December 13, 2025
Typically, this time of year, the thought of fishing in the high deserts of Western Wyoming would be considered an act of lunacy, or you are truly running from something in your everyday life. Winter in that area can be ranked right up there with some of the harshest in the country. But this year, the weather gods are blessing, or cursing us with a mild late fall. So my friend Dustin and I decided to hit the river before it eventually gets too cold. The older I get, the less desire I have for fishing when the temps are below freezing. Anything where the highs will be in the forties, I’m good with it.
Last March, we hit close to the same stretch of river without much success. So we decided to hit it again, because we’re like that. When something doesn’t work the first time, why not give it another shot? After three hours of discussing our strategy on the drive up there, we were convinced we would crack the code this time around. We had all the winter flies lined up we could think of, Zebra Midges, Egg Patterns, Scuds, Sow Bugs, pheasant tails, some beaded, some not. We would rig our rods with long leaders to reach the bottom of the deep holes we would be targeting. We talked about setting up a streamer rod in case we wanted to use that. But in our excitement to get to the river, it was an afterthought. Most fish this time of year are caught nymphing, so we focused on that.
I had all my camera gear ready to go! It was going to be a good day for catching nice fish and getting some cool pics along the way. We walked up to the river and set our packs down. We started dissecting the river to decide where to start. There was a nice tail out, a few good drop-offs that we knew would have some nice fish in them. We started seeing rising fish all over. We hadn’t even cast a rod yet, but we thought to ourselves, “This is going to be a great day!”
Dustin walks into the river and, on the first cast, fishing the tailout where we spotted fish rising, catches a decent brown. I joke with him: “Let’s get a quick picture of the fish in case we don’t catch another one.” I didn’t even get out my good camera, thinking I’ll have ample opportunity to get more throughout the day. My cellphone will be good enough for this one.
We never saw another trout the rest of the day.
Dustin caught a few White Fish, and I got blanked! The only thing that saved our pride was that we ran into a few other fisherman who said their day had been slow too. In the end, we didn’t care. We had a great day! The weather was beautiful, the sound of the river was nothing but relaxing, the smell of sagebrush filled the air, we drank a few beers, had some good laughs, and swung a fly rod all day. Fulfilled.
