Return to Backwoods, WY

Brent Postal — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:08:27 +0000

After several years of hiatus, I headed back out to Cody, Wyoming to camp, fish, and generally enjoy being out of cell phone range. Accompanied by two other devout anglers, one blood, one close enough to be blood, we drove our unpredictable rental car deep into the wilderness. Our destination – the Sunlight Basin. Our goal – catch fish. The weather was as nice as can be. Memories were a certainty.
Only there was one problem. Seems we weren’t the only ones looking to rough it in this part of the country. The usually unoccupied campsites were overflowing with people. “I’ve never seen this many people here” we all said at one point or another. Four-wheelers and RV’s were everywhere. Finally, like a perfect spot outside the supermarket, a clear site emerged. It was just feet from the water! We unloaded the gear and began the simple yet time-consuming task of setting up camp. Just as we were standing up the tent, one of many four-wheelers came rumbling by, only this one didn’t keep going. The lady pulled in to our site and effectively ruined the jovial atmosphere with the words, “You can’t camp here.” We moved fearing a $5000 fine and would later learn that she was correct. Basically, you can’t camp that far into bear country, and to be honest, we did see grizzly tracks and scat not far from our tent. Fortunately, we found another site miraculously untaken a mile or two back, and set up camp number two.
By this point, we were all itching to fish. Over the next two days we would explore miles of Sunlight Creek with marginal success. It wasn’t like it used to be back in the day. “Where did all the fish go,” I thought. Then, on the last night of our stay in the basin, we got into scores of fish. Rising trout were taking bugs as far as the eye could see. We tied on some Adams dry flies and caught fish until it was too dark to set the hook. Best of all, we didn’t see any other anglers. It was just us and the trout. This was why we went to the Sunlight Basin. This is why we fish. But I knew enough to treasure this “easy” fishing, because tomorrow, we were off to challenge bigger water, bigger flies, and most certainly, bigger fish.
The North Fork of the Shoshone remains an untapped gem for big trout. Averaging 16 inches, trout make their way up from Buffalo Bill Reservoir into the river to spawn in the spring. Then, they remain in the river until the water temperatures and levels force them back to the reservoir. This gives anglers several months of prime fishing over big, hungry fish. We just happened to hit the river at the right spot, at the right time, as green drakes floated in foam lines like tiny sailboats. That is, until huge trout gulped them down with splashy rises. Unlike the previous night, we knew our presentations had to be flawless. And it took some practice. But once we figured it out we started catching trout of almost 20 inches on dry flies! With four weights! Rainbows, cutthroats, and cutbows all fell for our well-placed imitations. The jumped, dove, and thrashed there way all over the stream before succumbing to our eager hands and a quick photo or two. Now this is why we fish.
Those four days replanted the fly fishing seed deep down within me. Watching a trout as long as your arm slowly rise to your dry is as exciting as exciting gets. Looking back, the trip was perfect. We camped along Sunlight Creek with snow-capped mountains towering above us. We caught monster fish that snapped our lines at our first mistake in the battle. And as for the memories, I have too many to put down on paper.

The Centre Sportsman TV Show » fly fishing

Return to Backwoods, WY