April 1 - Lake Owen Creek, Laramie River, North Platte (paul)

First, a big thanks to Dave for putting this site together. I'm not Dave. I'm Paul. At some point we'll figure out how to attach my name to my posts, as opposed to attaching Dave's name to my posts. In the meantime, let's talk fishing.

After a campus gear swap yesterday, my friends Nate and Dan and I rolled out of Laramie at around noon. We'd hoped for Rob Roy Reservoir but only got as far as Albany, where two feet of slush encouraged us to turn around. Figuring we'd try our hands on the Laramie River, we found a little feeder creek on the way to Woods Landing which turned out to be Lake Owen Creek. Despite some pretty impressive pools, no luck.

I should mention at this point that Nate and Dan had their flyrods; my flyrod is still back in Illinois since I recieved it for Christmas and couldn't bring it on the plane. My dad's bringing it out in May, though. Long story short, I was spincasting with tiny little spinners - hoping against hope that the brookies would be attracted to bright, shiny objects.

After wading through snowbanks and getting raked by Russian Olive trees all along Lake Owen Creek, we popped over to a public access spot just south of Woods Landing on the Laramie River. A strong current five yards wide cut through ice shelves on both banks; there were no good pools and the only still water was too shallow. Falling through the ice would have meant a very cold and very unpleasant death. This didn't stop us from walking on the ice, however, and at one point I was casting from a partially submerged rock. I slipped, landed right square on my ass, and got very wet. Luckily I was wearing layers of synthetics, so I didn't get too cold.

We didn't get a single bite on the Laramie, so we headed off to the North Platte Wilderness near the Wyoming/Colorado border (in fact, the road actually took us into Colorado for a few miles before veering due north, eventually running through Saratoga).

On the access road from 230 to a place on the North Platte called "6 Mile Gap," we came across a Hummer stuck in the snow. Nebraska plates. Go figure.

Dan drives a beefy Chevy Silverado, lifted a few inches, but he didn't budge the damn Hummer with his tow rope. Luckily enough, the Hummer had a winch and an anchor - no trees in these parts, just sagebrush - and after monkeying around with the controls, the Hummer finally winched itself out.

And then we got stuck trying to get through another spot. This time the Hummer had to anchor its back end, attach its winch to Dan's truck, and pull Dan out backwards. It was glorious. The Hummer guys were friendly enough and we had a great time joking around about the situation. They even broke out a bottle of rum and passed it around.

This was on the road to 6 Mile Gap, where we ultimately did get in some more fishing - but no bites at all. It was perhaps one of the most beautiful places I've seen this year. We had to park on a ridge (too much snow to drive down), hike about a mile downhill, and there at the bottom was a gorgeous little canyon with the North Platte carving its way through more ice shelves. Geese honked and generally hung around; we cast and cast with absolutely no results.

We hiked out as darkness fell, just in time to get blasted by a snowshower. When we finally made it to the truck, we each looked like snowbeasts on our fronts but normal humans on our backs. After dinner at a great bar at Woods Landing, we made it back to Laramie at 9pm.

Bites: none
Fish caught: none
Hummers stuck: 1
Silverados stuck: 1
Number of times Paul fell into the water: 1
Number of times Paul and Nate fell through ice: 0
Number of times Dan fell through ice up to his butt: 1
Geese: 5
Deer: At least seven different herds.
Elk: none
Elk pooh: 1 pile
Bears: none