Fishing in Wyoming

Fishing Time: 6:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Weather: Sunny, clear, high 40's

Moon Phase: 11% moon

Location: Fremont Lake, Wyoming

Ice Conditions: 15" with 4" of snow on top

Bait: 6" Tube jigs, tipped with carp meat and pro cure smelly jelly

Who Went: Hunt, Dave, Scotty, Newt, Me

It was time for our big ice fishing trip of the year and we decided to get out of Utah and explore some new territory! The destination was Fremont Lake, Wyoming. Fremont, along with many other natural lakes, is located on the west slope of the Wind River Mountain Range. It is one of the deepest natural lakes in the United States at just over 600 feet. It was formed by a glacier long ago and is absolutely gorgeous! The Wind River Range is unbelievably rugged and worth the trip just to see it! We stayed in a really nice deluxe log cabin that was literally 20 yards from the lake, and 200 yards from where we fished! You couldn't ask for better accommodations.

The closest town was Pinedale, which was only a couple miles from the lake and had the feel of a small quaint Park City. Nothing like we expected in Wyoming! As we got settled into the room and started getting gear ready for morning Scotty informed us that he really didn't have many warm clothes! We made fun of him as he pulled out his work boots and we saw they had no inside lining at all, but he assured us that they were oil resistant! We laughed over the oil resistant comment all weekend! Morning came and we hit the lake just before sun up. It was a gorgeous morning and the back drop with the mountains looked awesome.

We found water in about 75 to 85 feet and got everyone set up to fish! I started my first drop down the hole and at about 40 feet my line went slack! I thought I must have been caught on my ice hole, but then realized, no this must be a fish! I instantly set the hook and had the first fish on of the day! Just as fast as I caught him, I lost him! Ouch that one hurt, but at least it looked like it was going to be fast fishing! So we thought! About an hour or two had past with no more bites and Dave and Scotty were in the middle of a heated frisbee game. During their game Dave looked over and saw that he had a fish biting. He ran over and grabbed his pole and the fish hit it again so he set the hook. The fight was on! When he finally got it to the hole we could tell it was a nice fish. Hunt tried to make up for a past experience of punching Dave's last big fish he caught back down the hole, and this time he was successful! It ended up being a 27 1/2" 6 pound Lake Trout, the biggest trout Dave has ever caught! That fish made our trip! And it was a good thing as the rest of the day was pretty dismal! One thing that wasn't dismal was the weather! Just to give you some background on where we were fishing, this was one of the signs we passed as we drove in.Well today it wasn't the ice box of the nation. In fact, it was one of the warmest ice fishing days I've ever had! It got so warm that Newton decided to shed his clothes and show off his guns! I promise those are muscles underneath all that red hair!

In the middle of the day we decided to make a move to find active fish, and we were excited when Hunt and Newton found the only structure on the lake for miles. It was a ridge that extended out into 100 feet of water. I was giving everyone mack fishing 101 telling them where you want to fish on the ridge. You would have thought we found gold the way we were acting. We started picking out spots trying to cover all depths of the ridge, and would each yell out the depth we were fishing! Scotty who doesn't fish much, was a little overwhelmed with all the action, but excited that we were now going to catch fish. After about 5 hours without catching any fish in our new found honey hole, Scotty lost it! He went off! "What are we doing? I thought this was the spot?! You guys are yelling out numbers like I got 52 feet, I got 68 over here! I got all excited and my pole hasn't moved for over 10 hours now!" We tried to tell him that macks are an evening fish and to be patient, but he wasn't having that. He yelled, "Dave, this is like me taking you to a 12 hour soccer game with the score still at 0-0, but telling you not to worry cause the next two hours is gonna be awesome!" We were all rolling on the ground watching him lose it, wearing only his dolphins gear and oil resistant work boots! It definitely made the trip something we will all never forget! Scotty wasn't the only one who felt they had enough for one day, and soon there were only two of us left. Hunt and I knew that we had to wait it out til dark! 5 minutes after Hunt decided to give up and I talked him into 15 more minutes he had one on. The second mack of a 13 hour fishing day! It wasn't the size of Daves, but it was a nice fish at 25" long and about 4 pounds.
It was without a doubt one of the slowest days of fishing I've had in awhile, but the scenery and company made it worth it! We had a blast all weekend laughing at ourselves and enjoying the night life Pinedale has to offer! It's always one of my favorite trips of the year and usually ends up being more about friends getting together than fishing, and that's fine by me!

Before we left on Sunday we drove up towards the Wind River Range as far as the road would let us go, as it wasn't plowed! I took these scenic photos of Half Moon Lake, which was beautiful, and also Fremont lake from the other end looking back towards the area we stayed and fished! The first two photos are of Half moon Lake and the last two are of Fremont! Notice the gradient of the mountains surrounding Fremont Lake and you will see how the lake reaches 600 feet deep!