Home Forums Fishing Flyfishing The Winds

My wife and I had been planning this trip in to the Wind River Mtns for 2yrs now. We'd done our homework and were looking for trophy Goldens in the Winds. We were to fly in to Jackson and hook up with my old roommate, who still lives there, and 3 others.

We got all of our shopping, licenses, Rez permit and gear sorting done the afternoon we arrived. We left Jh about 7am with a breakfast burrito in hand and headed up and over Togwotee pass, through Dubois, to our trailhead. Our lakes were aprox. 24miles from the truck, across the Wind River Indian Rez.

We threw our packs on and left the truck......our first 6 miles were straight up to 11,316ft. From there, we dropped down, crossed the meadow below/behind us and into the mountains.


We had several stream crossings the first day. The last crossing of the day was our biggest, waist deep and 40yds across. When we got to the other side, we built a fire and made camp. Our first camp had a great 'shoe' pit.


Day two, we were leaving trail and taking a "short-cut" we found on the map....it payed off. We were able to avoid a steep long pass.


Before lunch, on day 3, we got to the end of the 'outfitter trail' and to our last creek crossing, before our final 3 mile push to our Golden lakes. The creek was raging....3000cfs. We knew that the water would be high....so much snow this winter, but, we didn't think we wouldn't be able to make the final crossing. We walked the creek, looking for a crossing and tried to make a zip-line, but the water was too cold, deep and swift to send even one person across. The water temp was 36degrees. So, we took out some aggression on some Cutties. You can see the creek, which we needed to cross, in the background.


Fishing was great for Cutts on the lake we were camped on. They ate a hare's ear, all sorts of caddis pupa, eggs and even some big hopperlike dries. We did hike up to some other lakes we'd heard had Goldens in them and fished.


We fished the outlet looking for Goldens. They should have been in the outlet creeks spawning or staging near them, preparing to spawn. I think there was too much water flowing through the outlet for them to spawn and they were waiting for the water to drop to move in. We didn't catch any Goldens, but on our way back to camp, wwe found some Cutts in a little stream about 2' wide and 18" deep. We were using our trekking poles and 0x


Maybe BlackDiamond will sponsor our trip next yr....
[img]http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad111/HuntKY/TheWinds112.jpg[/img]

After catching waayyyy to many cutties and coming to the realization we weren't going to catch any big Goldens, we decided to go check out a rainbow lake we had heard some good things about. We packed up the next morning and made the 11 mile push to another lake that had some good 'Bows. We caught some nice bows in one lake and the other lakes all had Cutts.
[img]http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad111/HuntKY/TheWinds143.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad111/HuntKY/TheWinds100.jpg[/img]

Did battle with a big black boar our last day/night. We tried like he11 to hit with pepper spray during the 5 times he came into camp. He didn't like the dogs at all.
[img]http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad111/HuntKY/TheWinds150.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad111/HuntKY/TheWinds170.jpg[/img]

It was a great trip even though we didn't catch any Goldens. Scenery in the Winds is unsurpassed, we had a great group and caught a bunch of fish. Hopefully we'll have a normal snow year next year and be able to get to our Golden lakes.

Man, that was a serious trip! Too bad you couldn't make it to the lakes you wanted, but sounds like you made the right call by playing it safe with the water crossing- there is always next year, and the next after that...

Ahhhhh...the Wind River range!! Haven't seen it in too long. Great trip, report and pictures....and some darn nice fish too! Congrats on all of it.

Been about ten years since I was up in the Wind Rivers. Great place for hunting or fishing. Carrying that big revolver is a good idea back there.

Wow! Awesome pictures . I fished on the Western end of the Winds around Big Sandy during runoff in '08 but it was nothing compared to what you encountered. Glad you had a good safe journey .

Fantastic trip there and thanks for sharing. Nice bows there and cuts on poles

Winds are in the schedule next year for a hiking and fishing trip