HeavyC

Had great success last summer with Don House! My nephew & I were down from Colorado for the week and had Don showed us the ropes the first day, we were on fish the rest of the week, whenever we wanted, on the spots he took us to and using the techniques he showed us! Can't go wrong with Capt. Don!

I might suggest the Popo Agie then! TONS of access and some untouched water to be sure! My personal best brownie ever was out of this little river right before Hudson as you come from Lander. (HE was 34" and approx 14#! ) There is an access point there for the state and the reservation, though to drive across you have to be out by 3:30pm I believe, but you can always walk-in. I ahve managed several brownies close to that in the canyon too; several over 32" before. None of my bows have broken 27" in the canyon. Though after The Wedding of The Waters once you leave the canyon and it turns into state control and the river becomes The Big Horn, it ain't too shabby either! Will be spending 11 days on the reservation this summer! Plan on trying to hit it all! Including 4 days high country! Boysen for the eyes, The Popozhia (Popo Agie) & Wind river for the brownies, Bull Lake for the mackinaw & ling, and high country for cutthroats and hopefully a 'native' golden trout! Man it is going to be an adventure! Good luck! ...and watch for grizz!

Here you go - Crazy; one of the local guys on our forum/board is also a guide on my home lake and now just landed his own fishing show. The second show ever aired this morning and he was fishing the Yampa! (Yep ozarkgunner, incredible during elk season as that is where I hunt too; and no one else is out there in the cold! ) His show looks pretty cool and a big congrats to Chad LaChance! "The Fishful Thinker"! On the show he fished it (upstream from Hayden they said) on Aug 30th and ended up catching [5] 5lb+ fish, 3-bows, 1-cutbow, 1-brown, and ton of other 20" and down fish! Mostly rainbows though. On the show he only caught one ~35" pike. (He was drifting, but there is surely plenty of miles of public access!) They mentioned stuff about the trout pops and the guide and he were amazed that in two days they caught 1 smallmouth. They also only caught a couple of pike! Looks like the plan is working, though the guide stated they had been controlling them for a couple of years now. (So maybe a year or two longer) I suppose that I should have noticed this as well back in Nov, as I only fished for two hours and caught [5] fish, but all bobos. The State Wildlife Areas that they are putting the pike into are fishing like nuts too!!!! Apparently folks are catching big batches of pike to take for dinner! Gotta clean those darn y bones, but that pike sure is tasty in a little beer batter and fried up crispy!!! They need to get the populations down in the ponds I suppose, as they are saying keep them all and return none to the water. We actually have a few lakes around that are offering bounties for pike. Heck, one lake is now $20 a fish for all northerns!!! If you take them a 5 inch norethern pike, they will give you twenty dollars!! YEAH!! Now I Can be a bounty hunter... NICE! I think maybe I got my second job figured out!!! Not many other small rivers around that someone can catch at least [4] different species of trout, along with northern pike, smalljaws, and a tone of others including Squawfish, Humpback Chub, Mountain Whitefish, Channel Cat, and who knows what else. Wow, I might have to start fishing my home state for trout again!

OTF, Yampa is still fishing pretty good. The trout fishing should be steadily increasing in quality over the next couple of years. They have implemented plans to remove as many pike and smallies as possible and actually began the process last year. The smallies that are being netted by DOW are going into Elkhead reservior and they are already seeing some 4+pounder being caught. The pike are going into the State Wildlife Area ponds. They have also instituted strict rules of NOT returning ANY of these species to the river. (no limit) They felt the growth of those two species was devistating the native trout and especially the native endagered species like the Humpback Chub, Squawfish, etc... Should turn around quickly as they are already seeing great results. HC Out!

My Bad if the pics offend anyone! Not my intention at all. Just a little warning that they are spreading further and faster than the powers that be can keep up with!

