For those of you who I haven’t met, my name is Harrison Langley and I am our chapter’s newest member of the Board of Directors.
I have spent the majority of my adult life fishing the small Class A wild trout streams in Berks County and the four corners area of northcentral PA, a.k.a. “The PA Wilds,” which consists of Clinton, Lycoming, Tioga, and Potter counties.
For as long as I have been fly-fishing, I have yearned to fish the Intermountain West area, specifically Wyoming and Montana.
Recently, I was able to accomplish that bucket list goal twice. It came about thanks to a rekindled friendship with an old friend and former colleague who lives in the southern Lancaster County area who has been fly-fishing in the Wyoming and Montana areas for the last few years.
My friend invited me to come along on a trip he was planning to the Saratoga, WY area in October of 2023 to fly-fish the North Platte and Encampment rivers.
That initial invitation was followed by a second invitation to fly-fish the Wind River watershed in the Dubois, WY area and the tailwater Bighorn River in the Fort Smith, MT area early in August of 2024.
I eagerly accepted both invitations.
I won’t bore you with the typical “we went here, did that, and ate there” trip summary. Instead, I will attempt to describe what a Pa native, small stream “blue liner” fly-fisherman learned fishing “out west” for the first time…
There Is a Whole Lot of Open Space and Big Sky Out West
The country out west is stunning, most of the roads are two lanes, and much of the land is sparsely populated. Distances between towns can be lengthy and a lot of the area is not forested like it is here in PA. It looked like high desert country to me. This is interspersed by bright green vegetated fields with huge, self-propelled irrigation arrays. In a word, the scenery was distracting and for me; it never got old. Oh, and there are huge Native American reservations in that area, not something you see here in PA.
Capable Guides With or Without Drift Boats Are Highly Recommended
I wasn’t sure about the need for a guide but my friend was adamant about it. After fishing with them, I wouldn’t fish out west without them. Guides know the areas they fish intimately, bring the flies and and rigs that work best, and will teach you what you need to know. Utilizing their drift boats, they will also put you over actively feeding fish. Could you catch fish without a guide? Probably. Would you catch as many fish as you would without a guide. Most likely not.
We didn’t use a drift boat to fish the Wiggins Branch of the Wind River outside of Dubois, WY but we did make use of a Kawasaki Teryx side-by-side to more easily access the backcountry in the Shoshone National Forest. The side-by-side cost a little more but it was road-legal, an effective tool to access remote areas, and great fun to drive. How do I know? Our guide Kit let me drive the side-by-side both days that we used it. Great fun!
The Wind Blows a Lot and the Wild Fish Out West Are Brutes…Gear-Up-Appropriately
Leave the small stream-biased, short and lightweight fly-rods at home. The wind blows incessantly out west. I was using 5 and 6-wt. fly-rods that are 9’ to 9’ 6” in length. And since the fish out west are mostly wild and very strong, whatever rods you decide to take need some backbone. And it is very helpful to have two 5-weight rods and two 6-weight rods with you. The one rod will be set-up by the guide as a “dry fly rod” while the other will be set-up as a “boat rod” that will most likely be used with a strike indicator and nymph-dropper rig. You don’t need to spend top dollar for high-end fly-rods, but I do suggest that you choose a reputable brand you are comfortable fishing with. My friend had a rainbow on the Bighorn River snap his good quality 6-wt fly rod in half (neither my friend nor I ever experienced anything like that before). Luckily, I had a spare 6-wt. that was very similar to my friend’s broken rod and he used that successfully for two days. Another good reason to have the extra rods along. By the way… the fish in the North Platte and Encampment were wild rainbows and browns, the fish in the Dubois area were native Yellowstone Cutthroats (LOVE those beautiful fish!), and like the North Platte/Encampment, the fish in the tailwater Bighorn were sizeable, very strong wild rainbows and browns.
