High Altitude Fly Fishing

Wind River Golden Trout - July 2011

2011-11-01T15:27:00.004-06:00

After a month of deliberation we had no set dates for the Wind Rivers this year. After a few more weeks of phone calls and emails it looked like the trip was off. Just after the 4^th of July I received a call from Kory saying he had two weekends open for the Winds. He had promised his boy he would take him on his first backpacking trip this year. We picked out the end of July despite the rumors that the mosquitoes were the worst anybody had ever seen in the Winds. We had talked to friends and a few scout groups from Northern Utah that had just gone the week before us. My older brother Lance had just come out of the Big Sandy area the day before we were set to head off. He confirmed what we had heard, he said they were so bad you couldn’t eat food without eating the skeeters.

We made sure we had plenty of repellant for the trip and added a few head nets to the packs. We ended up hitting the trailhead two hours behind schedule, it was mid afternoon, pushing 83˚ at the trailhead. This was by far the hottest hike in I’ve ever done, the good thing was, we weren’t seeing many mosquitoes on the trail. About 2 miles into our hike, around 10,000’ we hit the wall. It took about everything you had not to swallow mosquitoes as you hiked, they were everywhere.

Breather on Trail

Creek on the hike in

Night at camp

Bull Moose

We made it to the lower of the upper two lakes we planned on camping at right at dark, there’s nothing like traversing a boulder ladened meadows with shoulder high brush in the dark. The thought that we were in the dark in 4’ high brush in bear country made you a bit uneasy. We spent the next hour in the dark trying to find a flat spot to drop our tent, we found a spot on the crest of a 10,763’ mountain.

Kory and I both woke at the same time the next morning, to each other’s shouts “hey” “Get out of here”. We thought we had a bear in camp, we both woke to something walking through camp. I creped out of the tent with my can of bear spray only to be greeted by a big bull moose, we didn’t mind sharing the mountain with a moose. A bear would have been whole different story.

Golden Lakes

Kory with cut

Fishing off of snow field

River next to camp

Ice Lake

Ice creek

Bonfire

This trip was the start of our fifth year in search of the elusive golden trout. This was our second trip into this spot, we know the upper lakes held golden trout. 2009 was a bust in this area, however, we did find some nice cutthroat trout and cutbows. Knowing we would find some good fishing, with a chance at some goldens, we came back. The first day on the mountain we headed to the highest lakes in the basin. The lower lakes held good cuts, we fished them in the morning. We spent the rest of the day fishing lakes that were just over 11,000’ in elevation. We had no luck in the upper golden lakes, we didn’t even see fish swimming in the lakes.

Hayden's first Brookie - Nice first Brookie!

Cruising for bugs

Fat Brook

Day 2 on the mountain was a killer, we hiked out of our basin into another basin looking for golden trout. We had fished part of this basin in 2009, only pulling out brookies. The first lake we fished had nice brookies in it, some of the largest we ever caught in the Wind Rivers. This new basin was no easy hike, 8 mile round trip with 2000’ in elevation to gain and 1916’ in elevation drop. With Hayden along we didn’t want to push it too hard. Well, this hike did it, not to Hayden, but to Kory and me. It kicked our butts, but it was worth it. We finally found the elusive golden trout, it only took 5 years to do it. It was worth the 5 year wait! My first cast in the upper creeks landed me the largest golden of the trip. I guess my ultimate intimidator was too much for him to handle. Up to that point, that was the most exciting fish I had ever caught, he wasn’t a true Wind River monster. For me it was, I actually let out a good old redneck holler, something I never do. We fished up the two creeks to the upper lakes, we caught plenty of smaller golden trout in the creeks.

I was the first one to the upper lake, as I crept around a large boulder I spotted a big curser. He was a good 2-3 pound golden trout. I got my cast all setup, landed my fly perfectly out in front of him. The next thing I see is a splash 8 feet from my fly, I look up to see some old man hobbling down to the lakes edge from the scrub pines reeling in his spinner. He and his wife were huddled up in the scrub pines getting a break from the wind. He must have been pretty pissed to see me pop out of the boulder field. He was dead set on me not catching one of those big goldens. He did screw it for me. The rest of the time on this lake we only saw a few other big fish, the rest were small. We never did pull one out of the lakes. I didn’t fish the right flies for the high elevation golden lakes. Next year we will be better prepared to fish these deep lakes.

My first Wind River Golden Trout

Kory's first Wind River Golden Trout

The mosquitoes were so bad this year, it about ruined the trip for us. The only way to keep them from killing you off was to hike faster. A wall of mosquitoes would follow you as you hiked, once you stopped it was unbearable. You couldn’t breathe without swallowing them, eat without eating them. This late spring/summer made for the right conditions for them. At 11,000’ in elevation they were horrible, in the middle of massive boulder fields they hunted you down. 2011 was not a year for the faint of heart in the Wind Rivers!

