Unlike in Kimmerer, we found a shop in Rock Springs that fixed the tire and serviced the truck in under 45 minutes.  With the backtracking and the tire issues we arrived in Glenwood late and struggled to find a place to stay, but ended up with a nice spot at Anne’s Acers where we would spend the next 3 nights (with 7 trains a night) while we fished one of the most famous fly fishing rivers in the US, the Frying Pan.  You don’t get to fish the Frying pan by yourself unless you are a gozillionare and have your own stretch of river.  So we waded in with the rest of the crowd and started working on figuring out the river.  Bob and Jerry started with nymphs, but Frank saw some rising fish and went straight to dry flies and started catching fish.  Bob and Jerry switched over and soon we were all on the fish.  The hatch lasted about 7 hours and we caught fish until we were just too tired to fish anymore. 

Monday we once again loaded up and headed south.  We arrived at Jerry and Sheila’s cabin around 4pm and have settled in for the next couple of nights.  Tomorrow we will fish the West Fork of the Delores and then Wednesday we pick up Brad in Durango and head down to our final stop, the San Jaun River.

Rock Springs version of Nascar