Fishing in Ancient Yellowstone

On Saturday, Wade went walkabout to put some of his new photographic gear through its paces and capture some free lance imagery for Wade Rivers World Imaging Systems Inc. You simply can’t produce the stunning photography that has become a Wade Rivers hallmark by dropping a point and shoot digital in your vest pocket next to your bottle of Gink:

So Gerry and I headed back to the Snake River plain, which is what you get when you combine plate tectonics with the Yellowstone caldera. As the North American plate drifts over the Yellowstone hotspot and its inevitable cataclysmic explosions, the resultant craters trace across Wyoming and into Idaho and produce the Snake River Plain. However it got there, we’ll take it….at least until the next big blow:

And a plain it is. Here’s Gerry, my blood and brother of the angle, doing everything wrong on Flat Creek. Standing in the water. Making no attempt at keeping a low profile. Everything wrong except catching more and bigger trout than everyone fishing the Elk Refuge that day combined. Seems Gerry has the knack of getting a perfect drag free drift no matter what the situation, and that counts big time. Me, I managed to put down 3 rising fish on a single cast as my leader got sucked down a swirl and my dry fly zipped over their heads. Done indeed, despite a decent mix of mahoganies, gray drake spinners, tricos, and baetis. Not much to do then but enjoy the view of Sleeping Indian in the background:

If I had one regret from this trip, it’s not dragging our kiesters out of bed early in the morning to hit the Snake at sunrise. Despite the obvious chill, I’m sure we would’ve encountered a protracted rise to these claassenia stoneflies. Locally called “mutant stones,” the male adults have such short wings that they look just the nymph, and have a habit of scooting around across the surface of the water. Fresh shucks greeted our return to the side channels of the Snake in Grand Teton National Park; the S.S.S.S. was in once again in session:

Speaking of side channels, they really are your only option if you’re wading the Snake. The good news is that there’s no shortage of them, and a bumpy but otherwise easy drive will put you on the opposite side of the river from the more publicized access points. A set of aerial photos will help pinpoint the channels and the cuts through the riverside scarp for access to the river. The river morphology is too dynamic to rely on maps or one of those fly fishing guide books. Better to D.I.Y.:

Thinks there’s one in there?

Despite the intense afternoon sun, the fine spotted cutts did what they do best – eat oversized foam and rubber legged concoctions with abandon. When they wised up to a surfboard with a hook in it, a Parachute Adams or small Klinkhammer was all it took:

Gerry stuck this fine spot in a fine spot, a deep shaded run next to an overhanging sod bank:

Parting Shot :

If Fly Fishing Team USA thinks there’s something to be gained by practicing nymph fishing for whitefish , I think they’ve got a seriously flawed strategy. The Snake and its tributaries, and especially the Crowheart, have enough eager whities to supply a whole chain of New York delis. Not sure if that business model would work in Wyoming, but the stiffies will hit just about any nymph presented at their level. I caught so many that I figured it wouldn’t hurt to harvest a few. I tried smoking one, but his slimy nose wouldn’t stay lit. If you manage to light one up, let me know how it goes, though I can’t imagine you’d want to inhale…

The Wyoming Range

Grey's River

The object of our intention here is the Grey's River near the tiny hamlet of Alpine, WY in the upper Snake River basin. The Grey's River delineates the unofficial western boundary of the Wyoming Range, a north-south mountain range with it's highest peak (Wyoming Peak) topping out at 11,363' and located in west-central Wyoming. The vast majority of the range is on public land and is a paradise for hikers, hunters, campers, fisherpersons and horseback riders. A branch of the Oregon Trail known as the Lander Cutoff traverses the range and offered a shortcut to the riches of Oregon for emigrant sod busters. Just this past spring both, the House and Senate, voted to to grant defacto wilderness status to 1.2 million acres in the Wyoming Range thereby protecting it from oil & gas drilling. The Grey's River itself joins up with the Snake River immediately upstream of the Palisades Dam on the Idaho border.

"I'm Gonna Need a Little More Shot"

We came for the cutthroat trout fishing. Particularly the fishing for Snake River fine-spotted cutthroats in a little out of the way corner of the Cowboy State. We had all entertained high hopes for this river with it's impressive population of large fish in a remote, off the beaten path location but, unlike the other rivers that we had already plied earlier in the week, we witnessed no fishable hatches of Mahogany duns or hecubas during our time on the water here. Water temperature was a chilly 48F at noon and not a rise form in sight. But it's just cutthroat fishing.............how tough can it be...........right?

