This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Guides and volunteers have been helping the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources conduct bi-annual electrofishing surveys on the Green River below Flaming Gorge Reservoir for years. Here's a report from Ryan Kelly - the Green River Fly Fisher - and his very astute daughter from Monday and Tuesday night this week.
It's always more exciting under the lights. At least that is what I thought growing up playing sports. I was really an introverted bug geek trapped in a coordinated athletic body. Perhaps my greatest coordination was the ability to slip out of class at the right moment to catch a hatch for an hour and then get back to school with little visibility. Nowadays the "under the lights" excitement is caused by electrofishing on the Green. My geekdom doesn't include video games or code writing, well, sometimes it does involve code writing, it mostly consists of bugs. Not computer bugs, but real bugs, the kind that trout love. My eldest offspring has extrinsically shown an intrinsic love for this kind of science. The two of us spent much of the night pumping stomachs to determine if Rainbow trout and Brown trout like to eat the same thing. This is a science fair project I can get into. Eight foot tall (it seems that way when your short) conservation officer Jack Lytle asked if they ate the same thing and this is how my daughter responded, "Yes! and No!" her intonation was extremely animated. "Rainbows eat stuff closer to the bottom. Like algae, larva, scuds, and some pupa. Browns eat stuff closer to the surface like midge pupa, midge adults, and BWO adults." Her answer was the result of our spillway observations. Down at Little Hole we found similar data. Larger Brown trout ate adult BWO's exclusively with only a few other few items found. Rainbows continued to have lots of algae with lots of midge pupa and BWO nymphs inside. Midge and BWO adults were sporadic findings in Rainbows. Browns were more likely to have other food items such as worms or large larva not belonging to the smaller midges. We found midges anywhere from a size 14 down to a 26 in myriad colors. We found BWO's anywhere from a 14 down to a 20 with most being in the 16-18 range. Turns out everything likes Sculpin including my daughter. Holding a live Sculpin was the highlight of her night.
The health of the fish was outstanding. There were tons of girthy trout, some of which looked like a citified 20 something littered with piercings. It was free fly night. The data showed that 6X tippet does not effectively hold 3 pound rainbows. Someone commented that one of the Bows must be spawning it was so fat. Nope, it was a five inch long Sculpin wishing the female would perform live child birthing and let him out.
On a pure fishing note. The BWO hatch has moved it's way up the river and is primarily on the A section. There are a few on B and very few on C. Midge hatches remain strong. The human hatch has started as well so be prepared to share the river with a few friends.
The video came from a survey in 2010 during the fall survey