First off, I am a Colorado boy so I will steer you to wyoming too... LOL I am just kidding. Seriously though, the fishing and seclusion is ten fold in Wyoming so I too, frequent some areas more often than I do Co. Not much help on other states, never have needed to travel any further than my good neighbor to the north! I can second the Riverside recomendation. However, not sure you would really get any seclusion. That area is rather 'touristy' any more, and quite frankly is still too close to Colorado so you will get plenty of us guys crashing your party. The west central, western, north central and northwestern sections of the state are BY FAR better IMO. I have fished the Encampment and the North Platte around the Saragtoga area and it can be great, just gets ten times the fishing pressure as other areas further away. "#1)A couple friends will fly in and join us for 4-5 days. We would need a place to stay within an hour of an airport, but off the beaten path with good fishing closeby." A) This will be your toughest one! Not sure where you are flying from, but there are only a couple of airports in all of Wy that have acceptable schedules and can land aircraft of any size! Cheyenne, Jackson Hole, Laramie, Casper, after that????? To be closer to some of the best fishing, I would suggest Jackson Hole. As it is much closer to more great fishing than Cheyenne or the others. No problem sticking within an hour away, but that is really not far at all in Wyoming terms, and you would still be in the middle of another very touristy area with it being so close to Yellowstone, Jackson Hole, the Green & Snake Rivers. Still by far my best suggestion on airports, since within 2-5 hours in any direction from there you can literally disappear into seclusion if you so desire! "#2) We're country boys - we don't need much except place to cook, shower, and sleep. Don't want a resort, hot tubs, restaurants, daily room service, etc. A simple cabin in the country would be perfect." A) Not a problem. ... Unless you are close to a real touristy area, you are not really going to find the resort type places, only the cabins and mom and pop motels anywhere else, at least no resorts in any kind of numbers. My suggestion would be to head back east a little to areas like Dubios, Lander, Riverton, etc... You will then be right smack dab in the middle of some world class trout fishing (walleye too at Boysen Reservior near Shoshone and in the Wind River) I am actually a camping type guy, so don't have much info on accomadations there either, sorry! "#3) We're not fly fishermen, basic rod and reels. Mostly fish with powerbaits, minnows, shrimp, etc." A) Luckily in most places in Wy the Artificial Flys and lures regs are not as widespread, so those are some fine choices. I would also suggest some hardware like some spinners, Kastmasters, Little Cleos and the like. (I actually sware by Mepps #2 Red & White spinners for Wyoming brownies!) Salmon eggs and egg sacs work wonders, and never overlook the trusty nightcrawler! "#4) We don't care about trophies, but like seclusion. We just like to catch enough fish to keep us entertained. We prefer stream wade fishing to lake fishing, but would rent canoes or boat if necessary." A) Ok, the tricky one! Well, I guess I would truly need to understand your definition of seclusion as mine is "Not seeing a human being the entire trip after I turned off the highway", which I have been able to do on many, many 1-2 week excursions. Choice #1. The Wind River Valley - Much of this area is included in the Wind River Indian Reservation and where I personally like to spend the majority of my time due to the lack of pressure and the seclusion. It is an incredible area and holds vast amounts of opportunity for big numbers as well as big trophies! It is a seperate permit than the state and can be purchased by the day, [7] day or annual. [7] day is usually the best bang for the $$. On this reservation it holds not only the Wind River, but the Popo Agie and Bull Lake Creek which are my two favorite haunts. Those are a few of the major drainages, but there are many more. The Popo Agie has endless miles of access and holds some enormous brown trout, including very good numbers. The Wind River is in another league by itself. It has reletively no pressure at all in and around the middle areas of the reservation and holds incredible brownie fishing, along with some great walleye/sauger fishing. Then when the river dumps out of Boysen Reservior into Wind River Canyon, it definately turns into some world class fishing, but is pretty tough access to some of the better pools and runs. Canyon wall climbs down and up, but well worth the effort. It travels somewhere around~7-10 miles in the canyon while on the reservation and then turns amazingly into the Big Horn river (yes, the infamous one everyone goes to!) at "The Wedding of The Waters". From then on and into Montana it is state permits required, and more pressure at any of the public access areas. Choice #2. Sinks Canyon - (On the Little Popo Agie) This is kinda southwest of Lander, and also an area with unlimited access to tons of fishing and some seclusion. FYI... if you happen at all to be in this area, it is absolutely worth while to deviate even hours to see this: http://wyoparks.state.wy.us/Site/Video.asp?vidID=25 Some of the brown and rainbows in here are 4' long and 30-40 pounds! can't fish it as it is protected, but just to see them is incredible! Plenty of other great streams in the area though and the Little Popo Agie is still a great river in this area. I actually love to drift Paultske's Balls-O-Fire in this river and tend to do great with them! Choice #3. Riverside/Encampment Wy - To add a little to that area, it is still a great area and at times you can have very little pressure from other anglers. I truly wish I could help more with a cabin. I do know that the gas station at the intersection of Hwy230 and Hwy70 right there in Riverside has some cabin rentals. We used to get one called the "Green Mountain Cabin", and it ws like $20 a day and can sleep about [8] or so! As mentioned before, the North Platte is prominent in the area and some 60 miles or more is classified as gold medal waters and has tons of public access so you really cannot go wrong. Do not overlook the Encampment river though, as it too holds some great fish and large numbers. I could go on and on, but you get the jist. Endless opportunities abound and everywhere you turn. .... Now if you happen to want hike-in areas, let me know. Those are truly the best places, but you will surely earn your take if you choose to take that mission! Hope it all helps, and remember to save up for the bear spray! They are expensive and everyone should really have it with you at all times. It is grizzly country still , and more and more are ranging far from the Jellystone area. The wolves are going nuts too and the folks in charge really need to get some controls in place! I would hate to run into a 250 pound wolf about as much as I would dislike sneakin up on a big sow w/ cubs. (of Course nothing like the Bill & Phil Show Alaska! LOL!) Either way, notihng to mess with fo sho! Check these fat boys out!

