# Wyoming Trout Fishing and Backpacking Video and Pictures (Golden trout and brookies)



## Chinookhead (Mar 4, 2005)

I went fishing and backpacking in Wyoming's Wind River Range during the month of July. The scenery was amazing and I had great brook trout and golden trout fishing on spinning and fly fishing gear. However, the weather was the craziest that I've ever seen it in the summer......changing in the same day from high 70's to snowing and in the 20's etc. I saw lots of antelope in Pinedale, several moose around the Cook Lakes, and possible evidence of a bear messing with my food bag off trail from Big Sandy Trailhead. All I know is that something made large tracks above and below my food bag and scratched the Ursack's rope ( a special bear resistant dyneema armored food sack). I will post some of the better pictures below (too many from which to choose) and a link to a video montage of the whole trip. In the video below, you can skip to 4.18 and 17.11 for the fishing and bear tracks at 9.42. Here is the Video:





Beautiful scenery:
Nice brookie in awe inspiring:















Super clear pretty water:









Pretty but fishless off-trail lake. Wyoming or the tropics? 








Nice Golden trout








Moose at the Cook Lakes








Antelope around Pinedale near Elkhart Park trailhead








Desolation Valley









Now, are you inspired to try to stay in decent shape, so you can carry 40-60 pounds 6-9 days and experience such amazing things? I know my sore knees tell me to do a little bit better with that non-existent exercise routine that at the end of summer I always "commit" to doing  !!!


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## kroppe (May 7, 2000)

Cool report, thanks for sharing! John Gierach would approve!


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## Steve (Jan 15, 2000)

Wow that is pretty inspiring.


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## beer and nuts (Jan 2, 2001)

Nice! What program did you use to put the video together??


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## Chinookhead (Mar 4, 2005)

beer and nuts said:


> Nice! What program did you use to put the video together??


I used cyberlink power director 12 . It's 3 years old, so now you would purchase version 13, which has a very similar interface, but even more options. It seems to be one of the simplest and most intuitive video editors that still has lots of features. Sony Vegas and Adobe seem to require a course to really get to know how to use them according to their capabilities.


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## storman (Mar 12, 2008)

Looks like an awesome trip one more thing g to add to bucket list only been to Wyoming one time in the winter and it was awesome.


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## Smallmouth Chaser (May 17, 2009)

Great trip! Does the river system you were fishing up in the wind river range drain into the Green River above Fremont Lake? I have fished below several places in the area where you were but have never done the hike in and camp thing. Beautiful country. Good Choice in leaving the area once the bear made out your food supply since bears in the part of the country like eating people from Michigan (or maybe too many people from here don't respect bear enough).

Which trout species were the first ones you caught? Were those Bull trout or Goldens that were not in full breeding colors?


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## Chinookhead (Mar 4, 2005)

Smallmouth Chaser said:


> Great trip! Does the river system you were fishing up in the wind river range drain into the Green River above Fremont Lake? I have fished below several places in the area where you were but have never done the hike in and camp thing. Beautiful country. Good Choice in leaving the area once the bear made out your food supply since bears in the part of the country like eating people from Michigan (or maybe too many people from here don't respect bear enough).
> 
> Which trout species were the first ones you caught? Were those Bull trout or Goldens that were not in full breeding colors?


1) The river system does eventually drain into Fremont Lake, but this is after 15-30 miles. The places I fished in the video were from 14-25 miles from the trailhead. Generally, the further one goes from the trailhead, the fishing gets better and the fish less "educated" and then really improves if you are willing to hike a bit off-trail. Also, golden trout have only survived in the most isolated area where "bucket biolgists" (people planting in an unauthorized manner) have not introduced another species. Once another species is introduced into a system, golden trout disappear within a couple years since their brightly colored young are easy prey for other fish.

2) The trout species in the 1st part of the video were large brook trout. The fish in the 2nd and third hike in the video were golden trout and one may have been a rainbow/golden hybrid (minute 17.25-18.30), but the next 3 trout definitely look like pure golden trout.


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