Wind River, Wyoming: Two Great Days!

We began the day nymphing...
This week I fished Monday and Tuesday on the Wind River near Thermopolis, Wyoming with Chad Olsen and long time client and friend, Dan Cerven. Despite some bad weather both on my drive to the river and on my return trip Tuesday night, I had a great time with these guys making the rigors of Wyoming travel well worth it. Plus the quality of the fishing we encountered just made it that much better. It was world class!

.and the rewards were great. Dan and Chad with a big 'bow!

...and another fish on.


Dan, Chad and I had a great couple days. Monday was perfect! The kind of day a trout fishermen dreams about. It was dead calm, overcast and a bit cool. Perfect baetis weather and these little mayflies did not disappoint. By 10:00 AM, we could see the bigger fish staging in the shallows under the Russian Olives near shore or off moss mats caught in the roots of trees. The fish were ready and so were we!

The duns started blanketing the river...

...and it wasn't long until the fish started sucking them in.

We didn't have to wait long. After catching a few big fish on nymphs, the duns started coming off around 10:00 AM. We switched rods and for the next few hours, experienced some awesome dry fly action to pods of big fish. These robust Wind River trout are very strong and go crazy when hooked. For us, a small fish was 18 inches, but we mostly caught trout in the 19-21 inch range. Dan and I both caught rainbows, browns and cutthroats to complete a Wind River Grand Slam. We had a mid-day lull only to have the dry fly action pick up again when the baetis spinners started falling in the afternoon. It was a simply awesome day!

A fat cutthroat!

...and a 21 inch brown.

You know the fishing is good when you can do this!

On Tuesday, our weather quickly deteriorated. But despite some very cold, windy and rainy conditions, we caught some BIG browns and rainbows on nymphs. Dan and I both caught 23" rainbows plus numerous 20-21" 'bows and browns. We had very little dry fly action in the 20 mph winds and rainy conditions, but before I took off, I did manage to get a good cast to a 20+ inch brown that ate my #20 baetis dun like a champ.


Hot Springs 20" 'bow

And Dan's 23 inch rainbow


In the cold and rain, a 20+ inch brown warms the hands

Now to try and get home!