Earlier this summer we had a group of New Braunfels Fly Fishers head north to explore the western fishery outside of Casper Wyoming on the North Platte River and the Wind River/ Bighorn River outside Thermopolis Wyoming.
Our group used the Crazy Rainbow Lodge and Ugly Bug Fly Shop for our guides and hosting and thanks much to Ed Finger for arranging this trip for us all!
The first thing you notice is the wide open spaces, the North Platte is right behind the lodge, we could see rising fish in the evenings, and the rivers up here are big water! The trip to the Bighorn was a long drive to Thermopolis but was well worth it for the change of scenery and to see the river change from the Wind River to the Bighorn.
In addition to the fish in the river, there was tons of wildlife to see and keep you distracted.
It was great western fishing even with a drought in the area making flows a bit lower than typical for up there, but many fish were caught including Rainbows, Brown Trout, and Cutthroats! This was the first time to catch cutthroats for a few of us on the trip and made the trip for us. The fish had amazing colors and there were multiple doubles (both people fishing in the boat had a fish on at the same time) and some of us had a three species day!
The owner and the guides from Ugly Bug Fly Shop and Crazy Rainbow Lodge really went all out to make sure we had a good trip and got what we wanted, highly recommended if you are heading that way. An example of some of the flies we were using up there, in addition to the smaller nymphs like we use at home on the Guad, a good selection of larger flies worked on the bigger fish, Leeches, Thin Mints, Crane Flies, crawfish patterns, and Bob’s favorite (kidding) red wire worms.
All in, everyone caught enough fish that made getting back to the lodge and relaxing with fellowship and stories a perfect end to each day, and the meals that were prepared were spot on (including a special dessert)!
Compared to our home Texas Guadalupe river water, it was fun to have cooler weather, and fish from guide boats instead of wading so we got to see much more water each day than our typical wade on the Guad gets us for a day’s fishing. In places the scenery was just spectacular as was the wildlife (Wyoming is known for its Sage bushes and its Pronghorns!).
At the end of it, we all had a great time, and I think a return trip someday would be well worth it.
