Up for a continental breakfast at the hotel, we had biscuits with sausage gravy, sweet rolls, OJ and coffee. After the Dean Ornish breakfast, we headed over to a local fly shop - GK purchased a cool baseball hat (with the shop logo on it).  Overall the Orvis approved shop in Pinedale was not very friendly or forthcoming on local information or flies.  They seemed to say that unless you bought a guided trip from them, they were not very interested in chatting with you in any meaningful way.  Kind of poor customer relations in my opinion, but c'est la vie.  No sense in letting that disturb us, so we didn't!!  They do give fishing reports etc. on the web - maybe we just hit them on a bad day.

 We then headed west on Highway 354 toward the town of Merna & North Horse Creek to find the third Cutthroat subspecies, the Colorado Cutt. AM had talked to the local Fisheries Manager and gotten a tip that North Horse Creek was a good place to find the Colorado Cutt – we had specific directions with recommendations on which bridge to go over, park and where to fish. It was great!!. We went past the original location to check out the water upstream. We found it to be very bushy (willows) with beaver dams.  Very Moosey looking.  However, GK was able to use a secret fly (a Smokey Bear?) to catch a USFS Sign.

By 11:00 am, we had moved downstream and parked near the designated bridge over the creek and proceeded on foot thru the woods, upstream where we found the water to be very shallow with some great looking pools loaded with rising trout. The water was typically very thin with pools containing hungry fish - you only got one rise however from each fish before you put them down.  The water was very clear so some stealth was needed.

AM was first to connect, then AB caught a nice Bonneville.

Moving downstream we found a huge pool loaded with active fish. JR & GK raised several fish and had a couple LDR’s (long distance releases), but it wasn’t long before everyone had caught a nice Bonneville Cutthroat.

High 5’s all around!! By 1:20 pm on Sunday, the YG had completed & documented the Wyoming Cutt Slam!! We continued to fish downstream and found several more great pools full of trout.

AB found a beaver dam area with a long, deep, still pool behind a dam. One cast with a Stimulator brought a huge trout up from the depths. He came to the fly but swung off at the last second. AB tied a small black ant as a dropper to the Stimulator and made another cast. The flies drifted across the same area and the huge trout came up from the depths again. He inspected the Stimulator, but moved away for a second time. I thought it was over, but in the same instant the trout turned and grabbed the ant!

A few minutes later I had a beautiful 20" Colorado Cutt in the net! A quick photo & he was released. I was delighted!

Returning back down Horse Creek road we turned north on Hwy 189/191 toward Bondurant. Along the way we stopped at the Green River fishing access at Warren Bridge. Walking along a well used path, AB and AM raised two small ones under the bridge after many casts. Water actually looked fishy but it may have been pounded for all we know. On the way back to the minivan, we found the campground had become the personal grazing land for a pronghorn antelope. He seemed very calm around us and although we did not actually pet him, we got much closer than one might expect to such a spooky animal. 

Heading on down the road we continued on toward the Hoback River, which flows into the Snake. Reaching the Hoback River road we made a left turn and traveled up road a few miles to an old bridge. GK tried his spinning rod on a large pool under the bridge with surprisingly no luck & AM headed upstream to fly fish a braided area. AM caught a couple small Fine-Spots, but darkness was soon upon us and we headed back thru Hoback Junction to Jackson Hole looking for lodging. Along the road on the way out, we noted the large and very expensive homes and ranches along the Upper Hoback River road – suspect there is some real money back there. A couple of the names of places included Dead Shot Ranch, The HRG Ranch, Poker Flat, and others.

Dodging deer on the highway, we headed into Jackson looking for a place to stay. The Motel 6 filled the lodging bill in Jackson and we headed out to Bubba’s Bar-B-Que for dinner. AB was complaining about severe back pain on the way to Bubba’s, to the point of not being able to eat his dinner.