A River Runs Almost Through It

Islander

Life of the Party
Being primarily a stillwater guy, it gets a bit crazy here for me when the lakes are frozen for 3-4 months. Since moving here I have been threatening to learn more about river fishing since the Shoshone River flows right along the edge of town and this section below the dam is also spring fed which keeps it fishable through the winter. So yesterday I stopped by one of the local fly shops and was told in the afternoon there’s usually a hatch. The guy then handed me some little flies that were so small I couldn’t tell what they were or if they even had hooks. He said find fish feeding on the surface and float these in front of them. I got to the river and tried to tie one of these things on only to find out my tippet was too big to get though the eye of the hook. Having last used my floating line for #10 hoppers I needed some thinner material. Luckily I had some 4x in my chest pack and finally was able to get rigged up. I hiked the trail upstream until I found a path that led down to the water. It was steep but there were no other fishermen in this stretch and for a Saturday I figured it would be worth the hike. Once I was on the water I found a spot where I could see fish taking something off the surface but didn’t see any bugs floating or flying, just slurping water every few second. Once I got the drift correct, wam, fish on. I managed to get several smaller browns and one rainbow that went 16”. A great way to spend a couple hours hiking and fishing the canyon. The hike back up was a bitch, but I was smiling the whole time.
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The river canyon from the trail.
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Approaching “my spot”.
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A productive bend.
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A few fish pics.
 

Islander

Life of the Party
Interesting hillsides. Is that fossil country?
Pretty much all of Wyoming is fossil country. Not sure if that river bed is a hot spot or not. I have visited a petrified river bed just east of town that has dinosaur tracks in it.
 

iveofione

Life of the Party
Forum Supporter
Good on 'ya Steve for for breaking the curse of the shack nasties! Running water is just so much more interesting than stillwater and to have some to fish in winter is a real treat.

Although we fish a lot of stillwater, Freestone and I fish some streams in the summer where a 12'' fish is a real trophy. These are high effort waters that require some skill and water reading talent but are about the most fun fishing we do in a year. I'm sure you must have some similar small streams in your area, the stuff dreams are made of!
 
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