Fishing Forum

Used the Eclipse as an excuse to make my Wind Rivers trip this summer... Ended up everyone's schedules got all and so we went in two groups on different days, but met up at the same spot for the event... My daughter and I went up on Saturday and we got to the trailhead about 1:00 so we hiked in about 6 miles and took a cross country bushwhack into a lesser known lake.... It was pretty fun....
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Couldn't hook em but sure had lots of fish grab a hold and let us drag them to shore before they would let go... Then they would circle around and hit again three or four times before they figured out it wasn't dinner... Fish were nice, some 18" brookies in the bunch, but most that we caught were smaller, but still nice fish...
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From there we took another cross country trip to the onion meadows campground where I made one of the two most painful wades of my life, played with a few river fish there too....
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I know I took too much gear at near 60 lbs with water, but I sure wish I would have had wading shoes... Anyway we made it into my new happy place, Grave Lake....
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What an incredible, beautiful place... hope the pictures will work so you know what I'm talking about...
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Then we hit Baptiste Lake for the eclipse.... dang incredible... fishing was slow, and cold so we headed out from there... Tough hike on an old fart that is too dumb to take a smaller pack.... Finished up at Moss Lake, with some brookie fun...
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Great trip... Fishing was fun, but we had too many miles to cover to fish much... Next time I need a few more days to enjoy the place once I get there... Later J (PS... photo issues, will add as I can)
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Nice report and incredible pictures Jeff! I'm going on a backpack trip September 22-25, but not sure if it will be the Uintas or the wind rivers.
I've never hiked the wind river mountains so I'm not sure if I should wait until I can dedicate more days to it and I'm not really sure where to go for the best fishing.

Mike
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Hey Mike,
I used to love the Uinta's until I took my first trip to the Winds and I kind of found a new love.... The Winds are a little further, this trip takes 6 hours from Cache Valley to the trailhead, so it's the far side of the Winds and an hour drive up the mountain, but you're an hour closer there in Bear Lake and there are some great spots on the west side of the Winds as well, that saves a couple hours too... It is a little expensive to get reservation permits and out of state Wyoming permits, but it is so worth it.... Those mountains are incredible, the scenery is world class and the wildlife is great!!! Seen a couple nice buck, turkeys, two black bear, antelope, we had elk all around us, but I didn't get to see them out of the trees... We seen some Pica and tons of small game... If you'd like I will get ya some details on where to try and how to get there and any contacts you might need for permitting... Let me know and I'll PM the details... J

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Looks like a great trip and good memories. I love the pictures! It does look somewhat different from most places I have seen in the Uintas.

We made the trip to Rexburg and the drudge back home the same day, but it was worth the effort. If we could have simply turned back to fishing when it passed, that would have beat the pants off of fighting I-15 for 6 hours.

Do you need permits just to go backpacking in to the Wind Rivers? Do they charge for such permits, and are they easy to obtain?

Did you notice any effect on the fishing over the course of the eclipse? Were you in the path of totality?
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Thanks for the comments, the winds is sort of like Yosemite minus the crowds and plus lots of lakes... It's really cool... If you take an organized group (Scouts) into the Winds you need to get a permit through the forest service district you're going into... There are three districts that cover the range... They are free, but you do have to do them ahead of time so they can get them back to you... If you don't it's a big fine and hassle... Also if you take livestock you have to get permits through them as well... I understand there are times when they may not give you a permit, like if they think there are too many folks in that area at the same time... I've never had a problem with getting a permit though... The permits I mentioned that are expensive are the tribal trespass or fishing permits for the reservation... They cost $30 for first day and $25 for each additional day on the reservation...

I didn't notice any difference in the fishing during the eclipse, but we were at a lake that I wasn't catching fish before during or after the eclipse... We were on the very edge of the totality zone so we got about 10-15 seconds of darkness, it was way cool to see and very abrupt when it happened, it wasn't a slow progression to darkness, that is why it was so impressive... If you need more info let me know? Later J
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