Greg G's Fly Box

You would think so...... Still, we still had our work cut out for us as we tried to draw these fish up off the bottom of the cold river with an arsenal of attractor patterns and nymphs. Success was mediocre at best and none of us could put our finger on exactly the reason why. Sure we caught a few fish on top to save the day but, any way you slice it, the action should have been a little more engaging given the location and the quality of the fishery..

Snake River Fine-Spot Cutthroat
Photo Credit: Greg G.

Once the water temps. rebounded back to 50F, after plunging during the chilly overnight lows, action seemed to pick up a little bit and we got into a few nice cutts.

Riparian Willows

With the possible exception of the banks along the upper Yellowstone River in the Thorofare , this was the thickest growth of riparian willows I've ever encountered along a western trout stream. The picture doesn't do it justice. Unless you stumbled onto a well used game trail streamside travel was difficult at best.

Another One Like the Other One
Photo Credit: Greg G.

Hey, wait a second. Izzat a pink Chernobyl Ant in that beautiful Snake River fine-spotted cutthroat trout's mouth? Oh well, A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. I guess.

A Doublehauling Doofus in Dan Bailey's Waders
Photo Credit: Greg G.

Prolly some New Wester from back East mucking up the river for himself and everyone else. I don't see any pink flies but isn't that a yellow shirt he's wearing? Doesn't he read Nale or own a Cabela's catalog?

Late Afternoon Sunlight on the Upper Grey's

Once the sun dropped below the western edge of the neighboring Salt Range, the fishing turned back off as quickly as it had turned on earlier in the afternoon and our short window of opportunity came to a close. The Grey's River is a beautiful river with great habitat and gorgeous fish in a remote & scenic setting that I've never visited before. I just hope the fish get over their lockjaw in time for my next visit.

Across the Great Divide

East Fork Valley

For all it's fine fishing, Jackson Hole & the national park scene can be a little "busy" and lacking in solitude at this otherwise delightful time of the year. Particularly during days of bluebird skies and relatively warm temperatures like we had been experiencing all week long. Like a pot of gold hidden at the end of a long rainbow, there had to be some interesting fishing lying just over on the other side of the pass that leads into and out of this place. With that in mind, we tossed some Albertson's fried chicken and some artichoke hearts in our bag of possibles, cranked up the rental car and pointed it over the pass to the Crowheart River and the tiny town of Never Sweat, Wyoming (elev. 6940'). Home of the largest herd of bighorn sheep in the lower 48.

Glacial Erratics

I know these two old guys never broke a sweat. They're pro's. The river headwaters in the high, dry, windy rain shadow of the Wind River Range and is fed by perennial snowfields as well as numerous springs, both warm & cold, that give the creek a certain degree of above average fertility for a mountain freestoner and keep it ice free and open to fishing right through the long Wyoming winter. The Crowheart River, along with it's main tributary the East Fork, are simply stacked with rainbows, cutts and wild Von Behr browns that are almost as beautiful as the wild browns back home.

High Country Hopper
Photo Credit: Greg G.

The river has miles upon miles of pocketwater that provide mind boggling habitat for the skilled nymph fisherman to explore still you couldn't help but notice these meaty, beaty, big and bouncy morsels clicking in the hay fields as we busted through the stream side willows.

The Crowheart River

A nymph fisherman's dream indeed. On my second cast my nymph barely had time to enter the water column and a good brown trout raced up out of the depths of the pocketwater and, ignoring everything Joe Humphrey's wrote in his Trout Tactics novella, seized the fly before it had a chance to sink 6 inches. At other times I hooked a couple of good browns while I was hand retrieving my nymph upstream! Both of those scenes played out more than once while I was here. But good old short lined pocketwater nymphing produced some of my best fish (browns) of the trip.

East Fork Cutthroat
Photo Credit: Greg G.

Greg got a bunch of really nice fish by sticking with hoppers and covering lots of ground. That's the way it goes with hopper fishing; show it to 'em once, cover lots of water, and hope your the first one through.

Exquisite Dry Fly Water on the Crowheart

But there always more. Good trout rivers are full of surprises and the Crowheart River is no exception. Under a backdrop of bright, sunny, cloudless skies, our second day featured a nice solid emergence of Mahogany Duns (what else?) that stood apart from and above anything we had yet seen on the valley streams. Pools like the one in the above photo came alive with rising trout as browns and rainbows porpoised with their backs out of the crystal clear water as they fed on both the emerger and dun stages for a good part of the afternoon.

Rock Garden

I always take my pocketwater seriously and this right here is some serious mutha-lovin' pocketwater. All of us got into good numbers of fat, healthy, hard fighting fish here. A few of them would run between 15' to 20".

Crowheart Brown Trout
Photo Credit: Greg G.

