Lake Hattie

Great day on the ice with my son. It was cold but the lack of wind made it “nice” for Wyoming. The bite was slow; he landed a couple rainbow trout and I landed just one. However, those were his first fish ever through the ice, so that’s a big success! We lost a few, including a couple that were likely the biggest of the day. One popped off while trying to horse it into the hole - good lesson for my son. And one went on a run and broke my line when I wasn’t paying attention - good lesson for me. Moody clouds made for dramatic lighting on what has become one of my favorite backdrops.

Caught 4 Kokanee salmon and 7 rainbow trout in Wyoming this morning before heading back south of the border for an afternoon session!

Epic day on the ice. Having never caught a Kokanee salmon through the ice, I decided to start by targeting them. I caught 13! Then moved on to target trout. Caught 12 rainbow trout, plus 1 yellow perch to make it a 26 fish day! Missed several, but I won’t complain on a day like today. I had one big trout break my line on the edge of the hole. The Kokanee were all post-spawn, and mostly females with colors ranging from light gray and green, to red and orange, to dark gray and black (Generally they get darker as they approach death). The final fish of the day was also the biggest: a hen rainbow trout measuring 22.75 inches! That makes 3 sessions in a row with monster trout, and each one has been slightly bigger than the previous one! Add to all of that - beautiful conditions and a classic Wyoming sunset to cap it all off. The ripples in the ice look like open water in some of the pics, but it is all ice.

Like much of the continent, it’s been ridiculously cold and windy so I haven’t fished in a couple days. However, I just got a nice surprise in the mail. I received all 5 Wyoming Master Angler awards that I applied for, plus the Trophy Angler award which is achieved by accumulating 5 Master Angler awards! All of them were caught in the second half of 2023. Perhaps I’ll be able to accumulate 5 more species in 2024 and qualify for the Ultimate angler award. The species I got so far are brown trout, rainbow trout, cutthroat trout, Kokanee salmon, and yellow perch. Of those, I consider most of them to be fairly standard catches for what I’ve been catching in Wyoming, with the exception of the brown trout. It was a 27 inch, 8+ pound female, which was my PB brown trout and one of my best fish of the year. The program is open to anyone with a WY fishing license and you can apply on their website. The standards are based on length and uploading a picture.