S6, Ep 79: Summer Heat and Boat Beers: Fishing the North Platte with Dustin White
Join host Marvin Cash on The Articulate Fly for another "On the Water" segment with Dustin White. In this episode, Dustin shares how he's been managing the summer heat in Casper, Wyoming, and provides an update on the current fishing conditions across three favorite waterways: the Bighorn, the Reef and the Miracle Mile. Dustin discusses the challenges and successes of fishing in mossy conditions, the excitement of hopper season and the joys of nymphing and dry fly fishing.
He also highlights the perfect conditions for carp fishing on local reservoirs and shares a humorous story about a recent mishap on the poling platform. Additionally, Dustin answers a listener's question about essential boat supplies and gives a shout-out to Mountain Hops, a local brewery known for its exceptional beers and friendly atmosphere.
Whether you're a seasoned angler or new to the sport, this episode is packed with tips, stories and inspiration to enhance your fishing adventures. Tight lines!
To learn more about Dustin, check out our full length interview.
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Speaker:
Marvin: Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly,
Speaker:
Marvin: and we're back with another On the Water with Dustin White. Dustin, how are you?
Speaker:
Dustin: Marvin, I'm enjoying a little bit of this cool off that we had.
Speaker:
Dustin: We've been having some pretty warm temps, but other than that,
Speaker:
Dustin: no complaints. Enjoying the summer.
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Marvin: Yeah, it's funny you say that, right? I've been recording a bunch of fishing reports tonight,
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Marvin: and here on the East Coast, it's very, very hot and very, very humid,
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Marvin: but it's getting ready to cool off and you're going to actually be the winner
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Marvin: of the most highest temperature in the fishing report realm probably for the next week 10 days.
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Dustin: Well we're very proud of that award here
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Dustin: i see you've bestowed us with and casper it's been uh yeah it's been pretty
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Dustin: hot uh we uh we were upper 90s into the hundreds uh over the weekend um we had
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Dustin: a late afternoon storm to come through today and cooled us off a bit but yeah
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Dustin: we're it's it's piping out here yeah.
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Marvin: It's It's always cool when you're out there, right? Because it's not very human.
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Marvin: It's literally like opening the oven and looking at grandma's cookies, right?
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Dustin: Yeah, exactly. And the overnight temps, they cool off. It's a huge temp swing.
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Dustin: I think a lot of the folks that come out from back east or friends or family
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Dustin: of ours, look at those temp swings we get and you're looking like, my goodness,
Speaker:
Dustin: it's in the upper 90s, but the evening's dipping down into the 50s.
Speaker:
Dustin: Like how does that even happen but pretty common here and
Speaker:
Dustin: uh yeah so our our mornings are are pretty
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Dustin: temperate pretty cool and then it gets pretty pretty hot
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Dustin: throughout the day so a lot of self-managing uh that climate in any way you
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Dustin: can so layered up a little bit in the morning and then uh you know doing some
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Dustin: can balls in the river in the afternoon if need be as well so we do the best
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Dustin: we can uh and enjoy the fishing while we're at it yeah.
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Marvin: So you know how is that translating i think the last time we spoke,
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Marvin: you were on the cusp of having golden stones, uh, hadn't quite dried out enough
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Marvin: to really push the hoppers towards the river.
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Marvin: Um, so what are you seeing on all three, uh, waterways you guys like to fish?
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Dustin: Yeah. So per typical, this time of year, the big horn is, is pretty mossy.
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Dustin: Um, so it's selecting your shots, kind of shooting that lane through,
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Dustin: through that moss. It is fishing very, very well.
Speaker:
Dustin: But again, a lot of moss around. Caddis are kind of the main fare up there in
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Dustin: the horn right now. PMDs are good.
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Dustin: Uh, additionally, uh, some, uh, crayfish patterns have, have,
Speaker:
Dustin: have been good, but again, it is pretty mossy.
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Dustin: So if folks are up there fishing, uh, just know you're going to be kind of picking
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Dustin: some, some greenery off of, off your flies, uh, periodically.
