A Lookback at the 2024 Fishing Season Sunflowers droop. Fall is in the air. It’s not uncommon to catch a guy using an air-compressor to blow out his sprinkler system before the first freeze. The last of the roadside Palisade Peaches; the first rumor of Alcova Sweet Corn; school buses, nearly the…
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They are called sockeyes in Alaska. Or reds. Or bluebacks. Anadromous fish, they run up mighty rivers by the millions. They drive whole economies, and stir the passions of bank anglers who try to time their days off each June to meet the run. When I think of salmon, I think of June in Alaska…
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These big storms that come in from the north force waterfowl down in droves. The resident geese are suddenly neighbors with their migrating cousins. Down at Morad Park I tossed the training dummy into the current for my dog Henry. It was one of those crisp fall days where the sunlight strikes the…
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Fall fishing on the North Platte is one of the worst kept secrets in fly-fishing. People know that, by floating an All-Day-May and any variation of a zebra midge, you can have wild success in October. You don’t need a PhD in entomology to catch these fish. What you need is a few days off where you…
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This week a college buddy drove up from Colorado with his ten-year-old son Beau. Beau loves to fish. When he’s not fishing, he’s watching videos about fishing, or buying fishing equipment. Beau’s dad says the kid hates work and chores; you can’t get him to mow the lawn. But he’s always ready for a…
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Pathfinder Reservoir in late summer splendor: the rev of jet skis grinding over the light chop; seagulls and white pelicans floating in the distant haze; the water level dropping each day, exposing white, bone-like rocks with an obvious high water line. Someone whoops in ecstasy. There’s a radio…
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Addie Dees, manager of the Ugly Bug in downtown Casper, says that there have been times when she didn’t feel comfortable in fly shops. A highly sought after guide who can row, teach casting techniques, tie flies and steer anglers to huge brown trout, she tells a few painful stories about feeling…
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The other day we received our first correspondence for The Cast. Ernie from Nebraska writes: I went fly fishing for the first time last year. My hope is to get to Casper sometime this summer and try fishing in WY. I would like to know more about places I can go without using a boat. Don’t have one…
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Sixty-five miles south of Casper--where uranium companies once etched roads and built company towns into the expansive tawny landscape--the prairie stands empty. There are no trees but for the few ornamentals planted by miners who fled in 1992 when the companies went bust. Today, you’ll find more…
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The day after John Prine died, I drove out to the stretch of river between Alcova Dam and Grey Reef Reservoir to check on a pair of ospreys I had seen two weeks before. The first time I saw them, the female was tending the nest, while the male was fishing the slides and turnouts along the public…
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