Wind Rivers 2010 - Cold and Snowy

2011-05-20T11:40:00.001-06:00

Anytime you hike the Winds in mid September there’s a good chance for bad weather. On this trip Travis and I got it all, freezing temperatures, gale force winds, snow and a bit of sun. Travis left Phoenix and 98˚ weather for Utah’s mid 70˚ to Wyoming’s mid 20˚. Okay, so the hike in was great. When we parked at the trailhead the truck was reading 64˚, you can’t get a better backpacking temps then that. After a 7 ½ mile hike we made base camp, got camp setup, pumped water and got settled in.

Day 2

Overnight the temps plummeted down to the low 20’s, with high winds. The wind wasn’t howling to bad when we got to our lake, we made our way through a boulder field to our fishing spot when the winds kicked up. I’m talking full on gale force winds, we hunkered down behind a massive boulder, found some wood and started a fire. We spent the next 5 hours hunkered behind this boulder. Travis was spinner fishing and I had my fly rod. When the winds dropped down to around 30mph I put on a big old woolly bugger, climbed out on a boulder and let the wind do the casting for me.

I had barley started stripping in my line when I got my first hit, and then the second hit came from behind me. Another gust of wind hit me so hard I was going forward heading for the water, somehow I stopped myself from going over. I crouched down and continued to pull in the large cut I had on the end of my line. That was my only fish for the day, the wind was blowing so hard by the time I landed this one fish. After unhooking this big fat cut I had to run back to the boulder field to get out of the wind. That evening we hiked up around a small stream by camp, in my river photos you can see the grass is swirling all over the place due to the winds.

Day 3

We woke to a snow covered tent, calm winds and colder temperatures. The sun was trying to make its way out. We changed plans and headed off to a higher lake to fish. The fishing was pretty good, I ended up using wet flies all day. If I remember right, the morning of day 4 it was nice and sunny for our hike out. We should have stayed another day.

Yellowstone - September 2010

2011-01-18T10:38:00.000-07:00

This year I was accompanied by Boyd Cook and Kory Wilde for a later then normal fly fishing trip to Yellowstone. September this year was hotter than normal, the rivers were running low and slow. That killed off most of the big holes and and gravel/sand bars we fish.

We ended up fly fishing the Yellowstone River most of the trip, we hiked in to a few other spots to try some success. The smaller rivers with low water levels produce fewer fish then we're use too. The Park website had major bear warnings for the areas we fish, we only saw a few tracks on the sand bars. We had three cans of bear spray this year, in years past we've only had one can with us.

Enjoy the photos from the trip, I won't waste anymore of your time with the trip details.

Kory - Streamer fish

Ladd - Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout

Kory - Drifting a fly

LBC and Kory

Lunch on the river

Yellowstone BEAR WARNING

Breather - On the edge of the Yellowstone River

Closeup on the Yellowstone

LBC - Yellowstone Cutthroat

Kory with another Yellowstone cut

River Otters - Then next mile of river we fished was dead, I wonder why?

Common merganser family - Boyd trying to fish

Boyd fishing the mighty Yellowstone River

Ladd with another one on

Kory - Checking out our next stretch of river

Evening river shots

Evening river shots - Last day, Fly Fishing Yellowstone

Yellowstone and Blacksmith Fork Canyon

2010-07-26T15:46:00.000-06:00

Kory and I made it up to the park with the familys earlier in the month, this was a sight seeing trip more than anything. We did manage to fish the north east corner of the park this year, we didn't land many fish and the two big ones we should have are swimming around with my copper john and Kory's elk hair caddis. We took a quick drive up Blacksmith Fork Canyon for some fly fishing this past Saturday. Lots of little browns, made for a fun morning.

Blacksmith Fork - Cache Valley

Kory fishing Blacksmith Fork

American Elk - Patriotic

Gallatin Creek - Trail head

Fly Fishing Yellowstone

Gallatin Creek

Old foot bridge

Clepsydra Geyser - Yellowstone

Mammoth - Pot Gut

Northern Utah Backcountry

2010-06-22T10:46:00.000-06:00

After years of talking about it Kory and I finally hiked into this small backcountry river in Northern Utah. The hike starts off fairly steep through some bare cactus covered hill sides, both Wiley and Max found out fast what cactus is. Crossing over one of the ridgelines Max buried some prickly pear cactus deep into his paw. After a few stops to clean out the dog’s paws we dropped off the ridgelines to stay out of the cactus. Our hike in took just under an hour and a half to get in, for April weather we sure lucked out, we had to ditch our light jackets fast and start applying sun screen.

