The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

I'm stuck at a high school make-up registration and not many kids need their photos taken so I figured I'd stroll on over to the NCFFB. (Can't access Facebook on the school's WiFi because it's designated as a "social/dating" site.)

Not to come empty handed, I've got a report. Wednesday night I returned to AZ after a week of FF in the Wind River Mts. of Wyoming for large cutts and especially, large goldens and golden/cutts. Two friends and I backpacked for 10 miles after being driven 13 miles across Shoshone tribal lands to the trailhead. (At a cost of $200 each for transportation and a $55. trespassing fee, it lends a new interpretation to the term being "scalped".)

I've since heard of other areas in the "Winds" that have nice goldens where you don't have to pay for tribal transportation, and if I ever do this again I'll be in touch with the Wy G&F to get more info.

I don't have any pix with me, so you'll just have to take my work for the results.

I'd been hiking/working out for a year to get in shape for this one. There isn't much oxygen at 10,500 feet. We fished a series of lakes connected by streams in one of the drainages. The nearest town was Crowheart, so named after a late 19th century battle where one chief killed another in a final battle to bring an end to a short war. The loser's heart was cut out and placed on the end of the winning chief's lance.

The bottom lakes contained small brookies, and some nice cutts and bows. Small buggers, prince nymphs and soft hackles accounted for most of my sub-surface fish and small mosquitos hooked a number on the surface. Speaking of mosquitos, there were thousands of them. We had to douse ourselves with 99% deet, three times a day. Lip balm with at least SPF 25 was a must, too.

As we made our way up the drainage, it was mostly cutts to 18". The outlets and especially inlets to the lakes were the best spots, and at times it was "fish on" two out of every three casts.

At the top two lakes was our ultimate quarry, goldens of 20" and larger. The forests gave way to alpine bushes and grasses. The lakes are deep, very deep, but there are "shelfs" around the edges of much of them. This is the time of year the goldens come out of the depths to spawn in the creeks and feed on the shelfs. We were a little late, and the fish had been pounded by two groups that were up there before us, but I was able to land almost 20 between 11" - 18", mostly on very small egg patterns, red San Juan worms and olive scuds. We had to hit them pretty hard to instigate a grab. Further down, below the second lake from the top, I landed a 20" golden-cutt from under a waterfall.

The goldens were, without doubt, the most beautiful fresh water fish I'd ever seen. Mostly yellow with slashes of red, I photographed almost every fish. I'll try to get back to the NCFFB later to post a shot or two.

Nice picture! What a beautiful fish.

In order to avoid future scalpings, I'd suggest you get a copy of Wind River Trails by Finis Mitchell, who is the original "mountain man" of the Winds. His book will give you plenty of other ideas of places to go, trailheads to start from, lakes to fish, etc. It was quite useful for my trip to the Winds, but I doesn't sound like I went as far into the back country as you did, but it's still worth a gander. $255??!! OUCH!

--Fly Guy Dave

Thanks for the tip, FG. One of the guys I went with has been using that route for 25 years; that's the reason we went through the reservation. I was already bald before the trip, but now I'm missing my little tufts.
For this particular drainage, it's either pay the Shoshone for a 13 mile drive and then hike 10 OR hike about 24 from another direction, which takes 3 days. There are other drainages, though, although I heard you still have to pay to drive to the trailhead...but not as much.

Ditto on the Finis Mitchell book. I made a trip to the Winds in about '85 from Pinedale into the Bridger Wilderness. Before I went I traded letters with Finis and bought a book from him through the mail. He knew the area like no other man before or after him. He marked up the pages that covered the areas we were hiking through with personal notes, and he even threw in some flies that worked very well in the WR high country. Pinedale...say it again...Pinedale.
Plus, you can stop and have a meal at King Cones, "Home of the Roadkill Burger"!

Buzz

My first, and reasonably unsuccessful, trip into the Winds was on horseback from Pinedale. About 9 of us from our local fly club went. I wasn't in charge and it was somewhat disorganized, and the cutts weren't that large and the goldens were okay, but sparse. We went up the other side of the Continental Divide, and I'm convinced that that area sees less pressure and has more to offer...but then, what the hell do I know?

Here's my largest of the trip, a 20" golden-cutt.

I went in from the east slope of the Winds as well, west of Lander and Sinks Canyon, near the Popo Agie River. Say that last name wrong and the locals KNOW that "you ain't from 'round here." (personal experience).

The trailhead that I went to was not hard to get to, was within a reasonable hiking distance of some lakes with goldens, and I didn't have to pay top dollar, since the trailhead wasn't on indian land. I'm thinking of going back, perhaps as soon as next summer, and I'd go to the same place without hesitation.

--Fly Guy Dave

I think you were two or three drainages over from ours. Timing is everything. Next time, I'd go the first week of July. Someone up there told us to check out a site called "modis", which has up to date satellite views of the lakes. You'd be able to determine if they're ice-free...unless it's too cloudy for the optics to penetrate.

Good call on the MODIS website, I went and checked it out and it's pretty cool. Here's the link: http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.php In the past, I did the low-tech method and called the USFS office and Lander and asked them how the snow pack was. However, I wonder how often some of those folks make it out of the office and get out in the woods to see for themselves.

Thanks for the tip.

--FGD

You're right! We were a hair away from cancelling the trip 2 days before when the 3rd member of our group couldn't fish the Ruby Mts. at 9,500 feet. True, it was a few hundred miles from the Winds, but we got some bad info from local stores in the Lander area. When we finally reached a good source at the USFS, he knew the conditions were favorable 'cause he'd just returned from a rescue mission near our area. Then I reached an outfitter who also confirmed conditions were good.

The last time we hiked in, in '08, we were too early (about June 25) and our golden lakes were frozen. The day before we left the lower one finally started to melt, but not enough. The snow drifts were up to 10 feet high and we had to detour a bit to get around them. Lost the trail a couple of times, too.

That's a really nice fish but going to Wyoming to catch goldens is kinda like going to Texas to get a Philly cheese steak.

Funny you should say that, Shawn. I'm actually from Philly, born and raised, and you're right, I'd never go to TX for a cheesesteak.

I AM looking into fishing for big goldens in CA, especially since I always buy an annual license. Let's face it, though, CA hasn't always been ecologically minded when it comes to its fish, and it's much easier to find goldens under 9" than anything of decent size. The smallest golden I landed in WY was about 13".

I'm willing to hike my ass off, though, so it might happen.

I know you're just funnin' with me, but that trip to WY is one I'll cherish for the rest of my life, like the steelhead season on the Trinity in 2007.