Wind River Mountains 2011

Articles Trip Reports & Travel
1

I know I haven’t been around recently. And first, I’d like to apologize for unceremoniously dropping out of the Swap of the month group. Having a newborn around is a lot of work and has taken a toll on everything!

With that said, I have managed to get away a couple of times, and last week made it up to one of my favorite fishing holes and wow, were the fish hungry.

There was not a hatch going on. I have had terrible luck nymphing, but was bound and determined to be successful today. So I tied on a golden Stone nymph, and a san juan worm (later I switched to a prince nymph, cuz I lost my last Stone nymph). I put on an indicator, and started casting. Pretty soon I was hooked into my first fish. As he got closer, I saw that he was a grayling. Got him in the net, and while I was getting out the camera, he decided he was shy, so he wiggled free from the net and went on his way. None the less, just a few minutes later, I hooked this rainbow.

Release:

The fishing was a little slow for a while, cloudy and sprinkles off and on. At noon, I took a small break to eat some lunch and let the water rest. Well I’m glad I did. I got back on the water at 12:24 and on my first cast caught this rainbow. His gill has a nice section removed, from what I’m guessing is an old war wound from something!

From this point on the fishing was fantastic, virtually every cast would produce a rainbow in the 10-14" range. Then a few minutes later, I had this little surprise happen:

My very first double. The rainbow trout u see in the front took the prince nymph, while my only brook trout of the day took the worm. Landing two fish at once in a net is very difficult. Both fish were in the 10-12" class.

Rainbow:

Brookie:

Most fish caught were in the 8-12" range. Overall a fishing day like this now has given me the confidence to use nymphs whenever I need to.

In other news, a grizzily was recently recorded on our mountain range… This is the farthest south one has been recorded for us. So now it looks like I’ll be carrying bear spray into my home fishing grounds.

Cya,
Paul

2

Well my wife and I went back to the same spot last week as my first post. Nothing, nada, not even a nibble. Just lost 2 flies to a rock or tree…

After a while we decided to move to the lake and my wife’s favorite location. We didn’t really have any luck there either. The only thing we managed to catch was this nice little brookie on standard tackle.

In other news, my new TFO 3wt arrived. So I’m looking forward to hitting up the small streams later this summer when runoff slows down a bit!

Cya,
Paul

3

Paul,

I’ve got a TFO 2wt, and LOVE it! You’re going to love that 3wt.

Tight lines,

TT.

4

I was backyard casting it, and it seemed like it was casting really well for me. I hope that I can do the same on the stream!

5

Not just a double…but a MIXED DOUBLE! How cool! Colorful brookies, too!

6

Well just returned from my annual camping trip, a bit earlier in the year this summer. (Last 2 years has been over Labor Day weekend).

My posts will be split up over a couple posts as I get all caught up on my notes.

I arrived to the campsite early afternoon. After choosing a spot near the lake, I unpacked the truck and set up camp.

I had fully planned on launching the boat next, but a brief thunderstorm nearby changed my mind. Instead, I hung out at the campsite, and after it went away, rigged up my new 3wt with a dry fly and went fishing in a nearby fishing hole.

After fishing, I headed back to camp, started a fire, and fired up some charcoal in the grill to make dinner.

The rest of the evening, I spent relaxing next to the fire, and getting my pack ready for the big hike the next day.

In the end, I ended up bringing 4 fish to net that night. After a while I switched over to nymph fishing again, and almost had another double. The 2nd fish was on the line for about 5 seconds when he got free.

Cya,
Paul

7

For Father’s Day, my wife got me a nice backpack that is perfect for hauling my wading gear on a hike. I decided that I would put it to use in grand style. Most of my previous trips have been a maximum of 1 mile into the back country. This time, I’d be hiking 3 miles into the Middle fork of the Popo Agie River.

The hike into the river requires me going up and over this hill side…

]

10 minutes into my hike, I was able to look over my shoulder and see where I started…

I was also given the opportunity to view Roaring Fork Mountain.

The hike in is rather short uphill, but very long downhill. I start at 8,800 feet roughly, ascend to just over 9,000 in the first mile, then make my way down to 8,200 feet. The last 600 feet is a straight downhill, with no level areas… important to know for the trip back!

