S6, Ep 92: Guiding the North Platte: Carp, Tricos and Casper’s Best Bites

Marvin: Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Flower,

Marvin: back with another On the Water with Dustin White. Dustin, how are you?

Dustin: Marvin, doing well, enjoying some warm weather, but not necessarily oppressively

Dustin: hot weather here in Wyoming. How about you?

Marvin: I'm getting there. So, you know, it's kind of funny, you picked up a little

Marvin: bit of elevation change going from Jekyll Island back to Casper.

Dustin: Just a bit. Yeah, a bit of elevation and a lot less humidity.

Dustin: But yeah, we're back in the saddle and been kind of rock and rolling here the last few weeks.

Marvin: Yeah, and so you've been carping mostly, right?

Dustin: Yeah, a lot of carping now. We're kind of hitting the tail end.

Dustin: It's kind of the twilight of the season for us.

Dustin: Generally, if our evenings stay warm, it'll hold on a little bit longer.

Dustin: But, you know, when you start getting those temp inversions at night,

Dustin: that's what kind of starts to slow some stuff down for it.

Dustin: But, yeah, I've been doing a lot of carping the last few weeks,

Dustin: been running the mile as well.

Dustin: So, yeah, we're kind of rock and rolling on all fronts.

Dustin: So, yeah, can't complain. Excited about it.

Marvin: Yeah. And so on the carp front, do you have any like the equivalent of a mulberry

Marvin: hatch going on right now? Cotton seed hatch, I guess, would probably be what it is.

Marvin: Or are you just kind of targeting them a little bit more conventionally? Yeah.

Dustin: Yeah, we'd be conventional here. We don't get too much of a cottonwood seed

Dustin: specifically here on Pathfinder or Alcova.

Dustin: If we went just down the road a little bit on Glendo, that reservoir can get

Dustin: a bit of that cottonwood seed hatch.

Dustin: And that'll work there. A lot of biomass there on that reservoir.

Dustin: A bit smaller fish that kind of comes with that territory. But on Pathfinder

Dustin: and Alcova, the two reservoirs that are right in our backyard, pretty conventional.

Dustin: We're able to get them in the morning, eating on the surface before that temp

Dustin: really starts to warm up the water.

Dustin: You know, typical sort of setup, you know, a Turk's tarantula is kind of a pretty

Dustin: tried and true go-to fly for us early in the morning.

Dustin: But then once we come off that, we're pretty, you know, standard crustacean

Dustin: and leech presentations to those fish.

Dustin: Look at them as they start to move on the flats. So, yeah, usually,

Dustin: you know, the last week and a half, two weeks or so, it's been probably mid-late

Dustin: morning when those fish have been moving on to the flats.

Dustin: So, yeah, that's been it. Got a little funkier the weekend. We had a massive walleye tournament.

Dustin: So there were a lot of boats out. So that kind of made the fish a little bit

Dustin: spooky, but, uh, we're, we're back to some, some normal fishing now, the, at the moment.

Marvin: Yeah. They're not used to seeing the sparkle boats, are they?

Dustin: No, not at all. And it was, it was a lot of boats by tenfold. What was it?

Dustin: What we'd normally call a busy day, multiply that by about 10.

Dustin: And, uh, I mean, they were kind of everywhere. So that was a little bit of a

Dustin: hiccup, uh, um, in it. But other than that, yeah, we're pretty well normal with them.

Dustin: And like I said, I think we'll have a little bit of a longer season than typical,

Dustin: just because those temps have been holding on for us. So we're grateful for that.

Marvin: Yeah. And so what are you seeing on the North Platte?

Dustin: Yeah, so on the mile, a lot of trichos are popping.

Dustin: We've had some rains, and so there's a lot of annelids in the water.

Dustin: So pretty much nymphing at this point on the mile.

Dustin: Some caddis popping here or there. Still have some PMVs holding on.

Dustin: But, you know, early in the morning, trichos are tried and true.

Dustin: You know, moved down in the river system. Thankfully, we finally had a bit of

Dustin: a drop on Fremont Canyon. So folks that are out wanting to weight fish that,

Dustin: that's probably been our best dry fly fishing at the moment.