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Dustin: So on the reef, uh, we have yellow Sally's coming off.
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Dustin: We have caddis, uh, and PMDs. I would say that's definitely been our best bug,
Speaker:
Dustin: uh, of late, uh, hoppers are getting closer and closer to water.
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Dustin: So, um, haven't seen some hoppers on the water, uh, have been seeing some fish
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Dustin: take them, um, can have some moderate success, um, uh, throwing hoppers.
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Dustin: Uh, I would recommend for folks, if you're, if you're going to be going that
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Dustin: route, uh, to probably go hopper dropper in all honesty, if you're going to
Speaker:
Dustin: pound those banks. But, uh, reef's been good.
Speaker:
Dustin: They bumped the flows on us again, uh, a few days back. So we're at 3,500 CFS.
Speaker:
Dustin: So it's, it's pumping through there pretty good.
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Dustin: It's keeping most of that moss from being too annoying. So everything's good there on that front.
Speaker:
Dustin: On the mile, our golden stonefly hatch kind of has come and gone.
Speaker:
Dustin: With those, you know, that temp swing overnight from, you know,
Speaker:
Dustin: 90s and the 50s is not crazy.
Speaker:
Dustin: But just before we hit this heat wave, we were having overnight lows dip into the 40s.
Speaker:
Dustin: And so that kind of stalled a few things out on the mile, um,
Speaker:
Dustin: just a bit, but, um, it's still fishing phenomenally well.
Speaker:
Dustin: We just, that, that, that golden stone fly hatch just kind of was an abbreviated stint we'll say.
Speaker:
Dustin: Um, but all in all, uh, the miles fishing still phenomenally well,
Speaker:
Dustin: um, definitely, uh, nymphing centric, uh, at the moment, unless you get up in
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Dustin: the canyon, in, then you could still find some fish willing to take a dry,
Speaker:
Dustin: even some of those big golden stones, those ternarsis fly.
Speaker:
Dustin: So good opportunities there.
Speaker:
Dustin: But what I personally am pretty excited about is this summer heat and a little
Speaker:
Dustin: less wind has provided just perfect conditions for getting out on the reservoirs
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Dustin: to pull the flats boat around for carp.
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Dustin: And so we've been bouncing around between Alcova and Pathfinder Reservoir and
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Dustin: having some really, really fun carp days.
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Marvin: Well, that's cool. Are you tethered to the platform now?
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Dustin: Yeah, well, yeah, I fell off the platform. The client got a little too excited a couple weeks ago.
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Dustin: So just doing a little better job to stay up there a bit more,
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Dustin: cementing myself on it. But yeah, it's been good.
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Marvin: Yeah, well, awesome. And we've got a question for you from Captain Jake Meyer,
Speaker:
Marvin: and he wanted to know if you bring toilet paper on your boat,
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Marvin: and if so, what brand do you use?
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Dustin: Uh i'm not a toilet paper guy in the boat i'll usually
Speaker:
Dustin: keep a a lot of napkins or
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Dustin: even a roll of paper towels as a uh as a
Speaker:
Dustin: a an emergency uh plan i my goodness
Speaker:
Dustin: i probably brawny i would guess or target brand
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Dustin: i don't i don't know what it would be but no not not
Speaker:
Dustin: a tt on the boat guy you know i usually
Speaker:
Dustin: find you just get soggy wet you know even if it's
Speaker:
Dustin: in a bag and it just ends up you know that kind of
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Dustin: mess so um but no don't do that
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Dustin: and you know honestly like we're pretty fortunate you
Speaker:
Dustin: know both on the mile in the reef uh to have
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Dustin: a lot of different public stops uh along the way and you know we have our our
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Dustin: private lunch huts and in restrooms uh here on the bug we own um quite a bit
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Dustin: of of riverfront property that's it's private to ourselves so not as big of
Speaker:
Dustin: a necessity as it is, uh, on some other places.
