Today, I decided to test some water I haven’t fished this year, the Wind River Canyon. This stretch of water in on the Wind River Indian Reservation and requires a special permit to fish. We are not able to guide this stretch of water but this stretch does unlock some information about the Bighorn River below the “Wedding of the Waters”. I was looking for meat hungry Browns headed up river moving towards their spawning beds. I was also scouting the water for signs of the fall spawn starting, I could not find any evidence of the browns starting to work their beds. I was able to connect with a few fish, but struggled to land them. I was fishing an area that if fast and deep, making setting the hook and landing fish difficult. All of the fish reacted to streamers, I did try to nymph up a couple but with not luck. I do believe the larger browns are running up river, but they need to be fished in shallow fast water. With that being said I try to avoid fishing that type of water this time of year. I will continue to look for the rainbows and cutthroats sitting behind the browns. I also hope to get a few brown’s feeding aggressively in those deeper pools.
