The Miracle Mile in Wyoming

Fishing in Wyoming last month was pretty epic.  My amigos and I had planned the trip for quite some time, which included not one, but TWO Clark boys traveling from Upstate New York to visit me and fish.  They got a head start on the rest of us and got some time to fish together.  The weather looked a bit ominous and the Clark's dealt with the worst of it, but overall it ended up being decent.  Here are a few that Jared and Darren reigned in those first two days:

Not bad, right?  These guys can fish.  

We booked a comfy Airbnb for a long weekend right near the river, which was some solid planning from my buddy Tim.  Wyoming is barren, but beautiful.  With almost no ambient light, the stars and evening chill were out in full force each night.  It was very soothing to be in the middle of nowhere again.

We left super early in the morning in order to get up there to meet our guide, Mickey.  Since Jared and Darren had booked a guide for two days we decided to do the same for our first day in order to learn some new tricks and hopefully catch some nice fish.  Surprisingly, we had been told that 3 and 4x were the way to go on "The Mile" because of the nature of these fish.  I was a bit skeptical because I have caught some very strong fish on 6x and not had too much of a problem.  

Mickey told us the same thing and Tim very quickly reaffirmed the point of using heavier tippet to get these fish in the net.  He caught a beauty right out of the gate!

These fish were fat and these fish were strong.  They tried just about everything to get off including swim directly at the boat, attempt to get wrapped around the anchor, or even get airborne near the boat to get off.  I was also impressed with how "clean" these fish were.  They had very few hook marks and were as strong as advertised.

I nymphed pretty hard with a few hookups, but nothing stuck.  Jared and Darren were floating near us with their guide and we kind of ham and egged our way downriver before lunch.  I had read about fishing leeches and we were also using eggs, small midges and Baetis imitations.  I had showed Mickey a few egg sucking leeches that I had tied a mere few hours before we left and he said to go ahead and put one on.  I kid you not on my first cast I caught this beast of a rainbow:

That fly proved to be a match winner and I hooked and lost an even bigger fish about 10 minutes later.  That thing had to have been two feet long and as soon as he ate the leech he just took off across the pool.  I battled him back near the boat, but unfortunately he came unstuck.  These fish really are crazy and 3-4x is necessary!  I got another good one at the end on an egg before we called it quits.  Mickey was a fun, knowledgeable guide, and we enjoyed our float in a new place.

The next day we set out on foot looking for more big fish under bright blue skies.  There was a crispness in the air and the breeze had some bite to it, but it didn't seem to make much of a difference.  We seined the river and found quite a few mid-sized stoneflies, so naturally I put one on.  I started getting hookups again and then this big girl chomped down on my stonefly and the battle was on.  Thanks for the photo Darren.

When I was in Spain this summer my guide Ekaitz had talked about the fish in his river having a lot of food to eat.  I couldn't help but hear his voice in my head when I came across a shallow eddy full of bugs!  The North Platte River has A LOT of food in it for these fish.

Our 3rd day proved to be one Darren will never forget.  Unfortunately for Jared and I we never got to see the fish below in person, but the picture tells the story.  Somehow Darren got this brown, which had come up from Pathfinder Reservoir on a midge imitation.  What a BEAST!

Jared wanted to get in on the fun and with his last cast of the trip he hooked up and landed this fatty!  Nice job bro.

Our trip home yielded this photo as we took the scenic route back to Denver. 

Wyoming is a special place and the North Platte is a special river.  I had never fished any section of it and the Miracle Mile proved to be another place I will fish again.  Planned out fishing trips with lifelong friends are truly special.  Spending time with this crew on the river was really special and although the fish were big and the battles were fierce, just being in a new place with these guys was sensational.

Lesson of the Blog: Nymphing is actually a lot like dry fly fishing.  We couldn't sight fish for these beauties, but when we were focused on every drift and every mend we got more hookups.  Jared and Darren caught more fish because they were more focused.  I had some chunks of time where I was nymphing, but I wasn't really focused on what I was doing.  When you are nymphing, focus in on that indicator or sighter with 100% attention.  Sometimes the grab is obvious, but with big, smart fish, it's not.  I have learned this from fishing tough tailwaters in Colorado, New York, New Mexico, and now, Wyoming.  The smartest fish will eat and spit out that fly before you know it and you won't even know you had a fish.

Until next time my friends, I will leave you with this sunset.  When I turned around after taking this photo the moon was already up on the other horizon.  Nature is amazing.