Transcript
Marvin:
[0:04] Hey, folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly, and we're back with On the Water with Dustin White. Dustin, how are you?
Dustin:
[0:12] Marvin, I'm doing great. How are you doing, my friend?
Marvin:
[0:14] I'm living the dream. And so you've been bouncing all over the place, but you're back and Casper ready to get after it this season, right?
Dustin:
[0:22] Yeah, we're actually we've been after it here for probably about a month and some change now of being out there just about every single day and we're in the thick of it now and it's rock and rolling, all systems firing, we're excited.
Marvin:
[0:36] Yeah, so it's interesting, right, because you've got a kind of a new bigger game, right? So you got the SEO thing going on like you did before, but you're starting to do the SALT stuff too, right?
Dustin:
[0:45] Yeah, I've been doing, you know, starting to do a little bit of hosted trips.
I get to tag along with some friends and and chase some of the species that I've loved fishing for probably about the last 18 years I've been on the salt with much more concentration.
So generally speaking though, like a lot of the inshore species, so snook, tarpon, reds has been some species that I've loved getting to chase, especially in the low country and down in Florida.
So it gets to do that in the edge season, we'll say, between Steelheading on the Great Lakes with SAO and then coming out here and guiding Central Wyoming with the Bucks.
So any time I can sneak away to, you know, hang out on a Flots boat with some butts pulling me around or me pulling them around in return, I'll take advantage of that opportunity anytime.
Marvin:
[1:40] Yeah, and it doesn't hurt that you have dry-through daiquiris and margaritas, right?
Dustin:
[1:43] Exactly, exactly.
Marvin:
[1:48] So, but to bring it back to Wyoming, you know, one of the things I know from talking to you last season, I've been watching your social media feed, is you're kind of really cranking on the carb stuff now, right?
Dustin:
[1:59] Oh, I love it. Yep.
Historically, actually, that's been a favorite species of mine.
And it's been a bit of a buzz species for a lot of fly anglers that's been growing over the last 15, 20 years.
And so I've always loved chasing them.
In the earlier days of my guiding career in Ohio, I'd actually take kids out to Target Carp, you know, in, you know, kind of urban centers and you know, in park systems on ponds and you know, little canals that I just am so fascinated with that species.
And then, you know, as I started getting out here into Wyoming and, you know, working for the bug, you know, Blake was always, you know, super generous to take me out on his Flots boat on some of the reservoirs we have and just blew my mind of how parallel, how similar it was to targeting redfish on flats down in Georgia.
I mean, almost identical just in a freshwater context in central Wyoming.
And so, I got myself a flats boat and I've been pulling it around and taking folks out and catching carp.
And there's just such a cool species in about every facet they have.
I love targeting them. I love how they're finicky in some days.
I love how they're greedy on other days.
[3:28] Yet, no matter which of those two ends of the spectrum you find their temperament in, they're going to put you in your backing as soon as you hook them.
It's just a pretty cool experience to add to the pretty special trout water that we have here in Central Wyoming.
Marvin:
[3:45] And so, you know, when is kind of prime carp time in Wyoming?
Dustin:
[3:50] Yeah, so right now, I mean, we are picking them up right now, but we're kind of they're starting to set up to do the thing with spawning.
And so their attention is starting to shift a little bit away from eating and they're kind of getting ready for, you know, the spawn.
But generally speaking, if you can get them, you know, the, you know, Memorial Day weekend is is is kind of a time where, man, it really starts firing then.
And so, this time in May, they're starting to have their priorities elsewhere other than eating, but as we start to get to the end of the month, they really are getting back into feeding and feeding pretty aggressively.
So, end of May through, I mean, almost all of July is pretty darn good.
But if you can get out in the water and target some of those in the month of June, it's a pretty special thing.
Marvin:
[4:42] Very, very neat. And we were talking before we started recording, I mean, like so much of the, you know, the Rocky Mountain West, I mean, you guys have gotten a ton of snow this season.
Dustin:
[4:52] Oh, unbelievable, Mel, and very thankfully so here in Wyoming, gosh, I think for the ranges that surrounded us, I think early February we were at like 130 snowpack, you know, snowpack was at 130.
So we were already doing quite well. And then we just kept getting pummeled and pummeled and pummeled by snow.
And so there's you know, I'm looking out my window now at the mountain and it's it's all white on the top of it.
So, we're going to have a lot of water moving through our fishery and our drainages this year. And they've already, because we're on tailwaters, they've already started to adjust to that with our flows.
Marvin:
[5:33] Yeah, and that would also, you know, not just adjusting now, but you're also going to have probably more water later in the season unless it gets really, really hot really, really early, right?
Dustin:
[5:43] Yeah, yeah. I think, you know, so, you know, if we talk about the three different fisheries specifically that we have, you know, the miles already at 2700, which is about what you'll see, the highest you'll ever see at in the summer, you know, in the dog days of it.
And here we are in May, we're already there.
The horn has kind of been bouncing up and down.
Just they're kind of been reactionary to what the boys in reservoirs been.
But currently it's at 24. They just walked it down to 2,400 from 3,000.
And I would expect that that could easily, you know, on that end of things, go up and down there.
And the reef, we're at about 1,000 right now. And that definitely is going to start ticking up here as we get through the month of May and into June, July.
So, I think we're going to have a lot of water moving through the system, thankfully.
And I think our reservoirs, some of which, like pathfinder were extremely low last year are going to have a lot of water in them to fill them up and make sure that you know our fish are happy but also our anglers are happy as well.