Hey Leonard, sorry I did not know you were one in the same when I met you at the store back before Labor Day or I woulda introduced myself! I was in there with my nephew during our trip down and you showed my that huge 9' wood swimbait you wanted to try on some monster brownies! Have you been able to give it a whirl yet? Any luck? On a sadder note I have to admit, that a couple of days later we couldn't find you when we saw you walking down the highway and your van was down with the hood up! We did make a u turn and went looking for you, but no luck! We figured you slipped into the Mickey D's or the other store and found some help, so sure hope you did! Next year maybe!

Hello Everyone! We made it back as originally planned, but the only thing that actually kept us from extending & staying through this weekend was the darn Gustov weather hit that area on Tuesday First off, great place, area & we had a wonderful time! Began our trip the evening of the 27th knowing that we would not make it to our destination for another ~15 hours. The plan worked well, traffic was light all the way and we just slipped through the KC area before rush hour hit. Made it into the Branson area late morning and a made a pit stop by the local Wally World for those last minute items and of course; ICE! Headed strait to the campsite to get things set up. The plan WAS TO get camp set up, take a quick nap and get on the lake for the last couple of hours of sunlight. So much for making plans with a very cocky 17 year old in tow!!! Never did help driving through the night, and now playing his little game and still sleeping in the truck!! (Kids these days. If it were only 30 years ago! Boy if I ever woulda tried that w/ my parents or relatives I would have been looking at & feeling someone's big ol boots kickin me you know where!) I tried to play his litte game and thought I needed a nap anyways, since I had just drove over 15 hours and all. NO WAY! The heat and humidity had other plans for my sweat glans! So needless to say I started unloading and setting things up. (Moving rather sluggishly I must admit) Then the Carey (the nephew) must have started feeling a little guilty and drug himself out of the truck; HUNGRY of course. No problem there, as I understand what other 17 year old boy is not ALWAYS hungry So he set-up the ol` Coleman and cooked himself up some ball parks. Followed by some actual assistance setting some things up. (He really is a great kid, wired tight and going to test me every chance he gets, but a good kid ) After canopy and tent are set-up I again try and lay down for a power nap to no avail Now I am hungry, so I throw on a couple of dogs. Now I am dead tired and he is wired on a half a bag of Crispy Cream miniture cake donuts! Humidity is killing me and his constant bugging convince me to get the boat on the lake for the last hour of daylight. I had previously printed some maps showing underwater brush piles dropped-in by the Army Corp of Engineers & BPS and I had some that showed a couple of banks right across the lake. Well we head out just past the first main lake point and start drifting back over it. I was using a shaky head with a watermelon & red flake Chomper's Drop shot worm and Carey starts out throwing a Heddon Puppy on top. The pattern for the trip started early - my first cast a big fat bluegill his second cast a gill on the top water! A couple of casts later out in ~20fow I get the first short spot of the trip! Dink for sho, was maybe 6" ) I am exited though! That very first evening we both managed a couple of short spots and a handful of bluegill apiece in maybe 30 minutes on the water! NICE! The very next morning we had a guided trip planned w/ capt. Don and got on the water a little late, sorry Don!. (those 17 year olds sure do not want to get up do they!) We hit a couple of main & secondary lake points and managed one very decent smallie What I wanted even more from Capt. Don