I finally made the North Platte trip a reality. What can I really say about it? Matt and I took the float from Bennett Peak to Saratoga staying the night on Treasure Island. The trek is approximately 24 miles long. This area of Wyoming is absolutely beautiful and the river was easily navigated for a novice such as myself. Fishing was a little slow in the beginning, but I attribute that to our unfamiliarity with the river and the wind… boy was the wind bad the first day! For the first few miles, we saw lots of surface activity from trout. Most were targeting Caddis, but as the Green Drakes started to arrive to the party, the attention soon turned in their direction.
On the second day, we started out a little earlier and the temperature was quite a bit colder. The magic combination seemed to be a Pat’s Rubber Legs in tandem with a size 14 Prince. Once we tied this up, nearly every deep seam appeared to result in a nice hookup. Most of the trout that we caught were in the range of 16+ inches with one breaking off, that we only saw briefly at the surface, that appeared to be in the 25 inch range. I am sure as time passes and that story gets told a few more times, he will grow even more.