Marvin:
[6:52] Very, very neat. So what are you seeing in addition to the improved flows.
Dustin:
[6:56] Yeah, so all three systems are fishing extremely well right now.
We are in the season of blue wings. So, you know, folks are out of the water.
You know, we always have midges on our water. If you walk into the North Platte or the Big Horn and have no idea what the throw is, you have a midge on your rig, you're going to be doing pretty well out of the gate. But this is blue wing season.
We're seeing some fairly large blue wings this year.
I wouldn't say they're size 16s, but they're 18 and then some change.
So we've got some pretty large blue wings that we've been seeing on all three systems in terms of bugs.
Our fish right now are in the thick of the spawn. And so we're letting folks know, hey, really, really respect those spawn beds.
I know it's tempting for a lot of folks to see hundreds of fish stacked up on gravel.
But honestly, your best fishing is not going to be to them. It's going to be fishing those buckets, those deep drop-offs that are below it, where you have some fish that are eager to eat, but aren't in the midst of spawning.
And so we want to just encourage folks, if you want to have a good fishery for years to come, that you kind of let them be, let them do their thing.
But, uh, take advantage of the fish that are eagerly below them. Yeah.
Marvin:
[8:18] And so, you know, obviously that smaller stuff, you know, creates problems, whether you're fishing nymphs or you're fishing dries, you know, what are some tips for folks to kind of make strike detection and actually to be able to see your fly work a little bit better for you? Yeah.
Dustin:
[8:33] So if we're talking dries, you know, here in Wyoming, I actually like to run it with, with dry flies, I read, I looked to write a two fly rigs and I like to have a point fly that's a little bigger to be able to see it, right?
And so, you know, if, let's say you have a smaller bug, a smaller pattern, and this is very, very helpful as we get later in the season when fish are eating, you know, trichos, like size 22s, you know, smaller, smaller patterns.
If you have a bigger point fly, something that's visual on the front end, look for a take that's within a specific radius of that fly based on how long your tag to your second fly, your terminal fly, is coming off that.
So if you're throwing dries, have that bigger cider fly for yourself that's still in the ballpark of what those fish can eat, small enough it's not going to spook them off laying in the water, but big enough that you can see it.
[9:31] And then essentially, a lot of times too, with a lot of these smaller flies, the smaller flies start to accumulate in a lot of biomass and you can't tell like, well, what's my fly in the midst of all that biomass there, of all those spinners versus what I'm actually throwing.
So having a bigger point fly, just big enough for you to be able to see it, and then setting Depending on any sort of take that occurs within the radius of what that would be.
That's what I found is really successful for us here, especially if you're eating smaller flies. In terms of nymphing, man, during this time of year, takes are often super, super subtle.
So Marvin, as crass as it is, I always like to say, hey man, if it looks like a mosquito go farted on your bobber, set the hook.
That's, I mean, as much as you can get dialed in to the subtle takes from fish that are eating below an indicator, the more successful you'll be.
Marvin:
[10:35] Yeah, and so in those situations, do you like, I know some people like to actually have two indicators, like they'll use two of the stick-ons and they're watching the alignment between the two indicators. Is that something you like to do or are you just going to say lift on anything fishy?
Dustin:
[10:50] No, yeah, I want to lift on anything fishy. I'm not looking at the two indicator thing.
I tend to find that sometimes mending becomes to be a little trickier there.
And I feel like it over complicates things. So, you know, I'm using a pretty light indicator that is going to be, you know, pretty sensitive to takes.
And so on anything that looks like it's that's a take, we want to set on it, just because these fish are seeing a lot of food coming down the pipe.
And so they're not in desperation mode of having to take extra hard takes.
We're also coming out of, as you mentioned before, water's up.
And we have runoff that's occurring now. It's just a lot, a lot of runoff occurring now.
So water temps are actually on the lower side. There's fish are hanging in, uh, the ones that aren't spawning are hanging in lower, uh, stretches of runs, slower water.
Um, they're not taking things all that aggressive. So, um, any sort of hesitation in the float, you want to set on it.
Marvin:
[12:04] Oh, well, there you go. And you know, folks, we love questions at the articulate fly.
You can email them to me. You can DM us on social media.
If we use your question, I will send you some articulate fly swag and we'll announce what our giveaway item will be at the end of the fishing report series with Dustin and you know Dustin before I let you go and make dinner and all that kind of good stuff you want to let folks know you know how they can book you while you're out west and where the shop is and all that kind of good stuff yep yep so the ugly bug is at right downtown Casper on Center Street if anyone wants to book me you can message me directly on Instagram I can help take take care things for you up.
Dustin:
[12:41] Otherwise, you can call the shop directly at area code 307-234-6905. Well, there you go.
Marvin:
[12:48] And also, too, if I remember correctly, they were working on an apartment above the shop to rent out to folks to stay in. Is that ready and rolling or is that still a work in progress?
Dustin:
[13:02] We actually got an additional house on the river for folks. So, you know, not only do we have our or lodge to rent out to larger groups.
We have a river cabin and an additional house right on the river with some private access for folks. So we've got three different locations.
Yeah, we do have the crash pad downtown, but in terms of things that are available to be rented out for folks, yeah, we've got three different locations and each is a pretty special amenity to offer to our guests.
Marvin:
[13:34] Super cool. Well, listen folks, we're back in the saddle and you'll be hearing from Dustin every couple of weeks and you owe it to yourself to get out there and catch a few. Tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, Dustin.
Dustin:
[13:46] Tight lines, Marvin. Thanks so much.