September, 2023
9/9-13: This was our annual trip to the Southwestern part of Wyoming and some of our favorite fishing spots up there - and this year's trip turned out to be a major timing mistake. We thought that after Labor Day the places we enjoy would be more or less deserted - bad assumption. Apparently it was the opening weekend of rifle hunting season.
When we got to our camping spot on the Smith Fork, there was not any privacy left, so we drove back to Cokeville, up the pass towards Alpine and found a quiet site at the top of the pass. Gassed up in Alpine and worked out way up the Greys River. It was slammed with hunters and their camps everywhere we wanted to get on the water. Finally about thirty miles upstream we found a good place to stop and nice fishing too. With no decent camping available, we drove up Sheep Creek to the divide, then down North Cottonwood, hoping for some fishing there. Didn't happen.
Made the turnoff to South Cottonwood and got to the stream just as the rain started. With the hopes of avoiding a quagmire road, we left shortly and drove down main Cottonwood all the way to Daniel. No water access here as it's entirely private property. Looking for camping we turned upstream at the Warren Bridge on the Green and found a decent spot at the 2nd campground. Cold, rainy, windy weather put us in the back of the van shortly after a quick dinner.
Next morning the weather was still rotten so we did the shortcut towards Cora and the Green River Lakes road. Once we left the pavement a bit further on, the road was so rutted & bad that we gave up and simply pulled off on a nearby access road. The Green looked lousy here, wide and shallow, but I did try it for a while and had a couple of fish released. Not much fun however.
After lunch we made the drive into Pinedale to research Pine Creek and also try to locate our cabin for the next two nights on Fremont Lake. Found the latter and were able to check in a bit early. It was nice walking the dogs over to the CCC ponds which supposedly are decent fishing. No dimples on the ponds suggested casting would be a waste of time.
Pine Creek itself is locally touted as good fly fishing. We found the opposite. From the tailgate at the dam on Fremont Lake, there's about three miles of decent looking water downstream to the town. Unfortunately only about a quarter mile of that is public. Bummer!
So we enjoyed two nights at the Lakeside Resort cabin and did some hiking around the area. I did a bit of bushwhacking the second afternoon and found a short stretch of Pine Creek to be fishable just above where the public joined the private area.
And that was about it for the trip. No matter what we do, we must avoid the hunting crowd next year - and that we will do.
Here's the regular clunky video of some of the fishing, etc.:
9/18-20: This was the first of two overnighters this week to some of our favorite streams that we have to be finished with for the year. Had lunch in Hotchkiss and made our way slowly down the tough road that goes to the south bank of the Gunnison just below the forks. Thought we'd need to nymph this time of year, but the bankside shrubs held lots of hoppers and a few gray caddis so set up a double dry rig that way. As the day had no wind element to it, the hopper idea was a dud, so shifted to hair wing WRS and a flatwing out back.
Neither was particularly well received though I did get a lot of annoyance bumps and strikes. Still played enough fish to make the day enjoyable but not overwhelmingly so.
After a nice happy hour, dinner, and good night's sleep, we repeated the same stretch of water in the morning. After too many of the same type of strikes, I went way small and tied a #20 stillwater caddis on the tippet. It did the deed. Even though it rarely floated and I could never see it, the takes improved dramatically. The releasing finally got to the point that it ceased to be too much fun.
We headed up the back road from the canyon and made our way towards Redstone and the Crystal. Too many road construction delays cost us most ot the time we wanted to spend on that latter stream. With less than an hour there, the fishing still was good - and weird. For whatever reason the rainbows all wanted to eat the oversized stimulator that I'd tied on as a strike indicator. So more success was had on the Crystal. Enough for now. On Thursday we're driving back up to the White to see if it was in good shape too. Here's the video of this trip:
9/21-22: OK - it's the next day, Thursday, so we drive to Meeker after lunch and then up to Sleepy Cat on the main river. Sue drops me off for a couple of hours of wading and casting. The river's still running a bit high so wading across it twice was no fun. Unhappily the big riffle that held lots of fish last month seemed completely deserted. I dry/droppered it for a while and only released one smallish rainbow.
Walked as far downstream as I could and fished my way back up to the wade across area. Had a couple of strikes and then hooked a big rainbow along the bank on a stimi. That was fun, but also about it. Sue picked me up and we drove to Bel-Aire on the South Fork. I took the dogs downstream and fished a few of the structured areas with modest success. Things are just pretty quiet everywhere on this river this month.
Camped at the same area there and got up to a frigid, frosty morning. Not wanting to wet wade (as I always do nowadays) at 34 degrees, we walked the dogs around part of the edge of Lake Avery and made a few feeble attempts to hook one of the few fish dimpling the surface. Nothing doing. Before leaving the area, I waded a short stretch of pocket water above the bridge by the base of the dam with zero success.
Will be glad to be heading to AZ again shortly after getting back from a couple of weeks salt water fishing in the Seychelles. Here are a few clips.
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