It’s been months since we last visited.

The summer began with a great deal of uncertainty, though that quickly faded within a mirage of daily floats and an endless supply of visitors that escaped the Covid grips and headed west! Record visitors — armed with loose rental trailers and cash from cancelled trips to Europe (or the Galapagos) — inundated Jackson Hole and the surrounding National Forest trailheads, bringing long lines to the boat ramps with each fishing guide jostling for a piece of river. It was welcomed too — after an extended spring ski season and shortened winter work duty, myself and other fishing guides had gained back our own recreational pursuits and suddenly longed again for tourism to fill our bank accounts.

The GTNP park service also logged record-setting user groups on the Snake River, compounding the daily traffic across eddies and side channels with Kayaks, Canoes, and unmanned Drift Boats, at times seeming as though a turning blinker was required.

As most of our regular and seasoned clients waited for the prime tides of late August, September, and October, the month of July was dedicated to indicators and high water and high sun and whitefish and long casting lessons. There were plenty of trout tucked against the banks for those capable but those were few and far between. Dakota and the River Range Adventures team ran 45 trips in July alone.

August: Hopper season progressed with heavy tippets and simple double foam fly rigs that, if nothing else, needed little instruction and fishing know how to be plopped close enough to the cobble banks for the now willing Cutthroat to do the rest. At times there was even a several boat procession that traded banks and riversides with a rotation of stonefly and grasshopper imitations that cycled through town shops in an ongoing color spectrum. For those that could fish, a parachute Adams trailer was still the king of surface flies.

Fortunately, many of the River Range Adventures return clients arrived for the prime clarity and recession of backcountry streams that made for a welcome addition to the boat program: hike/walk/wade/climb trips into the Bridger Teton NF.

We also were able to extend much of the fishing program down into the whitewater section of the Snake as well as the South Fork in Idaho.

September was a mix a Grand Teton floats as well as a week guiding in Colorado on a secluded ranch between cattle draws and a private valley. Prime dry fly fishing is always in September and the month provided excellent head hunting beneath the tailwater section of the Jackson Lake Dam, as well as the freestone floats that had dropped and taken shape around new logs and root balls discarded during runoff.

October began on the river but continued into the mountains. Dakota and the team drew several tags this hunting season and were able to notch an early Pronghorn with two Elk tags left to fill before December. Between the big game hunts included lots of mountain grouse action with the Shotgun.

Another incredible season for the River Range Adventures team with a couple trips on the docket and a full winter of skiing and snowmobiling ahead.

#RiverRangeAdventures

#wherethewildstillholdsdominion