After hiking for an hour and a half, I was greeted with a nice deep pool of clear water, loaded with brook trout.

The trout were not shy at all…

After setting this brookie free, my fly was laying on the water, dragging, about 3 feet in front me while I was getting more fly line out… This little guy happily took the fly… not caring about how it was being presented.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/--DPSNp36gyY/TjMnOvIGUGI/AAAAAAAAARk/tiLbWhDbAck/s640/IMGP0610.JPG

As a treat, here is an underwater shot. Can you see the Brookie?

After a while, I took a break on a rock ledge, with this little eddy in front of me.

While drinking water, eating lunch, and taking in the sites, a trout kept feeding on the left edge in the dark spot. A trout can’t keep teasing me like that, so when I was finished, I dropped my fly in the hole and out popped…

After this point, I’m getting tired, and realizing that I have a long difficult hike back. It is a lot of uphill climbing, often times, feeling like I’m going up an endless stair case. The hike back takes me a total of 2 and a half hours. But I happily made it back.

From there, I went out to civilization to let my wife know that I made it back to camp safely. While talking to my wife, I saw the remains of one of the 2 plane crashes in our mountains from this past winter being trucked out. Additionally, my wife told me of a mountain rescue that took place earlier that morning via helicopter from a women who fell and broke both ankles. (I could hear the helicopters during my hike ferrying out the plane and the women).

After we were done chatting, I drove over to the Little Popo Agie River fork, and managed to full a small brookie into taking the dry fly I had used earlier. I hadn’t planned on making this trip to fish, so I didn’t have any flies on me but the one I used earlier. The fish here are much more educated, thus they require different flies to full.

At 6pm, I left, and headed back to camp for dinner. Upon finishing my dinner, I decided I wasn’t finished. I went back to my favorite hole, rigged up for nymphing and caught another 6 fish.

I fished until 9, went back to camp, built a small fire relaxed for the evening then headed off to bed, reminiscing how I managed to catch so many fish from 3 different waters.

Tight Lines.

8

Great photos and pretty Brook Trout ! Nice fishing report Branhap

9

Day 3 arrived, and I was up and at it early that morning. I made myself some pancakes for breakfast, then launched the boat into the lake for the first time finally all week. My goal was to catch enough trout to feed my wife and me. So this means, trolling. I was fishing for about 15 minutes when the winds started blowing. While heading downwind on the lake was relatively easy, heading up wind was very difficult. I had started trolling with two polls, but with the wind, I switched up and decided to only troll with one. I caught a brookie early on. Eventually I stopped having luck with a gold Jake’s that I switched over to silver. I then caught my 2nd brookie of the day. It was getting close to 11am, when my wife was planning to arrive at the campsite. I was making my last pass when I hooked into a nice rainbow. He put up a nice fight, partly because the anti-reverse on my reel decided to malfunction and stayed in the off position no matter what. I finally got him landed in the boat. Put him on the stringer then, headed to shore.

As I was cleaning the fish, Katy and my darling daughter arrived. We spent the afternoon enjoying a campfire, some smores and hot dogs for lunch.


Darling Daughter playing


Mom and Darling Daughter


Dad and Darling Daughter

Around 5pm or so my wife packed up and headed back down the mountain. Meanwhile I geared up with my waders and my 6 wt rod and proceeded over to one of my favorite holes. However, there was a grandfather and kid on the other side. Not terrible, but the kid did not understand fishing quietly. Three times while I was there, the top half of his pole went flying into the water. I let them have the water, and fished some other areas nearby waiting for them to move on. After a while, they moved up stream so that Grandpa could drop a fly in the pockets of the stream.

About five minutes after they left, I started catching fish…

I continued fishing catching a fish here and there…

By this time the fish were surfacing pretty regularly to small midges. I put a griffith’s Gnat on my line and tossed it out, eventually hooking my last fish of the night. As it was getting dark, and I was getting hungry, I decided to call it a day…


Last Fish of the trip.

I spent the evening enjoying my dinner, my beagle who had come with Mom and daughter stayed with me also got to spend the evening with me.

