Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Fly Fishing in Wyoming

After much talk about a fishing trip we checked our calendars and found the only date that would work and finally booked it.  We headed up to Caspar WY to hit the North Platte for one day of floating with a guide, another day floating ourselves, and a little wading on the way home.  Turned out to be one of the best fishing trips I have ever had! 

Our guide, Eric, from the North Platte River Fly Shop, was quite the character and also one hell of a guide.  I don't think I will ever forget some of his idioms - spoken in a heavy surfer / Captain Ron kind of accent.

"Remember, every good cast deserves a good mend"
"Clean bugs are happy bugs" - fish don't take flys covered in seaweed
"Fish the Future" (when floating down a river in the front seat of a drift boat the tendency is to stop looking ahead and fish the hole you just past and blocking out the guy in the back seat... so one needs to be reminded to fish ahead of the boat and not behind it)

The First day we hit the Bessemer Bend section which was new to me and simply loaded with fish.  We each landed around 30+ fish that day and hooked countless others.


  
 We also spent a day rowing ourselves down the river.  Joe made a great first showing and found out that it is not nearly as easy as the guides make it look.  I only did a little better and despite our follies rowing in circles we still managed to catch some good fish.

 This particular fish... despite my embarrassment to admit it... was actually caught on a spinning rod with a Rapala.  The damn thing, nor all of its buddies, would take any of the number of fly offerings we threw out there including some damn good looking streamers.  In frustration we through the Rapala and this dumb fish hit it...









 We even managed to land a "Unicorn" - the mythical Brown Trout that inhabit these waters.  This was a "small" one unbelievably...












On our way home we stopped by Freemont Canyon for a little wade fishing and didn't really know what to expect.  Joe had two big fish on in his first two casts... I will admit I was a little skeptical but then we found the fish... they were stacked in the river and they were HUGE. 


 It seemed as though every third cast or so brought in a sizable fish


On our way out Joe spotted a huge fish feeding in a pool, he tried everything to get him to take his flies but nothing seemed to work.  I had just finished tieing on a fresh rig when broke off his flies.  Being later in the day and a 4.5 hour drive ahead of us joe threw in the towel and started packing up.  With my fresh flies I gave the big guy a try... to my disbelief I got him.

After a few snaps it was back into the river for this one!  I can't wait to go back!

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