Stardate August 11, ’18
The Wind river runs east from Teton National Park area, along the Wind river mountains, to Boysen Reservoir and then out of the Boysen Reservoir Dam for about 13 miles, though Native American land, until it turns back into public land and the Bighorn River at “Wedding of Waters”. The Bighorn then runs north through the town of Thermopolis then up into Montana where it flows into the Yellowstone River. I’ve heard great things about the fish in this (these) river(s) and needed to give it a go. I was here in 2015 but only for one night and morning. This time I would give myself a little more time to rip some lips and take in the sights.
As I headed north from Lander noticed the Wind River Casino off the highway and needed to get out some gambling frustrations. I lost about a benji at the blackjack table with horrible luck, but the interesting part was outside of the Casino.
After I parked and secured Marge with Farley in tow in the rear of the parking area I walked through the parking lot on my way to the casino. On my way I heard some weird snorting and breathing in a car to my right, so I turn my head and see a black pug standing on a trucks door straddling the window that is only up about 4 inches. Something you don’t see everyday.
I was immediately concerned and walked over to him. I pet his fur, and it wasn’t that warm, so no panic. But he did have paint all over him so I assumed the owner was some kind of carpenter or painter or something. I went over to the casino and pointed it out to some workers who shockingly (sarcastic) weren’t too excited.
After losing my cash, on my way out of casino, I found this little guy still up on his perch. Ugh.. It was time to take action. I decided to pull him off his perch. I noticed keys in the ignition and another set of keys on the driver’s seat. The inside of the truck was a total mess, the king cab was full of tools and junk. The bed of the truck was also full of a bunch of crap, but I couldn’t find a leash.
I set the dog on the ground to let him pee if you had to, on a tire or something and he just sniffed around and then laid under the truck. Once he was down he stopped panting and was just kind of chilling.
At this point I decided it was time to get him some water but I can find a way to restrain him there under the truck. I finally pulled out my man card and reached into the back of the truck. I grabbed a blower fan thing that had an extension cord on it. I tied the extension cord on to the doggies collar so he couldn’t get away. With him under the truck and relaxed I walked to the casino to get some water. While in the casino I decided I also wanted to write a “nice” letter to the gentleman letting them know my opinion of his humanity. I was able to restrain from using any bad language, but gave it to him (her?) straight.
When I returned to the dog I noticed the car parked next to the truck had passengers now. A man and a woman, they gave me the dirtiest look and I told them it’s not my truck or my dog and I’m just trying to help. It was nice to see somebody else was a little concerned. I gave the dog the water and he didn’t drink much. I was good with that. I told the people in the car that I had to go, but if they wanted to hang out and kick the guys ass when he comes out of the casino that I would appreciate it.
Good deed done, but I really just wanted to take that dog and give him a better life. If he wasn’t a pug and it wasn’t snorting a bunch, I may have.
Back to my adventure.
I continued my drive up the highway, through the town of Shoshone, along the Boysen Reservoir and over the Boysen Dam into the Wind River Canyon along the target river. Through tunnels, past the Wedding of Waters, through Thermopolis and to my RV park just north of town. Fountain Of Youth RV park named for it natural mineral hot springs pools. Each pool feeds into the other with the temperature decreasing in each one downstream. I spent a few hours out there and it was really nice, even though the air temps were around 90 degrees.
Thermopolis
The town of Thermopolis (greek for “Hot City”), like the RV park, is based around natural hot springs. There is a big park in the city, on the river, that showcases the hot springs and a heard of American Bison. It is quite the tourist attraction. The town is kinda small, but cute.
The Wyoming Whiskey distillery and tasting room is just north of town. A few free tastings had me giddy and I had to of course buy a few bottles and a souvenir cup.
The fishing.
From talking with the locals, it seemed that the water in the river was low and warm, something I have gotten used to lately as it is summer after all. They warned me that the fishing wasn’t going to be good below the Wedding of the Waters and that the canyon is my best bet. The Wind River up in the canyon is on Indian land and I needed a reservation fishing permit, but the water was much more turbulent pocket water as opposed to the Bighorn that was very calm, wide and muddy looking.
I gave the Bighorn a chance, as I just cant pass up new water. As expected, the fishing wasn’t very good, but there were a few holes I was able to have a good bit of fun, but overall it was a slow boring float ending up in the town of Thermopolis.
On an afternoon trip up to the dam to test out the fishing and get some pics I crossed the dam and did a little off roading to get down to the river. I navigated through some other fishermen and found some secluded areas. These areas proved to be pretty good, but I was running out of daylight. The fish seemed to be stacked towards the back side of riffle runs, in the deeper and slower water. Running some caddis nymphs down through the run proved to be the ticket. I fished the run out, and as it was getting dark I decided to cross the run, over to an island so i could fish a similar run on the other side of the island. This is one of the first times that I have ever turned around half way through my wade across the river. In my younger days I would have kept going, and prolly got swept away in the waist high current. I hate being conservative, ugh… River/Fish 1, TJ 0. I took the loss, headed back to the truck but decided the next morning I would get my revenge.
The next morning started out slow. I decided to fish the highway, more populated, side of the river, and my experience is that when fishing the more traveled areas the fishing is much less. As I worked upstream from my initial spot the fishing got better and better. I finally found the honey hole and hooked up to no less than 20 great fish. A few browns and rainbows sprinkled in. I was using deep caddis nymphs under an indicator. Here is some video of that day.
I hear that like all the other places I have been this summer, the spring and fall are the time to be here and the Bighorn fishes well. But for this snowbird, being that far north prolly isnt a great idea outside of summer. Thanks Thermopolis, until next time, stay cool, or hot, I guess.
Onto Cody, WY.
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