Our scenery and fishing road trip continued with the next stop, trying our luck fall fly fishing on the Green River in Wyoming.

Fly Fishing the Upper Green River | www.johnkreft.com

We fished this section of the Green River back in July 2021 and I wrote about it in my Fly Fishing Southwest Wyoming post.

The road upstream for the final 20-plus miles to Green Lakes is very rough and slow, but the drive is worth it. We hoped the fall colors were around the lake, but camped for the night a short distance below it, hoping to catch the view of Squaretop at sunrise. To my surprise when I woke up that morning, the river was full of fog and made for a spectacular image.

Green River and Fog on with Squaretop Mountain | www.johnkreft.com

After the sun came over the mountains, we drove up to the lower lake to take in the view and enjoy a cup of coffee.

Fall at Green Lake | www.johnkreft.com

Later, we started our drive downstream looking for a place to fish. The river was low, but we looked for a riffle to try our luck and found this likely spot.

Upper Green River | www.johnkreft.com
Green River and Mountains | www.johnkreft.com

Dancingtrout started with a tan Chernobyl Ant and I tied on a Thunder Thighs Hopper. A couple fish rose to her fly, but I couldn’t coax anything to mine.

I changed flies and tied on a size 16 Arrick’s Parachute Ant and hooked a fish on the first cast. Ants were the ticket for our remaining time on the water that afternoon.

We found eager, hungry trout and caught 4 or 5 fish each, with another half dozen or so fish rising and trying to eat our flies.

Green River Rainbow Trout | www.johnkreft.com

It was a great time catching these 10 – 12 inch Rainbows.

Netting Green River Trout | www.johnkreft.com
Rainbow from Upper Green River | www.johnkreft.com

We camped downstream and the next day, I decided to pull our my Euro nymph rod and give it a try.

Here is a view of the river looking upstream…

Green River Looking Upstream | www.johnkreft.com

…and the water downstream.

Green River Looking Downstream | www.johnkreft.com

I worked through the run with those nymphs and landed 5 Whitefish. I felt a few other fish, which were probably Whitefish. Here is the first one.

Green River Whitefish | www.johnkreft.com

Here are the nymphs I used…my Pheasant Tail Perdigon Nymph and Higa’s SOS.

Nymphs on Fly Reel | www.johnkreft.com

On one drift, my flies paused and I set the hook. To my surprise, a large fish jumped out of the water several times, definitely NOT a Whitefish! I played it carefully as I was using 6X tippet for the nymphs to sink quickly.

After a good fight, I was lucky to land this beautiful Brown Trout that measured around 20 inches!

20 Inch Brown | www.johnkreft.com

While in the net, we noticed how the fins were glowing in the sunlight and took a quick picture of a pectoral fin.

Brown Trout Pectoral Fin | www.johnkreft.com

If you’d like to know where to fish on the Green River, just drive upstream and look for some cattle!

Green River Fly Fishing with Cows | www.johnkreft.com

Enjoy…go fish!

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2 Comments

  1. Thank you for all your contributions. I will be in Ecuador for a month, July 2025, planning to flyfish, any suggestions?

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