Teva Games / Green River Trip

A few weeks ago, Thad and I did a little road trip through the Rocky Mountains. After leaving Thad's house in SLC, Utah, we headed to Vail, CO - home of the Teva Mountain Games. We had been invited by the crew at Costa Del Mar, who was sponsoring the Fly Fishing Competition and also showing free fishing movies all day during the event. The weather was awesome and the turnout for the competition and films was great too.

On Friday evening, Costa held a little gathering and had great food and drinks for all.

Costa Del Mar neck ties for everyone.

The Costa AirStream

On Saturday, Thad and I competed in the fly fishing competition, which consisted of distance and accuracy casting.

Preparing for round 2...the bridge of destiny.

We had left Sunday open in case one of us made it to the final round of the competition, it didn't happen. So what were we to do? Gather up our newly made friends from the Gore Creek Fly Fisherman and head to the upper Colorado, where news of gigantic, orange, flying bugs had made it all the way back to Vail.

The reports were true, Salmon Flies were around.

Jonathan Heard wanted to see what they tasted like.

And we even found a few fish...

An Olive 'Heavy Metal Sculpin' did the trick as well in the dirty water.

After the float, we spent one more night in town. At 6am, the alarm went off and we were on our way to Steamboat Springs, CO to meet up with John St. John from Hog Island Boat Works. John showed us around their facility and had invited us to fish the Green River below Flaming George for two days. So we hopped back in Thad's rig and kept driving...another 4 hours.

Mr. St John and friends inside the Hog Island Boats corporate headquarters.

Launching the new 16' Hog Island LTD.

We could hear the Cicada's buzzing in the trees, and the parking lots were relatively empty...time for our first float down the 'A' section.

Thad selecting his weapon of choice.

A brown that chomped a big dry.

That evening we crashed in Dutch John, a town with a lot going on. John St. John's buddy, Bomar Tipton, from Green River Drifters, lent us his couches and provided some excellent entertainment for the evening. Sorry no photos.

On day two, we awoke to warmer weather and blue skies, perfect for Cicada's.

Thad hoisting a dry fly caught Green River brown trout.

The fish were there and we had a number of eats on top, another great day. Near the end of our float, I convinced St. John to throw something big and meaty, he was a little skeptical about my fly choice, but was convinced when the fish below slammed his offering.

After the float, Thad and I hit the road back to SLC, where we watched the temp drop over 40 degrees. We woke up the next morning to fresh snow on the hills surrounding SLC. Thanks to everyone who made the trip a lot of fun!