Dustin: So if you are really, really, really hardcore wanting to throw dries,

Dustin: I'd say Fremont Canyon is a really good bet.

Dustin: Those flows are back into a manageable weight right now.

Dustin: But even on the reef, our hopper fishing is stable.

Dustin: It's kind of solid. I wouldn't say it's lights out, but it's definitely worthwhile

Dustin: to do early in the mornings.

Dustin: There's trichos as that spinner fall starts to happen.

Dustin: Fish are starting to look up there. And then throughout the day,

Dustin: same thing, analids, caddis, some PMDs. That'll work on that front.

Marvin: Very, very cool. And, you know, folks, we love questions on the Articulate Fly.

Marvin: We didn't have one this time, but send us your questions. And if we use your

Marvin: question, I will send you some Articulate Fly swag.

Marvin: We are drawing for a half a day of fishing with Dustin and, you know,

Marvin: however, you know, whatever's easiest for you. You want to DM us on social media.

Marvin: You want to email me any way you want to send us the questions. It's awesome.

Marvin: And Dustin, as we always do, we want to give a shout out to a local restaurant

Marvin: slash watering hole. What do you have for us?

Dustin: Yeah, Fire Rock Restaurant is a local haunt for sure.

Dustin: That's probably one of a few restaurants that if you want a classy night a bit

Dustin: when you get off the water with just a fantastic meal,

Dustin: killer bar service, incredible cocktails, and a great draft list,

Dustin: that's always where we send folks.

Dustin: But the great thing about it is, as us guides, you can easily roll in in your

Dustin: Chaco shorts and sun shirt, and you're not going to have anyone bat an eye about it, too.

Dustin: So it's kind of a cool spot to where if you want that fancier vibe,

Dustin: there's an option there.

Dustin: But they've got a great patio and, like I said, just a wonderful bar and bar

Dustin: staff there that takes care of us. So if folks are going there,

Dustin: they're Manhattans, I strongly recommend for the drink.

Dustin: And then, Marvin, I tend to be a creature of habit, so I kind of flip back and

Dustin: forth between their pork chop that they do a bourbon applesauce kind of chutney on it,

Dustin: as well as they have a kind of a spicy honey glazed cedar plank salmon.

Dustin: And so I kind of bounce back and forth between the two of those.

Dustin: But that's definitely a spot that you'll see us fishing guides take our dates

Dustin: to when we got off the water.

Marvin: Very neat. What you would call Casper Resort Casual.

Dustin: Yeah, exactly. That's exactly what it is.

Marvin: It's always nice to know you can go a place like that and you don't walk in

Marvin: the door and they make you put on a blazer that they just pull off the rack for you, right?

Dustin: Exactly. No, yeah. It's not like that. You can definitely dress up there if

Dustin: you want to, but plenty of us guides will roll in and get a cocktail when you

Dustin: get off the water and sit at the bar, munch on some food.

Dustin: It's a great spot. And so anytime a client says, hey, we want kind of a fancier

Dustin: sort of sit down, that always makes the short list in terms of just really quality food, good variety.

Dustin: Obviously, if you want to stay down Main Street, so to speak,

Dustin: in terms of the menu, you can get a killer steak there as well.

Dustin: But they give you enough options where you can deviate into some other culinary

Dustin: expressions that's definitely worthwhile.

Marvin: Yeah, well, there you go. And before I let you go, you want to let folks know

Marvin: kind of what your guide calendar looks like kind of coming into the homestretch

Marvin: and how to reach out and get on the books and all that kind of good stuff.

Dustin: Yeah, fall is definitely pretty full, but there's some dates still open.

Dustin: As you remember, Marvin, our fall is just a dynamic time, especially if folks

Dustin: are wanting to throw dries, strip streamers, that is the time to do it.

Dustin: And so a couple of dates still open.

Dustin: If someone wants to do that, I'd highly recommend it. But you can give our shop a call at 307-234-6905.

Dustin: Or you can find me on Instagram at Dustin James White. Drop me a message and

Dustin: I'll be happy to get you on the books.

Marvin: There you go. Well, as I say, folks, you owe it to yourself to get out there

Marvin: and catch a few tight lines, everybody tight lines, Dustin tight lines.

Dustin: Marvin. Thanks so much.