This week Shifty and I went to Wyoming looking for some big rainbow and cutthroat trout. We fished this same area last year at the same time, we did it with Jimmy Kofoed as our guide, this year we went to try our luck on our own. We loaded up at 4:30 am and picked up Shifty's friend David and made our way to Evanston where we picked up license and supplies. We made it to our destination by 9 am and were on the water.
We waded upstream to the place we new would hold fish and looking for the kokanee spawning. Not seeing any we fished the bank of the river for a while seeing a few fish jumping. Shifty landed three fingerlings on a dryfly and we decided to move toward the honey hole looking for bigger bounty. We waded across the river for the first time of the trip and positioned ourselves in the line with the other fly fishers that had already gathered. It reminded me a little like the combat fishing you hear about in Alaska. We all threw our offerings to the fish and few of the fishers were catching fish. Not us. We fished the area for the rest of the day, tying on new flies and different sizes to see if we could get a taker.
Finally I landed a nice rainbow trout in the net and got a couple pictures before releasing it back to the river. Shifty kept fishing and changing up, he got a new fly rod and added a lot more accessories to his arsenal and using most of it to entice a bite.
Noon had come and gone and we were still fishing the same spot watching other fishers reel in fish. Trying to mimic their every move and action and trying to see what they were using, but never able to see it, asking is a mute point, they just look at you like, ya we are going to tell you. LOL.
I was fishing the upper ripples and heard a boat coming in behind me on the rocks and it was Jimmy with his friends from the Teton Village Fly guides. He and friends were off the clock and having fun. They were also catching fish! They stopped and had lunch as we talked. It was good to see him on the water.
Shifty got into a big fish and landed it with the help of one of the other fishers in the line. He was ecstatic about landing the big rainbow trout. It was nice 3 pounder. After a couple pictures it was released to swim back to the depths.
We continued to fish well into the afternoon. I broke away from the line and went up stream through a stretch of the river that was very low and plenty of ripples. I seen fish feeding on top so I quickly tied on a caddis. Three casts later I hooked up one of the monsters, about six inches long. I fished the entire stretch catching the little guys about every third cast. It was fun to watch them hit the top water offering and they were good looking offspring from the previous years spawn. I ended up with quite a few hooked and released. I fished my way back down to Shifty and seen the reds on their beds and steered clear of them, but at the same time I tied on an egg and tried my luck to get some bigger game. Not so much as a tick. Meeting up Shifty again on the sand bar we fished for another hour or so and decided to call it a day. David had been down river trying to catch anything on top water and didn't have much luck either, he was apprehensive to leave as the shadows grew longer he thought the hatch would be coming on and the top water bite would start to get good, but decided he would forgo the possibility and get dinner.
We ate at a local diner and talked to a fisher that reported he had slayed them using a triple rig and RS2's and PMD nymphs. After talking with them we headed for our hotel and hot tub. We woke the next morning had breakfast and went to the local ACE where the flies were located and looked for the patterns we were told were the hot ticket. We wasted about a half hour looking. Shifty bought a couple. We made our way back to the river. David disappeared down river again and Shifty and I made our way back up stream to the sand bar this time with only a couple other fishers already there.
We fished on both sides of the flow. I fished what I had in my box in the triple set up the guy had said to use and Shifty tried a tandem for a bit. I got a hit in just a few minutes and the fished hit hard enough to snap the 5X tippet I had tied on. Seeing the fish had hit my last fly I went to single fly set up and started fishing just the surveyor it had taken. I got a number of fish on the line and lost them all in LDR's, some I couldn't even get to come off the bottom, feeling there head shake though I knew they were fish. I was actually quite happy to just get the hook ups, better than yesterday.
We moved up and down and Shifty ended up bank side across from some fishers that were slaying them. I came down and starting casting and got a couple hook ups and got one white fish to the net. The guys in the stream kept catching fish, again knowing they wouldn't talk I threw the question out to them as to what they were using and the reply was just a "yep".
We fished the rest of the morning into early afternoon and I went back to the truck for a lunch. Shifty followed a bit a later. I told him I wasn't coming to back upstream and I was going to fish top water down by the truck. He met up with me grab some snacks and we tied on a dry fly. I fished a couple areas and had fish swirling and hitting but again they were little fingerlings from the previous year. We got nothing huge this day. David met up with us and he had been a mile or so down stream and got quite a few smaller trout on dry flies with a couple decent sized. Shifty did finally land a fish by mid afternoon.
We loaded up and headed for home at 5 pm. We had an enjoyable fishing trip even though it was not as productive as we had hoped for. We still have stories to tell and fish to remember.
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