The next morning I packed up camp and headed down the mountain. For dinner my wife and I had great trout, and wow that Rainbow tasted really well compared to the brookies. I may have to start keeping a few more rainbows next time I catch fish for dinner.

Tight Lines!

10

Beautiful family also, neat adventure
glad you shared it with us…

Always be safe!

11

Thanks for the kind words Steve. Always enjoy sharing my stories. It seems to always put a smile on somebody’s face somewhere.

12

Well this morning I managed to get out of the house for a morning of fly fishing a local river loaded with Brownies. I started off the morning with a Humpy fly. Not much happened with that, so I switched up to a hopper. There was sporadic surface action, and after a couple of missed hits on the hopper, I decided to put on a nymph and see what I could find in the next hole.

So I quietly got myself into position, made a few shorter casts on the near side seam. After working that area, I put my cast into the current. The current moved the fly quickly, and pushed it into a nearby seam. Then my indicator just stopped and slowly sank. I set the hook, and felt the tank of a fish on the other end. You see, I decided to take out my 3wt again, even though I know this river can produce some very nice trout. It seemed like it took forever, before I got my first glimpse. Then I got excited. This was easily the largest trout I’ve fought while fly fishing. Everytime, he started to get close, and I made a move with my net, he’d take off and take off a bunch of line with him. Eventually, I was able to wear him out enough that I was able to make a swing motion with the rod, and bring him into the net. I took a couple pictures of him in the net, hook still in his mouth. I then wet my hand and prepared to remove the hook, when the barbless hook had already fallen out. So I picked him up and posed for a quick picture. I put him back into the stream, and within a couple of seconds, he was ready to go and took off.


18" Brown Trout

I decided to take a small break since he thrashed the hole pretty good, and ate my breakfast. After that, I started fishing again. Soon enough, I caught a little small brown that was no more than 5" in length near the end of the run. There was this nice fishy spot though, where I could make a cast between two overhanging tree branches and beneath it the main current channel in the stream. I cast my fly into the spot, one of those rare times I made a perfect cast. As I watched my indicator drift perfectly down the seam, I heard a large splash just to my left. I turned my head quickly, and when I looked back, my indicator was gone. I quickly panicked, jerked the rod, and felt the tug of a nice fish on the other end. I quickly got him onto the reel. He didn’t have the muscle to pull the drag much, but he eventually succumbed and ended up in my net. Just as before, the hook fell out of his upper lip as soon as their was slack on the line. I took a picture of him in the net, but he would not cooperate with a hand held picture.


14" Brown Trout

Afterwards, I had a few more bites, in one case, I had another decent brown hooked up, but he ran straight at me full speed, working the hook loose. Towards the end of my morning of fishing, I hooked into one more ok size brown trout. He took to the air (abnormal I’d say!) and was able to shake the hook. By the end of my day the Prince Nymph that has been serving me so well on recent trips was officially retired. It’s just been shredded by trout teeth!

Cya!

13

T minus one month until I’m up there in your neck of the woods for a weekend! Your reports have me drooling and wishing this next month would fly by. Thanks for sharing!

Zac

14

Nice stuff! Thanks so much for sharing, lots of us aren’t fishing…got to get our fix somewhere!
Hugs,
LF

15

Wow, it’s been to long since I’ve been able to get out fishing again. Having a daughter has killed my weekend fishing time.

Yesterday afternoon, I took my wife out fly fishing for the first time (and I don’t think it’ll be the last). While we didn’t catch anything is was nice, relaxing for us both, and fun. I wasn’t paying close enough attention, and stepped off the bank into the river at one point into waist deep water. As I was catching myself, I heard this loud fabric ripping noise. I thought I had just blown out my waders. I did manage to catch myself and didn’t get wet, though I was standing in the river when I did catch myself. My wife was laughing at me pretty good. I checked out my waders, and no holes, phew I didn’t rip em out!

Anyways, the really interesting part, is that I redid my SA Wally World special reel to be retrieved for a righty (I’m lefty). It even had the SA line that came with the rod still on it. Though to help her out, I put it on my BPS Wind River 6wt rod. I also brought along my 3 wt rod, incase she found that easier to cast. About midway up through the first run she wanted to try out the 3 wt. So I switched up. For kicks, I wanted to see how this rod cast out. Wow! It was casting effortlessly a LONG ways for me. Better than with the Bass Pro fly line that came with that rod combo. I was truly amazed. I was casting a dry fly much farther than ever before and the water drops were as soft as could be. I truly found that to be amazing.

