Fishing America
Wyoming was the 22nd state I fished. After hiring guides in the first 21, there were nothing but fly fishing guides to be found in this sparsely populated state (not the kind I was looking for). Before fishing Montana I planned on making Wyoming a stop on the same trip.
Shortly after entering northeast Wyoming I stopped and looked at Devil’s Tower by Highway 24, one of the most amazing rock formations I have seen in my travels. Anybody reading this that hasn’t seen this thing or a picture of it, it looks like a gigantic petrified tree stump a quarter-mile high. It’s worth a look online.
After that close encounter, my next stop was Keyhole Reservoir where I found a nice clean setting on a mixed sandy and rocky shore. While fishing here about three hours, I tried contacting my Colorado guide Dillon Matthews whom I had fished with in mid-May. I never got him by calling or texting.
I never got him by calling or texting. We had preliminary plans of me stopping and fishing a couple of days after WY. While at Keyhole, I enjoyed the bank of the lake to myself and enjoyed relaxing with the morning wind in my hair while catching some little small-mouth bass. I drove south from there to Glendo
I drove south from there to Glendo Reservoir. I had a species list for it and Walleye was one of them. So after offering a few things for them to bite and not getting it in return I asked advice from some locals.
The two Hispanic guys fishing near me were also walleye fishing. After checking I was on the same track in harmony with what normally worked for them. The fish were just not biting for any of us.
It wasn’t a major setback as both my Wyoming stops were a drive-by. But I still wanted to catch something worthy of a picture or the ice chest. I had noticed from atop the bluff where I parked there was a long weed-line floating in the distance but drifting my way.
When it got closer in I noticed something moving in and around it. I thought it was grass carp feeding on it. I told my new friends I was changing plans and leaving the walleye to them. So I went back up the steep trail to my pickup and re-tooled with a carp rig.
The bluff wasn’t straight up but angling away from the water adding to the distance the shoreline was from the weed-line that had halted it’s drifting. It was all I could do to get a cast to the weed line.
None bit the hook I threw them but a few of them got their sides into it deflecting it off with their oversized thick scales.
After about 15 minutes of casting one of them got the hook stuck in it. I reeled it in to see this was a yellow carp instead of a grass carp.
Immediately I remembered someone at home that taught me that a carp was good particularly the ribs. Ricky Hodges, myself and 6 others had made a feast off some after he talked me into keeping them fishing at Sulpher River. The Carp ribs were excellent.
I showed the big carp to Becca of Wyoming Fish and Game when she stopped and visited. We had a few laughs with some carp jokes while I told her about a few of my fishing travels.
After catching one more for my Bloomburg friend and ice packing the huge fillets for him, I wished my new WY friends well, and just about the time I got up to my pickup one of them yelled. I went to the bluff ’s edge and looked down to see he was holding up a nice big walleye and a big smile.
I gave him a thumbs up and headed to Cheyenne and stayed the night. I would have stayed a little longer to fish with them but it was 110 miles to my hotel and getting late.
I headed south again the next day. I never found my CO friend Dillon while passing through, by calling or texting, so I stopped at John Martin Reservoir near Lamar where I caught two Walleye from the bank. After an 8 day road trip me, Ricky, and
After an 8 day road trip me, Ricky, and more friends at home had several good fish fries and grillings. Although most came from Montana, I did get on the board via drive-by in Wyoming while Fishing America.
Paul Hale
STATE #22 - WYOMING JUNE 2018 - KEYHOLE RESERVOIR
SPECIES CAUGHT - Smallmouth Bass, Yellow Carp