Sunshine Reservoir, Wood & Greybull Rivers

I’m a little delinquent in posting this as it was last week when there was a couple days break in the rainy weather. I decided to take the trailer south and a bit west of the nearby town of Meeteetse. There is a large valley between the Wood and Greybull rivers that holds two reservoirs, Upper and Lower Sunshine. The upper is the smaller of the two and more suited for float tubes, rafts, etc. so I headed there early Wednesday morning. Found a nice area to set up camp just above the boat launch with a great view of the lake and surrounding mountains. There is a variety of fish in this put & take water but the most prevalent is the Yellowstone cutthroat. The fish were not huge but eager and I soon lost count of the 13-14 inch cutties. They were an hoot on the 10’ 3wt. After about 3 hours the wind picked and I headed in the eat lunch. Afternoon produced even more wind so I decided to drive a bit and check the rivers on either side of the valley. Both rivers run through private property for 8-10 miles until you reach National Forest boundaries. I followed the Greybull upstream for a few miles but it was still fast and dark and it seemed that it wasn’t going to change. I headed back and took the turn for the Wood. This area was a lot more scenic, although the river conditions weren’t any better. I did go up to the forest service boundary and up into the canyon a few miles in hopes of better water. Unfortunately there was still fast flows and stained water. Hiked around a bit and then headed back, making note of places that I would visit again when the water was calmer. The next morning I hit the lake again and found a cove with colored up spawning cutties. It was the same as Wednesday with eager fish and lots of action. Around noon the wind picked up again (it is Wyoming after all) so I packed up and headed back home. A short but fun trip with willing fish and lots of beautiful scenery.
The valley heading into the lake.

Lots of wildlife in and around the valley.

Caught mostly cutties in a variety of color patterns.

Even caught this little guy, @Tim Lockhart, isn’t this one of those catfish that @Evan B had on those stickers he sent us?

My camp spot

The Wood River canyon

 

[Tim L]

SM how should I know? The Oracle usually has to tell me what I caught

 

[skyriver]

Nice report. Gorgeous country!

 

[Matt B]

Believe you caught yourself a sucker there, not sure what species but looks like a sucker.

 

[Eastside]

Beautiful country! Looks like you had your pick of camping spots. What elevation were you at?

 

[Evan B]

Nice peamouth! Don't see many of them reported on around here.

 

[Matt B]

Nice peamouth! Don't see many of them reported on around here.

Mouth and anal fin both say "sucker" to me, rather than peamouth chub.

 

[Evan B]

Mouth and anal fin both say "sucker" to me, rather than peamouth chub.

Mouth has too much of a jaw to be a sucker.

and this is a peamouth... so not totally sure what's in that picture now that I see comparisons.

 

[Matt B]

Mouth has too much of a jaw to be a sucker.

and this is a peamouth... so not totally sure what's in that picture now that I see comparisons.

That's one kind of sucker you've got pictured there, Evan--maybe a largescale sucker? But there are quite a few species of suckers, amongst which there are some variations in mouth morphology, and I think only one species of peamouth chub. I still think Islander caught a sucker.

 

[Evan B]

That's one kind of sucker you've got pictured there, Evan--maybe a largescale sucker? But there are quite a few species of suckers, amongst which there are some variations in mouth morphology, and I think only one species of peamouth chub. I still think Islander caught a sucker.

Its head definitely has the look of a sucker, I just haven't been able to find any reference photos of any varieties with a pronounced jaw like that. I'm just genuinely curious because whatever it is, it's not something I've seen before.

 

[Matt B]

Its head definitely has the look of a sucker, I just haven't been able to find any reference photos of any varieties with a pronounced jaw like that. I'm just genuinely curious because whatever it is, it's not something I've seen before.

We need a ventral view!

I don't see much "jaw," but I feel like I can see a bit of the bumpy-textured part on the lowest part of sucker mouths.

 

[skyriver]

Definitely a sucker. If I had to guess, I would say a Flannelmouth or Largescale, but definitely a sucker. Maybe even a hybrid. I know that bluehead and flannelmouth suckers have been known to hybridize with invasive white suckers. The white fins on that one are interesting.

 

[Islander]

Beautiful country! Looks like you had your pick of camping spots. What elevation were you at?

There were a few other folks there but not many. It is beautiful here, mostly 3-4 months, then it’s either brown or white.
The elevation is just a bit higher than Cody at 5,700 ft.

This is the water view from my camp spot. The three coves on the left of the photo were loaded with cutties.

 

[Islander]

Definitely a sucker. If I had to guess, I would say a Flannelmouth or Largescale, but definitely a sucker. Maybe even a hybrid. I know that bluehead and flannelmouth suckers have been known to hybridize with invasive white suckers. The white fins on that one are interesting.

Did a bit of research, it is a sucker, don’t know the variety. Seems that Wy Game and Fish started putting in tigers to help thin them out. This article is from 2015, so I imagine they ended up doing the same thing in Upper Sunshine.

Tiger trout stocked in Lower Sunshine Reservoir

content.govdelivery.com

 

[Brian in OR.]

How do you like your travel trailer? been looking at the same floor plan…

 

[Islander]

How do you like your travel trailer? been looking at the same floor plan…

I really like it. There were two different versions when we looked at them. Ours has the bed 90 deg. to the door, the other was inline and you could walk (sort of) on either side. There seems to be more usable floor space in ours, but you can only access the bed from one side.

 

[troutpocket]

Wouldn’t surprise me if that is a white sucker.

They are common in that region. I used to catch them on chironomids in the Delaney lakes in northern CO.