Right off Kory caught the biggest Bonneville Cutthroat Trout of the day, after that the fish didn’t get any bigger. As we started fishing up stream we noticed a few bugs skimming across the water, with in another 30 minutes two small hatches kicked off. This was one heck of a Saturday to get away, we both pulled out 12 Cut’s on this trip. In a way we lucked out, after this Saturday with mid 60’s weather we didn’t see much more of them for another two months. Northern Utah has had one of the wetter springs that I can ever remember.

New Years Eve on the River

2009-12-31T13:42:00.004-07:00

With a slow workday today and temps above 2 degrees I thought I would take Max fishing down on the farm. The action started off fast, three brown's with-in 5 minutes. As Max and I moved on up stream the old boy decided to clear the river out for me, he jumped 7 mallards on the next hole. For the next five minutes he swam up current looking for more ducks, those darn labs just don't listen much when it comes to water. I decided it would be best to skip the next three fishing holes to find water Max hadn't disturbed. The next hole was uneventful, but the next hole would provide more action, not the action I wanted. After cutting up around the next bend I was cutting through a few groupings of dog woods and stepped out on what I thought was snow and rocks to find thin ice....oh yeah baby. I dropped right through a under cut, next thing I know is my thighs and feet are getting really cold. I think I sat there for 5 seconds before I knew what was happening. I grabbed a hand full of dog woods and pulled myself up out and ran for a log to sit on. I have never felt that kind of cold in my life! I then proceeded to pull off my waders and drain out 20 gallons of water. It was warmer having nothing on and the wind blowing across my bare feet then it was being in those waders. After ringing out all the water I headed back to the barn yard for warmer weather. Boy oh boy did the truck heater feel good!!!

While I'm posting I better put a photo of the little treat I got under the Christmas tree this year. Erica hooked me up with this little beauty (Orvis Battenkill Mid Arbor).

Autumn in Utah

2009-10-23T10:23:00.013-06:00

Summer ends, Autumn settles in and you won’t find a pole in my hand. My fishing buddies might think I’m a fool, and I just might be but it’s that time of year where my Browning A-bolt 270 comes out of the safe. That’s right, hunting season is here and almost gone. Soon my trusty 270 will go back to hiding till next year. Come November you can finding me chasing big fat Brown Trout in the Little Bear River mixed with some upland game hunting. Here are a few photos from the past two months.

Elk

Lee and Kory glassing for elk

My back yard

Northern Utah - Fall time

Here are a few from September

Wellsville Mountains

Cooper and DaDa

Dark maple leaf

Fall river

Wind Rivers 2009 - Fly fishing trip

2009-08-15T08:40:00.006-06:00

Trip 2009 started early, for some, WAY too early. August in Cache Valley can surely be chilly at 4 a.m. We managed to get some of the sleep out of our eyes and get the goats and packs loaded for the long haul. Our morning boy, Kory, managed to stay on the road and get us through Logan canyon without falling asleep. After a short break and pit stop in Kemmer, Wyoming, we greeted the wind and headed out into the great expanse of nothingness until we crossed the Green River. At that point, everything switched to fish talk--anything from fat Brookies to the all elusive Golden Trout that have eluded us over the past two years.

We had one more stop on the road for fishing licenses; if only Wyoming Fish and Game could get up to speed with their online-fishing license (it doesn’t’ exist)! At our last stop, I think we saw all of Farson, Wyoming, driving around trying to find a store to buy licenses. Farson is one of those towns that, if you blink your eyes, you will drive right by not knowing you've driven by it. Thank goodness for the web on my phone, we were able to pull up to Farson Feed Store. After 20+ minutes we were able to purchase our licenses and grab some sandwiches (they sure didn’t skrimp on toppings and meat), then we were off and on the road again. After another 2 ½ hours, we hit the trail head and were shocked at how much elevation we gained going in this year compared to last year. New trails tend to do that to you! We made camp and found time to do a little fishing near our camp. The first fish we caught were finicky little buggers; they didn’t want anything we offer, but we still caught some!

Kory, Lee, Ladd, Travis, Tim

Pope Agie Wilderness

One of the many stream crossing on the way in

Kory

First Lake Fished

Lee Fishing

Looking north out of camp

The Jensen Boys

Looking east out of camp

Staying warm - -first night at camp

Long exposure

Waiting out the first rain of the day

Jack and Slick found a nice dry spot -- first downpour

Big granite hiding spot -- windy downpour

View from under boulder

Large Brookie diving back into the deep

The only pass on this part of the range

That evening the clouds broke, the temps climbed, and we were off for some fishing. Lee and I had a few un-named lakes we wanted to check out, and only one of them panned out, but in a big way. We caught our first ever CutBows and some fat Snake River Cutthroat Trout. We had two hours of light and made the most of it!

