Getting Salty in Wyoming
P
lease take this with a grain of salt (pun intended)! As a longtime fishing writer for 25 years now, I always have had a love/hate relationship with a few salty veterans. Most folks read my destinations features about well-known fisheries. Maybe they take my advice, book a trip or in a few rare instances, call me out, saying things like, “You ruined my secret spot.” I simply have replied, “How did I ruin your “secret spot” when the world has known about the Snake or Bighorn (whatever the river in reference was) for generations?” I avoid writing about small backcountry lakes, unnamed streams or even lesser-known rivers and creeks that you need a bloodhound or a topographical map just to find. Sometimes, I highlight a flyfishing destination, then quickly sprinkle in all the great
tor, Idaho, Jackson, Wyoming, and the South Fork of The Snake River. I have highlighted the Grey’s River in the same drainage before, but this time around, let us tackle the Salt River….and no, it is not a saltwater river (maybe a tiny percentage), but history will tell you, it’s been a popular place for a long time! The Salt River got the name due to the saltwater springs, beds and briny areas found in the region that Native Americans and trappers used to cure and preserve meats. The springs offer a flow of 60% saltwater in a limited number of the feeder creeks. The 84-mile Salt River flows north from its headwaters below 10,472-foot Mount Wagner through the town of Thayne and Star Valley, before dumping into Palisades Reservoir to join the Snake River and head West. The whole region is an interesting place as you have three amazing trout fisheries join at Palisades Reservoir—only to become the powerhouse SF Snake that flows West to Idaho Falls and beyond, before joining the Columbia and eventually the Pacific Ocean. Okay, now that I got you on the map, let us talk about spring fishing, pre-runoff fishing since that is the next stage we will encounter in order as I look at the calendar. Locals and guides such as Darin Day from the Rockin’ M Ranch (https://rockinmranchwyoming.com) says fishing typically gets going in June, but if you have friends in the right places, he has been able to plow snow from ramps in late April, which is rare, or May, and have a go at it with dries and streamers. “Since the pre-runoff thing is really not a thing you can count on along the Salt, let’s start with June for a safer bet,” waters you find—maybe flyfishing hubs like West Yel- said Darin. “I like to fish streamers like the Double D, lowstone, Almont, Thermopolis, Glenwood Springs, a leech pattern I tie or stick with Woolly Buggers and Missoula, and Thayne. sculpin patterns, but I’m partial to articulated patThayne you ask—yeah Thayne, Wyoming. This terns like the Barely Legal. Most guys will slay the fish sleepy Wyoming town is just a stone’s throw from Vic- with nymph rigs, but who comes to Wyoming and a
