37th Day Fly Fishing – July 5th, 2025 – water temp 50 degrees, ~ 250cfs
It was a day where deep inside, I wanted to head up to Last Chance and fish the Ranch. But, the wind curve was not favorable and although I could have gotten up early, we got in late after fishing the Driggs fireworks the night before and waking at 6am did not seem appealing. The creek I planned to fish was a reasonably short drive away and higher in elevation. Getting a late start sounded like a good plan. I had watched a Charlie Craven video about fishing dry droppers the night before. It was very informative and it drove home why the dry/dropper was such a compelling rig in during the summer months. Also, I wanted to fish this new fly (to me anyway) that I had tied a couple of days before. I was thinking dry/dropper when I tied it. It’s called a gasolina perdigon and my friend Ron has been tying them and fishing them a lot lately. He fished it on the Wyoming Green trip we fished a few weeks back. Dave another member of our club has been tying and fishing them too and swears by them!
The stream I chose was a location I last fished with my friend Douglas Barnes, who passed last year. I was looking forward to walking and wading the same water we last shared several years back.
The stream has a two mile walk in. Sorry I’m not calling it out by name, but it is already fished heavily. After the walk you take a very steep decent down the canyon to the water. Those who know, know. As I arrived at streamside, there was already an angler there, so I began to make my way upstream to the next hole. Once there, I decided my dry would be the Bionic Ant pattern. It is one I tie based upon the Fly FIsh Food formula, tied by Lance Egan . I hung the gasolina perdigon about 18″ below it, tied to the hook bend.
Casting in my first hole, I wasn’t getting any action on the Ant or the perdigon for that matter. The current there was a bit on the fast side. SO I moved up to the next hole, which looked fishier. I swapped out the ant for a small yellow foam bug, that I also use for a yellow sally imitation. There were a few bugs around that looked yellow sallyish. Well, that was the ticket, got an eat right away and landed my first Cutt.
I also missed an eat on the perdigon. After several more casts, I was on the to the next hole. I tied the gasolina perdigon in two sizes, 18 and 22 using Fulling Mill jig hooks with copper slotted beads, 2.8mm for the smaller and 3.3 for the larger. Fulling Mill hooks run really big! The 22 was more like an 18 and the 18 was more like a 16 or even a 14. I was fishing the smaller of the two and the 2.8mm tungsten bead did not come close to sinking the size 12 foam yellow sally.
At the next run, the water was running deep, knee to mid thigh depth. The dropper tippet was only 18″, so I re-tied it to 24″, so I could get a little deeper. In true perdigon fashion, these flies sunk like a rock! On the run, and the extra depth, I started to get eats on the perdigon. I got two smaller cutts on this run and a little whitefish, all took the gasolina! Now I was feeling confident, becasue I had two flies that worked!
At the next hole I met an angler who I had said hi to in the parking lot. He was actually working his way back downstream. Makes sense as he was perhaps 30 years younger and probably got to the water at least 30 minutes earlier than me. He was a friendly guy and mentioned that the fish were rising to golden stones. He was fishing a big foam fly that looked like a yellow chernobyl ant. I didn’t bring anything that big as I wasn’t planning to fish foam that big (size 8-10). I actually felt that my yellow sally was a better match to the hatch. It also made me feel better that I was getting eats and landing fish on water he had just fished.
As I moved around him I found another likely spot. A deeper run with a nice seam as it was split by a large rock. The seam offered a missed take, but as I moved up toward the rock, I was certain a fish was hiding there. My hunch proved correct! After four or five casts into the eddy behind the rock, a cutt hit the foam bug! I got the hook set and promptly landed the fish a nice cutt in the 12-13″ range. There may be larger fish holding in this stream, but that has not been my experience so far. All of my bigger fish were 12-13″.
As I moved further upstream, I ran into two more anglers. They were taking a hero shot of what I think was their first fish. Their first I believe, because they asked me if I had caught fish as I worked upstream. I said yes and they seemed shocked. They both were fish a nymph with an indicator. As I checked out the rigs, they had only 15-18″ from the fly to the indicator, which may have been part of their problem. Thinking about a recent article I had read by Charlie Craven, who I have mad respect for, it was all making sense. Charlie was adamant! This time of year, unless you are matching a hatch and casting to rising fish, you should be fishing a dry/dropper! It got me excited about our upcoming trip to the Greys, and it also highlighted what my buddy Chris had said. On the Greys, he gets fully have of his eats on the dropper. It was also the reason I started with a dry dropper today from the get go. In any case, I was following 3 fishermen upstream and I was still getting eats on water they had covered.
Thinking about that hike up and out and that long walk back to the car, I decided to work my way downstream. As I moved over water I already covered, I was looking for spots I may have missed. There was a run moving into and under a log jam. I had missed it on the way up and decided to try it. Several casts, and letting the flies drift toward the jam. I was ready to leave and as the last cast was moving under the jam I got an eat on the foam bug, which had already been pulled under. Crazy! Another 12-13″ cutt came to hand.
At that point, I was feeling good about the day and made my way to the path. About half way up it gets really steep! Luckily some nice angler left a rope. WIthout it, getting up the path would have been really tough and dangerous!
Anyway, it was a great day! Lots of learning and 5 cutts and 1 whitefish to hand. Pretty good for following 3 other anglers!
I also thought about Douglas a lot. He had introduced me to this spot five years back and the shot below is him on that trip, crossing a familiar section.
And me, taking a selfie in nearly the same spot. Perhaps just a bit further upstream.
