Finished up with Thanksgiving Day thursday night and prepared to fish the Gorge. I left that night, around 9 pm and my plan was to fish Firehole for two nights. I found out that the weather report was not going to be correct when I climbed the first Sister Hill on I-80 in Wyoming. [unimpressed] The wind was gusting very bad. Nevertheless, I knew that the Firehole area is small and protected so the the conditions on the lake wouldn’t be unmanageble.
I got to Firehole around 3 am, and went to sleep so I could rest up for the rest of the day and night. Woke up around 10-11 am and went down the ramp to start. Found a nice little surpirse. [:/] The ramp area was mostly frozen with ice about 1/2 inch thick in some spots. It was possible to launch but the wind was blowing chopped up ice in the direction of the ramp. I sat around waiting for about 1 hour to see if the wind or sun would deal with the ice. Didn’t happen. The direction of the wind was such that all the ice was getting blown toward the ramp dang it. [frown]I didn’t want to risk not being able to take the boat out. I thought if that ice happened to freeze together I would have a little problem.
I really wanted to have a good chance of catching many burbot. So I went down the Sage Creek Road to Marsh Creek (Upper). (Only took over an hour [crazy], bad road like Ryno said). The wind was blowing and gusting so strong out there in the open that my boat and I didn’t have a chance. It would have made quick work of my boat had I dared put it in. Then, I just went to the Dam area to fish Mustang Ridge and up the Canyon where it would be calmer.
I arrived at Mustange Ridge around 4:30 pm on Friday, and decided to fish from shore for the evening and wait 'til early morning to launch. Started throwing jigs and caught a 'bow on the first cast. Continued to catch small 'bows on almost every cast.
When it got dark, I switched to a glow jig just in case of a laker or burbot. Caught one 'bow on it and nothing else.
Satuday morning was nice and fairly calm until the afternoon. I started out trolling around 40-80 feet where I marked fish. And I had one pole at 15-30 feet with a Lucky Strike Pearl Banshee. I pretty much killed the 'bows with that. But something is happening, not one good size. All I caught were 'bows in 2 hours of trolling. So I went to a few points and tried to jig but I need alot more time learning that for lakers. I was pretty sure I reached down to 60-80 feet because I saw my jig on the sonar screen. But all I caught was 'bows when dropping and retrieving the jig in the 30 foot range.
Later I decided to move to Squaw Hollow and hope for the wind to die down so I could fish at night. The lake is narrower there and I thought it would be more protected there. That turned out to be wrong too.
By Saturday night it was gusting terribly. Fished just off the dock there for 3 hours. I put on glow jigs and attached a second line to the hook with minnows thinking maybe the burbot would come shallow and see the glow. Didn’t catch anything. But the wind slowed down a little. Surely, I thought, by the morning it would be nice and calm. I planned to get up early about 4 am Sunday and see how the coditions were. When I did, I could hardly open up the car door. Went back to bed. Got up 3 hours later and it was okay to launch. So I did. I fished until 12 noon (by which time it was time to get out becuase of the wind) Sunday and caught four 'bows and one small Mack pup. But at least one of my 'bows was nice and fat. About 19 inches but real thick around.
On the dirt road back to the highway I was amazed to see how fast the Pronghorn can run. The car noise spooked them and a few made HUGE leaps, and covered the whole dirt road 
like nothing. The wind doesn’t bother them either. I sat and watched them graze a while the wind raged around them.
Well, this be it. I was satisfied with the fast 'bow fishing and I was hoping for at least one Mack over 10 pounds, or lots of pups under that. For now, I think this was my last boat trip to the Gorge until late March or beginning April. Unless of course this warm weather continues and doesn’t freeze over the good spots. I doubt it though, as long as it freezes to Lost Dog, or Buckboard I will be happy. [fishin]
Okay, one last thing. I saw lots of dead kokanee washed up shore all around Squall Hollow. Looks like that area is a good spawning spot for them. Must mean that it is a good burbot spot too.