Transcript: On the Water with Dustin White
Transcript
Marvin:
[0:04] Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly, and we're back with another On the Water with Dustin White. How you doing, Dustin?
Dustin:
[0:12] Marvin's are great. We are starting to cool off a little bit here in our temps here in central Wyoming. So it's starting to get a little bit into that pre-fall weather. So it's nice to have a little cooler temps.
Marvin:
[0:24] Yeah, absolutely. Does that mean it's windy?
Dustin:
[0:28] Well, it always is. But yeah, it's been a bit windy.
We haven't had days yet where it feels like it's outright nuking.
Out there, it's just pretty consistently breezy.
Us as guides, we're not really paying too much attention to it.
But if you're high sticking from the drip boat with your fly line, it can act a little bit like a sail on you.
So the client, the guests in your boat might notice it a little more than we do, but nothing we're not used to at this time of year.
Marvin:
[1:02] Yeah, and you were telling me before we started recording, you finally been able to fish the lower sections of the reef.
Dustin:
[1:08] Yeah, yeah, we've been getting down into town and had a fun day just day before yesterday, throwing hoppers down there and had some really, really happy fish looking to eat some hoppers.
And so that was fun definitely to get back into the old stomping grounds as it were. So yeah, stuff's starting to shape up like that. A few of our guides have even gone a little further east.
So that's, it's been good. They've actually been floating, you know, through town proper. And so we're, we're excited about that, that we're finally, you know, we're a couple months behind, but finally able to start to see some of those lower stretches.
Marvin:
[1:45] Yeah, and so what do the weed situation look like down there.
Dustin:
[1:49] It's still pretty grassy. In slackwater, you're going to have a lot of vegetation that's starting to accumulate.
They've been dropping flows on us. So it's going to take a little bit for that to keep flushing downstream.
With that, a lot of folks might find it annoying if they're fishing the foam line that they're typically accustomed to.
You're going to be getting your flies, regardless if you're nymphing, regardless if you're throwing dries, regardless if you're your stripping streamers, you know, you're going to start to accumulate some gunk on those.
So, you know, try to work on that, the inside corners, right?
Those faster riffley water on the inside is going to be having a little less vegetation than then kind of going down the gutter, the outside where, where you see that foam line at.
So if you can focus on the inside corners, a little faster water, riffley water, you can get some good presentations without too much moss accumulating on your flies.
Marvin:
[2:42] Yeah. work, you just practice your slap, right?
Dustin:
[2:47] Exactly, yeah. If you can learn the Bighorn slap, just make sure to do it the opposite side of the boat than the fish are on, you know.
Don't do it over the run you're fishing, but the other side and you'll be fine.
Marvin:
[2:57] Yeah, so if we head all the way out to Thermopolis, what are you guys seeing out on the Bighorn?
Dustin:
[3:03] Yep, yep. So, obviously, you know, like we've seen on the North Platte, it's going to be a bit mossy.
We're seeing pretty decent dry fly action. The trichospitter fall in the morning if you hit it early enough, it's been really, really productive.
Fish are still pretty eager to eat hoppers out there.
Right now, it's caddis, caddis, caddis. So if folks are wanting to nymph there, having some caddis presentations for those fish definitely is advantageous.
They're dropping the flows down to 1,300 CFS here in a day or so.
So we're going to be seeing fish kind of consolidate into, you know, the choke points folks might be typically accustomed to seeing them in.
And, you know, with with the temps what they are out, even though our air temps are cooling off, those fish are still sitting in the faster riffling water and I would expect that's still gonna be the case as, if not more so, as those flows drop.
Marvin:
[3:58] Got it, and so on the caddis front, are you fishing dries or are you fishing subsurface pupa and stuff like that? You.
Dustin:
[4:05] We're fishing both. Obviously, when you see heads looking up, a pretty standard elk hair caddis is going to yield some positive results for you.
But yeah, we're going to throw more larval and pupa presentations until we see consistent heads looking up, whether that's one fish or a couple of fish that are consistently working or that really good pod of rising fish slurping that we all love to see.
You can almost tell the difference between that trichospinner fall and the caddis hatch just by the veracity of the taste from the fish.
So a little more slurps, a little softer eats that those fish just kind of work in the biomass of the trichos.
Whereas if you have that kind of skittering caddis, they're going to take it a little more aggressive. So your ears can even tell you, if you can't quite pick up what they're eating, your ears can tell you a lot about what to be throwing there in that difference.
But no, typically, we're going to be nymphing Arcatis until, again, we start to see those fish starting to look up.
The other day, they're pretty well doing a dry dropper and having the dry on the surface and running a tag off the back and kind of present best of both worlds there.
Marvin:
[5:23] And so, how's the mile been treating you?
Dustin:
[5:26] I've been having some really, really wonderful days the mile.
We're kind of same thing. We're seeing a lot of caddis, those fish are eating.