We didn’t catch anything on the trip, but her casting improved quite a bit as we worked our ways upstream. Of course, towards the end, her arm was getting tired, her mechanics fell apart, and I spent the last 20 minutes undoing the worlds worst wind knots. heh Overall I think she’ll go fly fishing again with me.

After we returned to the truck, I took off my waders, and found the source of the rip… my jeans had blown open and I had nice airconditioning down below. So long for that pair of jeans. We saw plenty of brown trout, but couldn’t get them to go after anything nymph or dry fly wise.

Oh well. I just thought the day was amusing so I should go ahead and post it up here.

Cya,
Paul

16

So today, I decided to take the day off work, and take a 2 hour drive over to the North Platte river, since the flows have come down to their normal levels finally. It was worth the trip, I can tell you that much.

I hung around the house, until my wife was nearly ready for work (in case the baby woke up) then stopped off at McDonalds for coffee and breakfast. I headed out on the road with what was a quiet relaxing drive. Not much traffic out there today. I pulled up to the access area, and realized I wasn’t alone. That was a bit of a bummer, but there was plenty of river. I watched the other angler for about 5 minutes, during that time he hooked up with at least 2 fish. I also noticed he was working downstream. So I decided to start 5 runs above him, that should give each run an hour rest minimum before I get to it.

Looking at the water, there was a light caddis hatch going on. I had prerigged up with a hopper dropper combination. I tried it for 10 minutes without much luck, so I cut them off, and switched over to a elk and cdc caddis that looked about right in size. I fished it to rising fish for quite a while, and had several attempts, but wasn’t able to stick any trout. I eventually worked my way down without any hookups, so I decided I’d work my way back upstream with a hare’s ear gold ribbed nymph under a thingamobber.

At the hole that I saw the guy ahead of me when I arrived, I put my line into the current and after a few seconds, the indicator dove under the surface. I set the hook and immediately felt the tug of a solid fish. I quickly got my line on the reel and started to play him. He made several long runs and during a few times I’d see the flash of gold and silver under the water. Once I saw his tail, and knew immediately that this was the biggest fish ever for me on the fly rod. He would handle my 6 weight rod with ease, and after several back and forths, I finally had him tired enough that he would stay in the slack water and was able to get my net under him. For the first time ever, my net was almost a bit to small. Afterwards, I admired my catch for a couple seconds in the water. The fish was solid large, and I realized that I wouldn’t be able to get just one hand around him. I quickly set him out with my wading boot as a reference. (I wear size 13 boots… to give u an idea on the size of the fish.).

I normally don’t set a fish on the ground, but it was the only way I could get a picture of him, as he was just to big to hold in the hand. (So don’t rake me to bad over the coals!)

Wow look at that football!! Easily the largest fish I have taken on a fly rod ever. Even larger than my brown trout earlier this summer! After the picture, I held him in the water, while he regained his strength. Eventually, he swam off under his own power, into the current and slowly back into the bottom of the deep run.

After taking a small break (my arm was tired!!) I start throwing into the seams of the run again. A few short minutes later, I had a feisty brown trout on. He was a bit younger, and took to the air twice, before coming to net fairly easily.

He was an easy release quickly heading back into the deep.

Just a couple casts later, I had another solid hookup. This fish, was easily bigger than my first one. He made my reel sing as he took off halfway down the pool. When he came to a stop I started reeling him in. However, I was tired, or not thinking, and when he got close he started to take off, but I didn’t let him have the reel. He gave 2 strong head shakes and the hook came flying back over my shoulder. What a bummer. But The fight was exciting. I’ve never had a fish take line like that before!

After a bit, I realized I forgot to put on suncreen. So I headed back to the truck. I decided at that point I’d head to another area. Unfortunately that area was closed. From there, I packed up my gear and headed to the N. Platte Fly shop to restock some tying materials and pick up a few more beadhead prince nymphs.

Until next time!

Cya,
Paul