Fishermen often have a healthy debate that goes something like this: "would I rather catch 3 - 8 inch fish or 1- 20 inch fish?" A good answer here may be: "It depends". What does it depend on? Your current state of mind, your confidence level, when the last time was you caught a 20 inch fish, how much you care about 8 inch fish, and many other items, just to name a few.
The Upper Green River flows from its confluence with the New River on the west slope of the Wind River Mountain Range, down through the town of Pinedale, WY, across large swaths of private property, and on to Fontenelle Reservoir. From there, it flows through the high plains of the dry desert of wild, wonderful, western Wyoming. It then flows through the town of Green River, WY into Flaming Gorge, a magnificently-colored, multi-canyon-based reservoir straddling the Utah/Wyoming border. It is from Flaming Gorge Dam downstream that the "blue ribbon" stretch of fishing really begins. The famous Section A and it's little brother Section B indeed host world class dry-fly fishing. Fishing for quality rainbows and browns is pretty amazing through here. However, this title alone attracts hoards of fishermen, literally from all over the world. The density of fish per mile on this 15 mile stretch is indeed high, but this has one unfortunate consequence: the average size of the fish caught is smaller - in some cases much smaller. Based on my recent floats down Section A, I would say the average fish size is 12-15". While still respectable, these are not the sizes you would expect historically on the Green River.
I was ready for some larger fish. I had heard that the Upper Green is the ticket, but that you would catch fewer fish overall because the numbers of fish is lower - possibly drastically lower. Could this be true? After 5 years of wondering and guessing and hearing rumors from other fishermen, I decided to find out. On July 27, 2024, I and some intrepid fishing buddies set out to southwest Wyoming to get our own data on this stream. Kevin Chavira, Zach Hegewald, Emmett Hegewald, and myself set off in our drift boat to the tailwaters below Fontanelle Dam to see if this was the case. Kevin is a former professional salmon fishing guide in Alaska. Zach is my nephew. Emmett is my great nephew. We floated a 10 mile stretch, accompanied by bald eagles, ospreys, antelope, swallows, snakes, and the occasional free range cow (sometimes brave enough to fjord the river). It was calm and beautiful country, with only 3 other fishing boats that we saw the entire time (compared to the 50 boats we would have typically seen on Section A - I'll take that tradeoff any day!).
Overall, the theory held true: the fish were fewer, but their average size was definitely larger. We were on a learning curve the entire day, as we missed many fish and took some time to dial in on the flies and lures they wanted, as well as what type of water really did hold fish. I would definitely go back again, given the chance!
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| Nice brown (actually from the Provo) |
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| The Dauntless, at take-off. No, I didn't bring my daughter on the trip, to her dismay... |
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| Kevin, showing his 21" rainbow, caught on the cricket pattern. |
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| Beautiful rainbow! |
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| Zakarea showing us his goods: an 19" rainbow |
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| Zak, you're not a fish dude. |
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| The fishing crew |
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| Team Hegewald on the Upper Green |
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| A 13" rainbow, caught on the cricket |
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| Zak's secret weapon - the crocodile. |
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| 18" rainbow caught on the Rapalla. |
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| Well done Zak! |
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| Practicing our mends on the lower section |
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| The final large hole before docking and finishing the great float we had. |
On August 29, 2025, we went back to the Upper Upper Green River once more. We decided to mix it up and fish a stretech from Big Piney, WY to La Barge, WY. And what a "stretch" that stretch was - what we thought was 9 miles turned into 15! We certainly didn't account for the circuitous nature of the braided and meandering Upper Upper Green River this time. So it really became extended, just like last time - also just like last time, it was a trip with more quality than quantity. We caught 4 fish across 3 fishermen over 10 hours on the water. Many bites and takes also ensued, but we all know those don't count. It is a river full of mystery - deep pools, long tail-outs, wide riffles - but fish that are pretty picky. I'm committed to continuing to learn more about it and how to catch trophy trout from these physical and symbolic depths.
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