Chasing Gold: Backpacking Wyoming’s Wilderness for Golden Trout

There they were, the wind rivers. We had been driving for 2 and a half hours and seemingly out of nowhere, these gigantic peaks shot out of the horizon line on the sagebrush plains of Wyoming.

I almost couldn’t believe my eyes, after years of planning, scouring maps and trip reports, looking at pictures and dreaming of wandering through those mountains, it was finally real. Within seconds everyone started fantasizing; talking about the potential for the high country Trout of Wyoming. But not just any trout, BIG trout, and one of the toughest species to find and catch in the world. Golden Trout (Oncorhynchus aguabonita).

Driving through Pinedale, a small town nestled at the base of this majestic mountain range, we spotted the local fly shop. “There it is!” my buddy yelled, and with time to kill that evening, we hurried in. As we talked to their “specialist” for the winding rivers and specifically Golden Trout he assured us that we would run into harsh conditions, big tough country and he was sure we wouldn’t catch any fish.

Having been to hundreds of fly shops throughout my life I was taken aback as I’d never been to a fly shop where I was assured no chance at a fish. Nevertheless, we bought a couple dozen flies and were on our way. We pulled into the hotel we would be staying in for the night, hurried in, got our room and went to sleep so we could get an early start on the trail.

Well, it was official, morning had come and gone and we were on the trail 8 miles into our 16-mile day.  We paused briefly at a little lake to have lunch and catch our breath. As we ate I noticed some little gold bricks cruising the shore which prompted lunch to end early. I then hurriedly rigged up and threw a few casts which resulted in a tight line and the first couple Goldens of the trip. With success on the brain, we quickly got on the trail again as to reach our destination by nightfall. Time was short and there was no room for delay since we knew that we had to cover 80 miles 15,000 vertical feet over the next 8 days.

Over the next 6 days, we crossed glaciers and rivers, fished 30 or so lakes and crossed the continental divide twice at over 12,000 ft all in pursuit of the elusive Golden trout. We found thousands of stunted brook trout and a couple small streams with fast action for little gold bricks but nothing large like we were looking for.

The next day by evening we reached our final destination that we knew held very large fish, and after a couple tough hours I heard the sound of a fly line being ripped across the water and my buddy shouting “BIG FISH! BIG FISH! BIG FISH!”. After 15 or so minutes of intense runs, the fish was finally in the net. And we had successfully wrangled our first solid gold brick fit for the treasury. “We got what we came for,” I said as my buddy just sat there in awe. “We got what we came for.”

Tight Lines,

Joseph Gregory
The Fly Crate
members@theflycrate.com