David Siskind | Sunday, 1 June 2025
My last visit to Casper was for business, I’m thinking maybe 2008. An independent oil producer was under a federal order to prevent migratory bird deaths in waste ponds and the outfit I was working with was proposing treatment solutions. Fracking operations dumped spent drilling fluids and polymer enhanced fracking fluids in small lined ponds. This soup was death to birds stopping for a floating rest or maybe drinking a bit before heading further North. The project didn’t go anywhere. I think they opted to tenting the ponds with netting instead of cleaning up the waste. Wyoming is a big, sparsely populated state and not very “green”, favoring ag and oil over squishier concerns. There’s plenty of room for evaporation ponds filled with nasty stuff. But they are, justifiably, pleased with their trouting culture. We saw only fly fishers.
The North Platte is a big tailwater, flowing through high desert. It’s pretty rich and there are many, many healthy non-native, but wild, rainbows with a few browns and even fewer cutts as well. Due to a history I haven’t had the opportunity to research, Nebraska has rights to most of the water in that system and a drought there necessitated a big release and a nearly four-fold flow bump, which moved runoff conditions up a month. I was there with my friend Hunter, staying at North Platte Lodge, near Alcova. It’s a well run place with good food and capable, smart guides. Hunter and I fished with Mason Bouffard who is energetic, affable and obviously an avid life-time learner. We fished mostly multi-nymph rigs under a “bobber” typically with a small nymph on point and a leach, worm, or “annelid” junk fly above. A couple of BBs above them inverted the position of the flies in the column placing the junk beneath the “bug.” The rig cast surprisingly easily. Even with the high water Mason knew the key slots in every run and every bank along, I believe, more than 30 miles of river that we fished over three days. We also cast some streamers into the bank for a while (I got two hits but no hookups).
I worked on mending. It’s big water and currents were very confused. What seemed to work best was a cast to an invisible seam, seen only by Mason, with a quick roll of the bobber to sink the flies and bigger slipped mends to keep tension out of the system. The fish were often very “grabby,” requiring a quick set, so line management was also key. We didn’t catch tons of fish but had plenty of action. The fish were beautiful, fit, and usually crazy leapers. We added a day of wading after three in the boat, driving to the meadow section of nearby Fremont Canyon and, applying the same rigs and similar methods. We did very well catching some pretty large fish. This was, all-in-all, a very good trip. I’m going back.
David Siskind