And unlike those persnickety Snake River cutts, these Crowheart browns & rainbows were committing suicide on the end of my fly line. The Crowheart River fishes as good as it looks and it was the biggest, baddest and most bad assed surprise of the trip for me by far.

Owl Creek Mountains
Spence-Moriarity Wildlife Habitat Management Area.

Whiskey Mountain

East Fork Sunset
Photo Credit: Greg G.

East Fork Hayfields
Photo Credit: Greg G.

Dubois, Wyoming

Seems the sheriff of Dubois, Wyoming himself is a big RBF Pro Staff fan. He saw Greg's windshield art on the back of our rental car in the parking lot of the local Safeway and just had to come up and introduced himself. Turns out he stumbled onto the RBF Pro Staff blog while surfing the internet for a cure for buttock boils he sustained after a week long horseback trip into the Bridger-Tetons. Say he thinks he recognizes the Chief from the Saloon in Emigrant, Montana. Anywhoo, he's now pain-free and has been a big fan ever since and he just wanted to say much obliged to all the Pro Staffers.

Snake River Fine-Spotted Cutthroats

Today's Motivational Poster

A great shot of my good fishing buddy, and world renown fly fisherman, Gerry G. (who just happens to be Greg G.'s older brother) with a 21" Flat Creek Cutthroat trout that he fooled on a size #18 baetis sparkle dun.

Life is good, fishin' is fun! Unless you're a sheepherder that is......Click here for the rest of the story.



Photo Credit: Greg G.

Up on Cripple Creek

Gros Ventre River - Kelly, Wyoming

The following day we hiked into a scenic meadow on a remote tributary of the upper Gros Ventre River rumored to harbor decent populations of larger than average Snake River fine-spot cutthroats. We have been known to travel great distances and suffer many hardships in our pursuit of wild indigenous strains of cutthroats and this trip into Cripple Creek would prove to be no exception.

Our efforts would not be in vain. After a short but strenuous hike through the Teton National Forest we were soon greeted by a classic mountain meadow stream (7,600' elevation) replete with s-turns, undercut banks, hatching Mahogany Duns and rising cutthroat trout. Once again, these Snake River cutts were no pushovers but we caught enough of 'em up to 15"-16" to make things very interesting. Full of piss and vineagar they were as they kept diving for the safety of those undercut banks after being hooked.

Gros Ventre Cabin

Cripple Creek Trailhead

Cripple Creek

Cripple Creek Trail - Teton National Forest
Photo Credit: Greg G.

Out Standing in My Field
Photo Credit: Greg G.

Mormon Row

Basin and Range

Teton Range - Wyoming

Silence is Golden: Due to some technical issues of the computer kind here in the IT department of our WRWT corporate headquarters I need to keep the entertaining commentary part of our upcoming Wyoming Wanderer Series to an absolute minimum. Which, for now, basically boils it down to photo spam and a brief summary with each post, I guess. Enjoy the silence while it lasts...

Day 1: Technically, I had visited the northern end of Grand Teton National Park once before but I never quite made it as far south as Jackson Hole proper. Pretty interesting place, albeit a little overwhelming in scale, once you finally get there. Teton Range aside, at first glance, I was more than a little impressed by the sheer size and constant flatness of the valley floor itself where the Snake River has wandered back and forth across it's fertile floodplain for eons, backed up to the west by one of the youngest mountain ranges and some of the oldest rocks on the continent.

So it was the Snake River, or more appropriately, it's wader friendly side channels, that we selected for our first days angling. Everything about the Snake River is big, even the side channels can be big and pushy. In the interest of brevity; Mahogany duns hatched right on schedule in the early afternoon and brought a good rise of trout in some pools while others were barren of insects or rising fish. In those pools a well placed Parachute Adams or indicator beetle would bring at the very least a persnickety refusal if not a solid hookup. They weren't always easy but they were always entertaining and that's alright by me. We didn't put up real big numbers today like you would get during prime hatch time on a good cutthroat river but still, lots of nice Snake River fine-spotted cutthroats were taken by everybody. The scenery was a little distracting at times.

Old Rocks - Young Mountains

Snake River Basin

Alluvial Floodplain - Snake River

Buffler Country - Kelly, Wyoming

The Tetons

L to R: Nez Perce, Middle Teton, Grand Teton, Mt. Owen, Teewinot

Jenny Lake - Grand Teton National Park

RKO Road

Jackson's Hole - Wyoming

Fellow RBF Pro Staffer Greg G With a fine Snake River Fine-Spot Cutthroat Trout

The Unforgiven
L to R: Greg G, Greg's brother Gerry, Kenny Rogers

We just got back from soaping geysers in Yellowstone.

Coming up next: "The Road Goes on Forever"(or so it seems)....or......."Up on Cripple Creek"