18 September 2010
Up early in the morning today – we should get to Wyoming and be fishing the Smith’s Fork River by late today – hopefully we can get MS his first Bonneville cutt right away for the cuttslam!
But first, MS has to have the local Ford dealer look at his pickup this morning – a transmission overheat light has come on and the gear shifting (it’s an automatic) doesn’t feel right. We return to Denny’s for a quick breakfast – fortunately by the time we are done, the dealer reports back that it was just a tripped signal, they had reset it, and the shifting seems to be OK now! Possibly the drive over Deadman’s Pass had caused the overtemp signal but all seemed to be well now. After re-fueling the rigs as well as ourselves, we head onward to Wyoming. The CB’s have not been working up to our standard so we stop and fiddle with them (again) and we hope to get them settled in soon!
Going thru the town of Jerome, Idaho we see an Ace Hardware store and MS wants to stop and see if he can find a new rubber gasket for his CB antenna. AB, MS and JR disassemble the antenna and replace the worn gasket. Tightening it back on MS puts a small gouge in his paint…bummer. Testing shows it still is not working so back off and a little fidgeting with the contact tab, but very gently as we don’t want to break it off. More testing and still no go. AB takes a break and goes in search of a bathroom, MS and JR continue working and JR notices the antenna is not threading properly onto the post. By carefully doing a little back threading, JR gets it to seat properly and…Voila!..Success!! We pick up ice and sandwiches from the adjoining grocery store and back on the road. The fiddling seems to have worked as we are getting better reception as we head into Montpelier, Idaho about 12:15. The big National Oregon/California Trail Center is there but we don’t stop today (GK has seen it and recommends it!)
Reaching the Wyoming state border at 12:45, we have only 10 miles to our next motel destination in Cokeville which we reach at 12:55 (elevation 6,101 feet). We had a little coaching from a trucker right behind us on the CB alerting us to where the local police like to sit to capture some additional town revenue via speeding tickets – we are careful and, fortunately, don’t attract the local gendarmes. A big Thank You to the anonymous trucker in the white 18 wheeler following us!
We check in at the Hideout Motel (Seth and Angie Boyer, 10763 US Highway 30 Cokeville, WY 83114 307-279-3281 or 1-800-770-5845 http://www.hideoutmotel.com) which has WiFi in the rooms and, if you look carefully, a DSL hookup! WooHoo! (Do real cowboys now carry laptops in their saddle bags on the horses?) After unpacking the rigs, we gear up and head for the Smith’s Fork arriving at the Clark Ranch about 20 minutes later (it is unlikely that I would make a mistake, but I am assuming they moved the entrance road from the outskirts of town back to the middle of town since we were here in 2004, since we spent a few minutes roaming around looking for the road,….. with the CB crackling with "no, it’s to the left…..no, it’s back in town").
We stop in at the ranch house and talk with Eva and give her our rod fees and some smoked salmon- with our hopes high, we head across a field where Lowell and Paul are putting up hay bales. This is about the same location we put into the river in 2004 with great results. According to Paul, we shouldn’t expect to meet anyone else on the river. The fishing group staying with them at their Clark’s B&B (actually just "B" as they have dropped the breakfast option) was fishing on the Ham’s Fork that day. At the mention of the Ham’s Fork, JR’s ears prick up and he starts asking about fishing access and locations. Paul tells JR he had heard separate reports that the Ham’s Fork was also fishing well and to stay downstream of the ranger cabin below the campground as the fish get smaller the further up you go.
Rigging up with 3 and 4 weight rods, we proceed to the river to get MS his Bonneville Cutthroat for the Cuttslam! Now we are fishing "Wyoming Cuttslam Rules" which means no one fishes until those people missing their cutthroat trout catch one. We are all there for support – of course, no judgementalism (yeah, right!)….So I help "guide" MS through the first good looking corner pool; we choose a small 14 Adams parachute as a general attractor; he has a rise…..Ah!..but $#@$$@#!!...missed him!...It’s OK as there’s the next corner pool.…another cast….another pool….another rise, a hook up and …Oh! A Long Distance Release (LDR)! Oh Curses!!....it’s OK – stay calm – no one is watching; no pressure (yeah sure)….another corner pool…another cast followed by a rise and a HOOKUP! Bring him to the net; YES! We have a picture!! Now MS may have felt some pressure but I am sure no one else did….Hah! However, a Bonneville Cutt with the appropriate DNA is in the camera, our electronic creel if you will! Now it was not a trophy "size" critter but it did have trophy DNA!! Everyone now is free to fish and we proceed to do so!! Of course, with first day jitters, I forget my camera so I can’t shoot the fish I catch but…..c’est la vie! I don’t worry – there are many more fish to catch…..if I knew then what I know now…..
We fished until about 8pm with overall conditions harder than expected (and remembered) fishing – probably the biggest one today was only 12 inches, however, Mike did get a Bonneville cutt (maybe a baby but…remember for the Cuttslam, this is only a DNA test!)
We head back into town a little puzzled by the fishing result but looking forward to dinner at Blondie’s in Cokeville (http://www.facebook.com/BlondiesDiner). Their double swiss cheese mushroom burger was excellent –JR of course has the ubiquitous Chicken Fried Steak (CFS) (JR gives it two beaks of his five beak rating system. To say JR loves CFS is an understatement! As we shall see in the days to come, he’ll order it every time it’s on the menu, be it breakfast, lunch or dinner, I’m just glad he has such a great Cardiologist back home. The weather is turning stormy as we head back to the motel (literally a walk across the highway) – we’ll decide our plans in the morning depending on the conditions.
