North Platte River

[Lee Haskin]

Well after 3 full days tying flies at the Fly Fishing Dealer, in Denver,
several of us headed to Wyoming for a few days on the N. Platte.
Although the hatches were prolific, the trout really weren't interested in dries.
Although everyone else chucked nymphs and bobbers, which just isn't my thing, I decided to fish streamers. Here is a shot of a nice brown taken on a big heavily weighted sculpin.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b382/LeeH/NorthPlatte9_05.jpg

The last day I dredged up a beautiful dark crimson bow, but left my camera in the car. Grrrrr! This was one of the prettiest bows I've ever seen. It was interesting that I hooked this fish as a drift boat was floating by, and I thought, for a minute, that the fish would land in the boat, after several spectacular jumps in the narrow channel. This fish was around 23"!

A storm blew in the second day and the trout really responded to the dries, before and after the rain. I was able to catch several nice bows (one over 20"!) during this short window, on a size 20 PMD. I finally got my "dry fly fix"!

Another highlight:
I had a nice antelope buck come down to the river, next to me, to drink.
Very cool. I had always heard about the #'s of antelope in Wyoming, but had no idea just how many roam those plains.

Back to stripers!

Cheers,
Lee[/img]

[Jgoding]

Nice post Lee. I fished the S. Platte quite some years ago when I was a wee lad. Caught some browns very similar to the one you took a pic of. It was definately worth the trip. I think we hit the S. Platte and Green River the following week... very memorable fishing. I don't recall any antelope coming down to drink, I do recall a big family of skunks roaming the banks one evening tho....LOL

Jeff

[mems]

Aloha, nice to see pictures of Wyoming. How was the water level? Did you stop by at Saratoga for some ice cream? I bet the mile is pretty good in September. Mems.

[Lee Haskin]

Hey Don,

The water level was very low and off color. Gray Reef was totally choked with weeds.
The ice cream cone at Sloans was one of the highlights of the trip!!!
We also hit a great Sushi joint in Ft. Collins too, near the college, on the way back to Denver.


We planned to fish above Alcova, but fish and game was shocking the area we wanted to fish so we bagged it.

There was talk about fishing the "mile" but evidently the fishing hasn't been that great, so we fished below "government bridge" for the morning, with a number of fish taken.
We were fortunate to fish fish the Ugly Bug section, of the N. Platte, but with low water only a small part was fishable.

Well, that was probably more detail than you were looking for, but.......

Lee

[mems]

Lee, thanks for the update. My Dad was born in Wheatland and I have fished that area for years. The last few have been very bad for the southeast corner. The low water has been deadly. My favorite stream, the bluegrass was reduced to a trickle last year. Massive fish kill, I just had to cry. I got to float the platte, and fished the mile. I never did like the reef, it reminds me of a big drainage ditch, but there are big fish there. I love to fish wooly buggers on the mile. Nice healthy rainbows there. If the bluegrass ever comes back you should give it a try. It really was the best trout stream in that part of the state. For now I will stick to the bighorns. There is nice water up there. It is so good to get on private water in wyoming, just a world of difference from the public water. I hope you slowed down through Sinclair. That is the worst speed trap I know of. I love Saratoga, what a great little town, and the hot tub is free. Thanks again, Don.