Wyoming Trip

One of my good friends and fly fishing buddies, and I, both retired on March 31st. We decided a year ago that we would do a 3 week bucket list fly fishing trip to Western Wyoming. It will be almost all wade fishing, with floats on the Green, New Fork and the Bighorn thrown in.

We initially were going to rent a B class campervan in the middle of June and do it that way. We decided to turn it into a car camping trip instead so we would not be tied into specific pick-up, and more importantly, return dates on the rented camper van. I mean, if the fishing is off the hook somewhere, we want to stay an extra couple of days to fish, not racing to return the rental.

I can tell you, with the original plan, I think we would have been driving through Western Wyoming with a scenic turn of high water run-off in full force, with a few days of fishing tailwaters thrown in. We opted to go the maximum flexibility package on this trip, and it looks like it is already paying off. We plan on entering Wyoming in the lower part of the state and begin fishing in the La Barge drainage and then fish our way up to the Shoshone drainage at the top of the state, and head back out that way.

It will certainly be a good water year for the trip. We are planning on leaving in late June with the big snowfall year.


Bob

Should be a great trip and great to build flexibility into your schedule. My son spent 5 weeks fishing WY, UT, ID, MT, WA last June between jobs. He found a lot of the rivers were still blown out, forcing him to fish more stillwaters than he had originally planned. He still caught lots of fish and had a very memorable trip. Check with some shops and guides on what they expect for runoff this year in the areas you want to fish and adjust accordingly.

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Originally Posted by Sonoman

Should be a great trip and great to build flexibility into your schedule. My son spent 5 weeks fishing WY, UT, ID, MT, WA last June between jobs. He found a lot of the rivers were still blown out, forcing him to fish more stillwaters than he had originally planned. He still caught lots of fish and had a very memorable trip. Check with some shops and guides on what they expect for runoff this year in the areas you want to fish and adjust accordingly.

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June could be a very tough month on the freestones this year. We are doing 4th of July weekend at our house but expect to have to pick and choose even at that point. We’ll be back July 15-August 15 and expect it to be full throttle by then. But of course a few early hot spells can change everything. I’m in Driggs right now. There is a huge amount of snow on the Tetons, Snake River Range and Gros Ventre Range.

Note that in certain states (UT, ID) many of the freestones are closed in June/early July to insulate spawning cutties.

Yep, we have friends back there for good runoff reports. At this point, shooting for very late June, into middle of July. Might have to dial it back a few days though.