Throughout the whole day, we're getting some smaller PMDs and some pseudos in the afternoon, so that's been kind of mid-afternoon.
But definitely less moss there than, say, the reefer or the horn will have had.
So the mile's been fishing really, really well. The road, thankfully, has been good to us without too much rain. We don't have to really deal with any of the bentonite slush or deep ruts. So it's been good.
Marvin:
[6:08] There you go. I've got a question for you from Brenner. I think on a – maybe not the last one, but the one before – we were talking about carp fishing and how they like to eat berries and vegetation that drop in the water, and Brenner was curious, you know, what vegetation do the carp kind of in your area eat and, you knows their favorite fly and how do you tie it.
Dustin:
[6:29] Sure, sure. Yeah, so if I'm back in Ohio, obviously, that mulberry hatch is pretty fantastic.
Actually, I know a lot of folks will tie those patterns with chenille.
I'm going to actually tie mine with the egg yarn, pretty classic that we would use for steelhead eggs.
Out here, we don't have much for a mulberry hatch on the rivers we're on, but we do get a cottonseed catch from the cottonwood trees.
And so at that point, I'm gonna be tying a very similar pattern, but with kind of sparsely tied egg yarn.
Probably, you know, think whites and creams, those sorts of colors, but you'll wanna, after you tie that, pick that material out.
So you have kind of a more dense core to it as you tie that on.
I like to tie mine on scud hooks.
[7:27] And then, as you work out from there, you'll really start to pick that material out pretty thin.
And that gives a pretty good presentation to those fish.
Although, folks don't have that, and they're seeing fish that are eating those cottonwood seeds on the surface.
I mean, there's plenty of other materials that can work well.
They're keying in on it, they're looking up and if they're eating pretty good.
Anything that's... If you even just have your elk hair caddis, a turk's tarantula, something like that in your box, if they're keying in and looking there and they're really eating with abandon, just about anything could potentially work.
But in terms of really matching the hatch, what I would prefer to do is tie that with that egg yarn and then use your new bodkin or whatever you have, start to pick that material out.
You could even use more of the scrap pair of scissors, not your good pair, but scrap pair of scissors. Use those, the points of that to pick that material out. That gives you a good presentation for that.
Obviously, going to be a little tighter on that material with the mulberry patterns, but still the same premise.
Marvin:
[8:45] And do you dress that with like silicone floating and then dry it out with the powder if you have to use that kind of how you do it.
Dustin:
[8:53] I don't typically do the silicone floatant. The powder itself can work, but usually those fish are eating it and the presentation you're making to them is a pretty immediate take. So you're looking at fish that's looking up.
So it's a kind of an immediate plop. You really want to kind of bonk them.
And then, so it seems a bit foreign, a bit weird for folks to...
Usually, we want this super soft, super delicate presentation on those carp.
But especially with the mulberries, back east, if folks have that, really, really kind of plop that down in the water and those fish kind of key in on that audible sort of impact there.
Obviously, not as much of the cottonwood seeds, but you pick that out enough with that material, You really don't have to docker it up, kink it up, or anything like that to keep it floating.
Because really, a lot of times, they're eating just as it starts to sink too.
If it's starting to sink too much, it might throw some of the dry powder on it. But other than that, no, not really, personally, with the float we use here.
Marvin:
[10:11] Got it. Is there anything, you know, sometimes I know we'll cast kind of behind the fish to make them turn around. Is that a good tactic to maybe tilt things in your favor? Yeah, yeah.
Dustin:
[10:21] And it really depends on your positioning, too. Obviously, if someone, you know, being in a boat, whether it's a flats boat like where you run here, if someone's in a raft, you know, position yourself like that, great.
If you're in a wade situation and you might not have that luxury, you know, to kind of avoid, especially if there's, you know, if there are trees and kind of blocking, um, your, uh, dangling that you could take, uh, from it, you might not have that luxury, but if, if you can and can maneuver yourself, then absolutely.
Marvin:
[10:53] Yeah, got it. And you know, folks, we love questions on the articulate fly.
You can email them to us. You can DM us on social media. If we use your question, I will send you some articulate fly swag. We're in our drawing for a half day of guided fishing with Dustin at the end of the season. And Dustin, before I let you go, you want to let folks know where they can find you and book you and all that kind of good stuff?
Dustin:
[11:13] Yep, absolutely. As I said before, I proudly guide for the Ugly Bug Fly Shop located right here in Casserole, Wyoming.
If folks want to get on the books, you can give us a call at 307-234-6905.
Otherwise, you can find me on Instagram at Dustin James White.
Marvin:
[11:30] Yeah, well, there you go. Well, listen, folks, yield to yourself to take advantage of the long holiday weekend to get out there and catch a few.
Tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, Dustin.
Dustin:
[11:39] Tight lines, Marvin. Thanks so much.