David Siskind | Sunday, 31 May 2026
I visited the North Platte River in Wyoming this past week for four days. It was a repeat of my adventure last year, traveling with my cousin‘s husband, Hunter. The Platte begins a wild freestone in it its upper reaches, descending into stairstep tailwaters. There are series of 5 dams, creating sections of differing character. I guess it’s a bit of a theme park in a way but scale obscures that. I recently saw some content dissing the river, lowering my expectations this year, but the fishing was varied, always amusing and at times excellent. I caught fish throwing streamers at the banks, casting hoppers to seams, and ants and emergers to steady risers. And of course spent some time floating nymphs under bobbers when arm-weary and to keep the skunks away. Also wading on a flat in a meadow, amidst fish showing backs and tails. They’d eat and move randomly. I found satisfying success casting a tiny beadhead baetis one foot upstream and starting a slow retrieve. I felt like Ernie Schweibert.
The streamer fishing could excellent with swipes and chews coming in waves. Wednesday, we spent the whole day casting honey badgers to the banks and caught some exceptionally good looking browns. A great day.
The room, board and guides for three days were all provided by The North Platte Lodge (we spent one day on our own). It’s a nice place with some well used common space and congenial guests. My experience with the guides has been superior. We fished with Seth this year. He curated a variety of experiences and some turned out exceptional. We even contemplated a day of flats carp fishing but conditions didn’t pan out. Seth has fished for nearly everything up there - extremely knowledgeable.
I brought my HT4 and HT6 but only fished the latter. I underlined it with my SA AmpTrout WF5F. I made thousands of casts and learned that I’ve been rushing a bit. Whether finishing high or stopless in still air or wind, patience paid. Is it feeling and understanding how the straightening of the rod takes time? I need to explore this in practice.
Casper is all business - no frills. There’s cattle and feed farming, and equipment, services and manufacturing supporting oil and gas production. These all prospered and grew primarily in the middle of the 20th century. They were made possible by early Bureau of Reclamation projects and later, the massive counter cyclical development efforts during the New Deal era. The federal government built the dams, supplying irrigation water for agriculture and power for manufacturing and oil production. A bonus is the lucrative, locally-celebrated trout fishery created from cold clear water and imported fish. While there are many reasons why Wyoming voters don’t see the federal government as good guys, I think they’ve forgotten its role in their own lives. I met some young Wyoming Democrats at the 2017 March for Science in DC. They were hopeful and energetic despite their 30% share of the vote. I know they’ll keep it up. Maybe people will change their minds.
Tuesday is surgery day. Pinkies up.
Cheers,
David Siskind