A Drag-Free Drift is KEY to Catching Fish Out West
As previously stated, the fish out west are wild and because of the catch-and-release nature of the fisheries, it is a good bet that many, if not most, of the fish you catch have been caught before. As a result, those fish are smart, and they won’t take a fly that is dragging unnaturally over or through the water. So you will mend your line a lot, and if you are not familiar with that technique, and I wasn’t, the guide will teach you. The longer 9′ and even 10′ fly-rods are a necessity for effective mending. Mending takes some practice to perfect – I’m still working at it myself – but it is very rewarding when you get it right and a fish takes.
Just Because You Hook a Fish Out West Doesn’t Mean You Will Land It
As I mentioned, the wild fish out west are smart, very smart. They swim directly at you and under the drift boat to generate slack and if that doesn’t work, they turn their bodies sideways in the current and run like freight trains. They will pull you into your backing so make sure the connection between your fly line and backing is robust.
The fish in the Bighorn River were nothing like I ever experienced. Those monsters straightened hooks on the size 14-16 flies we were using and snapped leaders. They also had this wonderful habit of burying their noses into the long, stringy vegetation on the bottom to create just enough slack to slip the hook. It is disappointing to lose a nice fish but it is quite easy to remember that the fish have the advantage. As I told my friend, you don’t catch the fish in the Bighorn, they catch you…
Who We Fished with and How We Traveled There.
Last October we fished with Four Season Anglers based in Laramie, WY. The guide we utilized was Texas-native Garrett Brannon who is patient, very knowledgeable, and an outstanding teacher. Garrett comes highly-recommended:
We stayed at the clean and spacious Riviera Motor Lodge in Saratoga, WY.:
We flew American Airlines from Harrisburg to Dallas-Fort Worth to Denver and rented a car to drive to Saratoga, WY
This past August of 2024, we stayed at the wonderful and friendly Black Bear Inn in Dubois, WY:
We fished with Wind River Fly Fitters which is directly across the street from the Black Bear Inn. The guide we utilized was Clark Summit, PA based Kit Barrese. Just like Garrett, Kit is patient, very knowledgeable, and an outstanding teacher. Kit also comes highly-recommended and if you don’t want to travel to all-the-way to WY, he guides here in PA during the off-season.
https://www.windriverflyfitter.com
FYI – Kit’s guide business in PA is called Broken Rod Flyfishing, 570-906-4240, kitbarrese@yahoo.com
On the Big Horn River in Fort Smith, MT we fished with the inimitable Paul Garrison. Paul used to own one of the local fly-fishing lodges in that area but has since divested from it. He now guides for himself. Paul is amazing but he will both teach and push you to become a better fly-fisherman. Paul also has the sharpest eyes I have ever witnessed; he can spot fish in the water 20-30 yards away through glare. Paul has been guiding on the Bighorn for over 30 years and has his own way of thinking about and doing things. If you want to catch big, strong fish on the Bighorn, Paul is your man. He can best be reached by contacting his daughter Ashley who, with her husband, owns Bighorn River Drift Boat Rentals:
https://bighornriverdriftboatrentals.com
For our trip in August, we flew American Airlines from Harrisburg to Dallas-Fort Worth to Idaho Falls and rented a car to drive to Dubois, WY. After fishing there for two days, we drove to Laramie, WY to get groceries and then to Fort Smith, MT to fish the Bighorn for three days. Total drive time from Dubois, WY to Fort Smith, MT was 6.5 hours. From Fort Smith, we drove 2.5 hours to Billings, MT and flew back to Dallas-Fort Worth from there. Lodging in the Fort Smith area is limited so we stayed at the beautiful and very cozy Bighorn Mountain View Cabin which is owned by Paul’s daughter Ashley. That was a great place to stay but we did have to cook for ourselves.
One final note, I am sure you could have a great time fishing out west with spinning gear and spinners and other lures. I just didn’t have the space in my rod case to carry a spinning rod and try it.
I hope this article has been both entertaining and instructive and that it whets your appetite to fish the Intermountain West area.
If my friend continues to invite me, I will go. I fully intend to fish out west at least once-per-year from here on out as it truly has engrained itself into my soul.
If you have any questions about anything mentioned in this article, I would be happy to try to answer them.
Kind Winds and Tight Lines
Harrison Langley