Ladd Darley -- Large cutthroat trout

Lee Darley fishing Pig Lake

Lee Darley --first ever Cutbow Trout

Hybrid Cut-Bow Trout - -Cruising for bugs in the shallows

Ladd Darley - -first ever Cutbow Trout

Fat Wind River Cutbow

Lee - -the fish Wrangler (fishing off a 20' cliff)

Nighttime at Pig Lake

Day 2

How would I describe day two? Would it be the long ars hike we had planned to one of the Wind's highest lakes or would it be the rain? It would have to be the rain! For starters, we didn’t make it far from camp before the first wind guest and rain hit us. We did manage to make it through a saddle in the mountain before the worst of the rain hit. Travis, Tim, and I found a large (house-sized) granite rock to hide under. After awhile, Tim and I both got wet from the water running down the rock we sat on. The winds kicked up so badly it blew the water five feet under the rock and soaked my left side. Finally, it broke again, and we made it to a lake where we caught some the largest Brookies we’d found yet in the Winds. The fishing didn’t last long due to the dark clouds, and the National Weather Services broadcast on the 2-way radio talking about damaging winds and hail to DEADLY CLOUD TO GROUND LIGHTING which made Tim, Travis, and I head back to camp. Kory and Lee waited it out at the lake, and they had to deal with the goats during that downpour. I guess, from what they said, the only dry spot was where they had huddled up by a large granite boulder (the goats wanted that spot too). We made it back to camp in a light drizzle, grabbed some dry clothes, and jumped in the tents. That’s when the REAL rain hit, and boy did it ever hit! However, we were nice and warm while those other two with the goats waited it out over the pass.

Lee - one big old fish

Fat cut --Unnamed Lake

Cutbow cruising Pig Lake

Another large cutthroat trout

Fin

Gommers and their fish

The boys in the snow

Lee - -big, deep lake

Lower Pig Lake

Lunch at Pig Lake

Dinner (Kory's photo)

Kory Wilde - -hooked up on a big one!

Kory Wilde - Nice cutthroat trout

The boys at Pig Lake

B&W photo of Pig Lake

Last night at camp --orange moon

10 p.m. at camp

Yellowstone Fly Fishing

2009-07-19T15:12:00.001-06:00

Its that time of year where we dust off the bear spray, pack the fishing gear just so we can hike off into the heart of bear country looking for the elusive Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout. Wednesday night found us packing the gear and heading off late for Montana. After a quick bit to eat at Yack in the Box in Pocatello we were back on the road, boy oh boy did we have a few stomachs turning after that! I guess us Utah Boys were a little under dressed when we pulled into Hebgen Lake, the temps were down to 34⁰. Kory, Richard, Little Rich and I were all in tee shirts and shorts. We found out the hard way that you never take a tent that was just used at a Girls Camp, it was on the moldy side…nice and nappy!

Hebgen Lake @ 1am

The next morning found us at Mickey D’s for breakfast and snooping around few fly shops for information. Unless your whiling to shell out big buck your not going to get jack diddly from them. Having spent the past 7 years up there we know where to go and not to go...for the most part. We did hit a new area, part of that river produced some nice cuts, the upper part was not worth the time baking in the sun.
Black Bear

That morning heading into Yellowstone we spotted three bears, one of which gave a ranger major Ulcer. Boy are people dumb, I mean REALLY DUMB!!! I guess some people look at the park as a petting zoo. As we drove around a bend in the road you could see a new dusting of snow on the peaks way off in the distance. OK, enough about all that. Let’s get to the fishing.

Big Ol Yellowstone Cut
Ladd - Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout
Little Rich - Yellowstone cut
Little Rich, Ladd and Big Rich
Ladd - Yellowstone cut
Richard Fly Fishing
Richard - Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout
Wildman - Out on a Limb
Ladd (Kory in the back Ground) - Yellowstone cut
Richard fishing in Yellowstone Park
My first double hook up
Ladd - Fishing the back country

Little Rich and Me packing up the gear for the last time

Our last day in the park was almost a bust, we hiked our butts off to find some large meadows that held no fish. We turned tail and headed off in another direction to fish a river we hit earlier in the week. The last few photos are from that river. By the time we left the park and pulled back into Cache Valley it was 1:20am Sunday morning. I would like to give thanks to the Sprague's and Kory Wilde for the great out.

Mule Deer Buck - Yellowstone