26 August 2010
Up earlier today. Coffee and rolls in the hotel lobby.
In a discussion with Jennifer (lodge co-owner) we learn that the pine beetles are destroying considerable numbers of local trees. (A Forest Service survey of 1000 trees shows < 5 cones per tree). The fallout; local Grizzly bears rely on the cones to fatten up for the winter. Without the cones there have been many more Grizzly / human interactions as the bears search for an alternate source of food. She mentioned that the local custom meat cutting / smoking shop in town have had their dumpsters raided regularly.
We head from Dubois toward the Wind Indian Reservation - the area is striking in the early morning colors and shapes.
We reach Bull Lake Creek below the reservoir - this is a tailwater fishery in the outflow of the irrigation dam and which feeds into the Wind River.
We arrive at Bull Lake Creek to explore the areas below the dam. On the way in, the creek is pretty inaccessible as it is all fenced with barbed wire. It is a warm morning – I can see why several people warned us about snakes – it feels "snaky."
The bugs are really out this morning – lots of BWO’s, caddis, mosquitoes, and bunches of hoppers!! The stream bank is clay-like and mushy right by the edge but once you are 3-5 feet into the stream bed it has a good gravel bottom. The stream is populated by bunches of boulders (i.e., holding structure) and the river bottom below the dam is very flat like. Looks like there should be a ton of fish! The wind is ever present also this morning although the sky is blue and clear. Mike finds a way to have the wind take his cowboy hat off and start to rapidly drift away from him! Fortunately, AB is below him and is able to make a great cross-wind cast to hook the hat! It is the biggest thing we will catch in this water.
Despite all this and casting repeatedly over good looking water, we come up with zero! Wow! How does this happen? We fish the area for a while but this water will take some time to learn how to approach it. While we don’t end up with anything here, this area deserves more investigation. The area is actually pretty clean but it also looks like it is heavily used. I don’t recall all the restrictions but I am pretty sure bait is OK. Bait fishing combined with easy access tends to make fly fishing less productive….but I don’t know for sure. The recommendations we had from Tom and Too-Too independently suggests we need to spend more time to understand this little section of water.
We head out to explore this area on the Reservation to understand our options. Reading the Reservations’ fishing brochure, JR gets on the radio and tells our resident Lewis & Clark scholar that if we head eastward, we can stop by Fort Washikie (300 people, 5570 feet elevation) – which is the location of the grave of Sacajawea. Driving through town, we find the grave site of Chief Washikie, a pretty important leader in his own right. (FYI It is right across the street from the R.V. Greeves Art Gallery (by appointment only)).
However, we cannot find Sacajawea’s grave! Heading back into town, we stop by the Tribal Offices to get some advice. However, the offices are closed for lunch so we swing by the US Post Office which is located in the same building. We chat with Susan and Bonnie for directions. Susan is a fly fisher it turns out and has a wealth of suggestions – while we only have a day here, the information she shares would easily occupy more than week – this area has lots of possibilities!! Areas to remember include Dickinson Lake, Grave Lake, and Brooks Lake. These areas tend to be in mountain areas where the water is a little cooler this time of year. She and Bonnie give us directions to the Sacajawea grave site (better to ask than for me to describe it), so we head over to visit this place – we always find unexpected interesting activities when on these adventures.
I didn’t know that Sacajawea was only 16 years old (already a young women with a child) when she joined to help the Lewis & Clark expedition.
Susan recommended the Gannet Grill in Lander as a place to get lunch (about 20 minutes away) as there wasn’t any place to get lunch in Ft Washikie. Heading to Lander, we do find the Gannet Grill per her directions.
While the others order up lunch, I head across the street to The Good Place, a sporting goods store in Lander. The folks there give me some inputs on a range of places to try. However, it is pretty clear that guns are a bigger part of their business plan than fishing. Also Lander has an interesting contrast in stores along Main Street. First the Good Place, then The Grainery (a health food store), then the Lander Christian Center, and then "It’s a gurl thang" Nail Shop. Fascinating.
Heading back to the Gannet Grill, I check in with the other folks. They had learned from the girl taking the burger orders that her boyfriend had done well the other day on the Popo Agie at the Red Canyon fishing access area owned by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) – their office is about a block and half from the grill. GK checks out the place and brings back a map which the office assistant had given him. While the others finish their burgers, JR and I head to the TNC office. We find no one at the front desk but after waiting around a few minutes, Andrew Coulter sticks his head outside his office and asks if we need help. He is also a fly fisher and when he heard what our interests were, he said, "Come on down!"
We went through some map areas and he explained that they restrict the number of accesses to each fishing area each day. The Red Canyon area was already booked that day so we couldn’t go there. However, they did have an opening for a group like ours for the Upper Sweetwater River section – something like 6 miles of private access water! Andrew, who is the Wyoming TNC Director of Finance and Operations, was extraordinarily helpful and drew us some detailed maps of where to turn on the back roads. We never would have made it to the river without his help and maps!! We elect to go try the Upper Sweetwater section. We learned where the Bull Lake Creek enters the Wind River (where we had been in the morning) that TNC just acquired a couple of miles of River access with some property they had purchased. The water was high due to late summer irrigation needs when we were there so it was not fishing as well as it would in other water levels.
Picking up the others at the Gannet Grill, we head out of town with Andrew’s maps in hand. We take the Atlantic City exit and head out on gravel roads.
Arriving late afternoon, we see antelope grazing by the river. We are in big, big country. The rolling hills and sage brush country extend from mountain range to mountain range – we go by large areas where no fence can be seen for as far as you can see.
This is pretty much what this looked like during the pioneer wagon train travels In fact JR spots a marker post that turns out to be the Oregon Trail and also where the Pony Express passed through.
The Upper Sweetwater is a wonderfully sized little river with great structure – we are really all by our selves out here! Walking up to the water, we find we can find and turn some fish but they are wary and we are pretty visible to them.
However, AM hooks up with a great little rainbow by some bushes overhanging the stream (yeah, it was another parachute adams!)
I spooked up more fish than I could imagine so this is a productive stream but we just need to dial it in for ourselves. AB brings up a fish on a hopper pattern that he estimates would have gone at least 5 pounds, hooked and rolled it but couldn’t keep it hooked up. Several extremely long casts in a huge backwater pool produce a half-dozen strikes from feeding fish, but no hookups. There are some bigguns in this watershed! The Nature Conservancy mentioned that this river, being so remote, has suffered from poaching! Sad. Heading out in the early evening, we note the intrinsic beauty of this part of Wyoming including the Upper Sweetwater and the Red Canyon areas.
The drive back also highlights the mountain ranges to the west.
We arrive back at Dubois only to find that Chandler’s has closed their kitchen already – fortunately the Rustic Pine (since 1944!) as part of the Tavern in town is still serving so we can get some food for dinner. Good basic bar food all around!! (JR again goes for CFS!).