Fall Fly Fishing and Scenery Road Trip

We decided to go on a fall fly fishing and scenery road trip. Well, actually the fall colors are a major planned activity. 

In past fly fishing road trips, our route included driving over Beartooth Pass and we plan to drive over the pass soon. About a week ago, the pass was closed due to snow. I think there was about 14 inches of snow that had drifted to 4 feet! Snow plows and warmer temperatures have allowed the road to reopen. I’m crossing my fingers the weather will hold for us.

The question we had was which route to take? 

We headed east on Highway 20 and stopped at the Owyhee River and try our luck.

A couple of people I know do well with small nymphs, so I threw in a couple boxes of very small nymphs, down to size 24.

Searching for a spot to fish and camp, we met a fellow fly fisher that provided a little intel about both. He shared the fishing had been slow due to the recent full moon. Turns out, he would be right. 

I found a nice run to fish the next morning and pulled out my Beulah 3 weight Euro nymph rod. I also replaced my Green Drake fly box with a few smaller nymphs and dries. Note the Green Drake box in the middle of the image below with smaller nymph and dry flies in the boxes.

In addition, I carried a second rod with a dry fly tied on in case I noticed a head or two.

Here is the run I chose to fish…looking upstream…

…and looking downstream.

I’ll make this short…I never felt or saw a thing in about two hours of fishing. 

We decided to leave the river and head east to Wyoming. The high mountains with colorful aspen were waiting for us.

On the way out, we spoke with our new friend and he relayed he only managed to hook and land one seven inch trout. 

We made the right decision to leave. 

Our next stop was Jackson Hole, WY and the Tetons. You might have recognized the Tetons in the first image of this post. Here they are at sunrise from our campsite across the valley.

We had heard about Flat Creek and decided to give it a try. It’s located within the National Elk Refuge, a wintering location for hundreds of elk.

I was surprised how small and clear the water was.

Oh, and the SPOOKY fish. I’m sure these fish see many fly anglers during the summer. I don’t know if this is the flow when the season begins or whether it is lower during the fall.

We saw numerous trout in the water and cast to several without success. Dancingtrout moved a couple of fish, but didn’t hook up.

I found this trout feeding.

I tried several flies before it rose for an Almost There Baetis.

I played him and tried to net it when we parted ways. I captured this image a few seconds later.

That was our fly fishing day.

We plan on heading to the Green River next above the city of Pinedale, WY. Check back to see where our travels take us.

Enjoy…go fish!