was locations for the remainder of the trip so we bounced around much of the eastern portion of the lake and he rolled over some points and graphed them for me and we gave them a little try. By ~10:30 we decied to get on some fish and switched to some drop shot rigs and immediately started pickin at the Kentuckies suspended at about 25'+. For the next 3 hours it was non-stop action mostly on short spots & gills, but several decent sized mixed in! The trick was to get the crawler past the bluegill who were all suspended between 1-20'! Great end to a very productive day in my mind. I then used the locations Don showed me the rest of trip; and with good success The rest of the weekend proceed similar to the guided trip. We always managed a couple decent smallies or spots on the points and in some coves, and then headed to the drop shot areas later in the morning and into afternoon. Deep water docks, and the bridge pillars were the ticket, but we found the spots to be hanging even deeper in ~35-40fow! It was awesome to watch them come up on the graph and take the crawler, that is so cool! In the evenings we tried with only little success some topwater tactics. The evenings seemed to be the same as the morning and sporatic jig bite being the best. Jigs still seemed to capture the vast majority of the keeper size fish all week, followed by the drop shot and then topwater. Though more number of bass were on the drop shot and crawlers! I also wore out the bluegills on the Gulp Alive leeches! They absolutely must love those things. I did manage quite a few Kentuckies on the leeches when drop shotting w/ them; if I was successful at getting them through the bluegills which were suspended much shallower in the same locations. Even though I am not a big picture person, I will post a few for everyone's viewing pleasure. Thanks everyone for the advice and reports I have been getting here on OA! Thanks to capt. Don for the trip and all the locations we wore out the next 4 days! Some decent shorts: More pics - - - - -

Correct, I did see that on his website. Maybe I can hook into one this week! Leaving Colorado tomorrow so this is your warning! I am on my way!

They absolutely work wonders on smallies & walleye here in Colorado! Just don't let the tub spill in your pickup! DOHHH! Happened in June and still smells!

Probably b/c the facts you share proves they eat a huge % of forage fish If that is in fact correct, I should then be able to assume the game fish have less to eat.

Weekend off? Well good for you! You might need it anyway, w/ two rookies like my nephew and myself picking your brain & messin up your boat next Friday (ON A HOLIDAY WEEKEND TO BOOT!) you might need the rest! Capt. Don, I am so exited I cannot even sleep anymore! I will send you an e-mail soon, I am so ready! HeavyC (aka Marty Martinez)

I agree with everyone's top two! I had an Ironman I bought when I went in the service back in 87 and it just broke two summers ago! Was a great watch! Now, I have a very nice Casio G-shock and it is awesome! It was a little pricey though, it went for [2] Benjamins, but I still think it was worth it! Some of the selling points for me were: Supposed to be insulated for extreme cold environments and I fish and hunt in Colorado! (I have had it incased in frozen in snow well below zero) Water resistant to 250 meters! (can't help there, only been maybe 20 ft deep on me) I can most certainly vouch for the the shock resistance and durability, as I have beat it up!

Well I will sure admit I am taking notes here! I will be down there for the first time and can sure use the advice. Be there from the 27th -Sept 5th and cannot hardly stand the anticipation! It is killing me! Thanks everyone!

Bon Voyage! Will miss your reports for sure. Oh, one word for the wise; if you have a big giant griz come sniffing around looking for your catch. DO NOT pick it up an run with it!!! LOL! Sorry, couldn't resist