Hays Family Diary: Big Fish

Nathan and I had a legendary trip to Flaming Gorge.

Since I was a young boy I remember dad telling me stories about Flaming Gorge and the gigantic lake trout roaming the deep submerged canyons and famous fishing holes like: antelope flats, pipe line, anvil, hide out and many others. Dad also told me a story he read in Out Door Life magazine that talked about Ray Johnson. The story goes that he spent the entire year living in a cave along the shores of Flaming Gorge, suffering the terrible storms of Wyoming. He would fish day and night for the elusive lake trout and he made a diary of how many lakers twenty pounds and over, where he caught them and what he caught them with. I remember dad saying he would not where gloves because the slightest pull on the line would indicate a giant from the deep had taken the bait.

Now was the time that Nathan and I would have to fish these same waters. Even better we were going fishing with some friends of mine who has caught many twenty plus lake trout. They have been fishing this lake for years and know where the lunkers hang out, what bait they will go for. They also have a nice boat and the latest fish finders and GPS systems.

We left home early on a Thursday morning and arrived on the lake at 10 am. We got in the boat in the water and headed off to Antelope Flats. As we slowed the boat and circled the area looking for lake trout on the fish finder and plotting our course with the gps we noticed a small boat with a single person in it. Dan (our host and guide) picked up his binoculars and looked at the fisherman and said, “ there’s Johnson”. I asked him, “Do you mean Ray Johnson”? “Yes but we will keep our distance, he’s a crazy old hermit who had a dispute with another fisherman about a fishing hole and was never seen of again”. Not long after we arrived at Antelope Flats Johnson pulled up and left to another fish hole. Now let the story be told to my some day grandchildren that we had kicked the great Ray Johnson off his fishing hole!

Now the game was on! Could we catch an elusive 20 plus pound laker? Dan told us that it takes the average fisherman 100 hours of fishing for the big fish before they land their fist big one. We were instructed to lower our lure (a giant 9 inch rubber rainbow trout look alike that weighed about a pound) to the bottom and then pull it up five cranks on the reel. From there the lures would imitate a school of rainbow trout swimming along the bottom. Next we would all stare intently on the fish finder screen waiting for the signal of a giant laker to come up off the bottom and head for our lures. Dan would say, “fish coming up” and all of us would bend our knees, feet apart, fishing poll tipped down ready to explode our fish set with the slightest of bumps to our line. The problem was we did not know which of the four lures the fish was following so everyone had to be ready. This created a knot in my stomach for I new there was a chance of the biggest fish of my life.

On Friday morning we were fishing for big lakers when I got my first hit. I exploded, springing my legs and lifting the tip of my pole high in the air he was on! He let me know he was there as he bent my pole in half and ran out line down to the bottom. I was able to lift my pole tip up and reel down. Then he was off. It wasn’t more than two minutes I had him on but my heart was racing and I was excited to try again. Then my second chance came, once again I went through the actions as I hooked him and he bent my pole again. This time he must have been on for five minutes before he got off. This would be the last time I would be able to hook a big fish on the trip. But Dan hook a twenty ponder and brought him in. He wanted me to hold the fish and get a picture with Nathan and I. The next day Derrick hooked and landed a twenty-five pound lake trout.

Nathan has turned into quite a fisherman, he out fished his old man and caught five smaller lakers on our trip and I only caught one. He was the first in our family to catch a fish by using the jigging technique and stayed out on the water as long as any of the other guys. He was definitely part of the clan and looks to return to Flaming Gorge for another legendary trip.