Speaker:
Dustin: So, um, but yeah, good questions.
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Marvin: Yeah. Very important. So folks, if you're going to fish with Dustin,
Speaker:
Marvin: you think you might need toilet paper, you should pack your own,
Speaker:
Marvin: um, bring it along, bring it along and put it in a Ziploc.
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Marvin: And, you know, folks, we love questions on the articulate fly.
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Marvin: You can email them to us or DM us on social media, whatever's easiest for you.
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Marvin: And if we use your question, I will send you some articulate fly swag,
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Marvin: and then we're going to enter you in a drawing for a half a day of fishing with
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Marvin: Dustin, and Dustin, like we always do, we wanna give a shout out to a local
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Marvin: restaurant or watering hole, who've we got this time around?
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Dustin: Uh very very excited to give a shout
Speaker:
Dustin: out to mountain hops uh amazing brewery
Speaker:
Dustin: here in town they make some of the best beers um frankly
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Dustin: just anywhere yeah great folks um they've got a great uh little brew pub and
Speaker:
Dustin: uh they've got a killer patio there they're dog friendly family friendly uh
Speaker:
Dustin: they often have food trucks live music and um especially um you know when i'm
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Dustin: I'm fishing on that side of town.
Speaker:
Dustin: Uh, it's a great place to stop. Um, and Eric, the owner, uh,
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Dustin: oftentimes has, has come through in a big favor, uh, um, for me on my floats.
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Dustin: He's nearby, uh, the, the, uh, one of the floats I do often,
Speaker:
Dustin: especially late in the summer and through the fall.
Speaker:
Dustin: And so he's, uh, he's, he's bailed me out a few times and ran some beers down to the river.
Speaker:
Dustin: Um, I, I believe with you and I too, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah.
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Marvin: Yeah. You know, we were out there They were fishing in November and we stuck
Speaker:
Marvin: that really big guy on the bank.
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Dustin: Yeah.
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Marvin: Right? And then after we took him off, we're like, well, damn,
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Marvin: we didn't bring any boat beers. And you're like.
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Dustin: Swing and a miss.
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Marvin: Yeah. And so you're like, well, wait a minute. And then like,
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Marvin: here comes Eric down the hill with a couple of tall boys. I was like,
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Marvin: damn, this is pretty good.
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Dustin: Yeah. First class service here on the North Platte.
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Marvin: Yeah. So, you know, before I let you go, you know, I know you're,
Speaker:
Marvin: you're busy and you're actually going to travel back East and do some saltwater fishing.
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Marvin: But if someone wanted to get on your guide calendar, uh, where can they find you?
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Dustin: Yeah, you can, uh, reach me, um, a couple of different ways.
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Dustin: One, my Instagram is at Dustin James white. You could drop me a message there.
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Dustin: Um, but probably the quickest, easiest way is just to give the shop down at
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Dustin: the ugly bug, a phone call at area code 3 0 7 2 3 4 6 9 0 5.
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Dustin: And, uh, they've got access to my calendar and team gets squared away.
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Marvin: Yeah well there you go well listen folks as i always say yo to yourself to get
Speaker:
Marvin: out there and catch a few tight lines everybody tight lines dustin tight.
Speaker:
Dustin: Lines marvin thanks so.
Dustin White
Guide
Born and raised in Northeast Ohio, Dustin had a rod in his hand soon after he started walking. He spent much of his childhood and adolescence fishing for muskie, pike, and bass on his family’s lake property. Any and all family trips were spent on the water chasing numerous species of fish in both freshwater and saltwater. However, Dustin’s favorite form of angling has and will always be targeting Trout and Steelhead on the fly. Dustin spends his winters guiding for Steelhead on the tributaries of Lake Erie. Dustin is a graduate of Sweetwater Travel Guide School, and he is a proud pro-staff member of a number of the industry’s top manufacturers. He is also the cofounder and director of “Nimi on the Fly,” a nonprofit charity that seeks to promote character building, enrichment, and conservation with youth the sport of fly fishing.
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