Laegreid Outdoors

I had to drive up to Casper, Wyoming for a business thing on Friday. This was good for two reasons:first, it meant a day driving and out of the office. Score! Second, it meant I would be in the neighborhood of the fabled North Platte, one of my favorite rivers. Double Score! I loaded up my gear Thursday evening and eagerly awaited the next morning's drive. After the roads opened up (they closed due to a snowstorm, which also knocked out power at our HQ) I bebopped on up through the shirley basin, bucking a wind that was probably 35mph sustained, with some seriously butt-clenching gusts. Always fun. Got up to Casper, did the meeting, and headed to the Gray Reef. The tent was pitched right away, and I geared up and headed down to the water to see what was what. On the river, directly below the damn, I got about zero hits and no interest shown from the wiley Platte River troots. They were rising very sporadically to midges, but all of my imitations fell short that evening. Such

I've been an angler for as long as I can remember, but saltwater fly-fishing was injected into my blood when I moved out to Washington state a few years back. The cold, fertile waters of Puget Sound were my playground, and I chased the trout and salmon with wild abandon. The climate up in the PacNW, while mild, was only warm for about three months out of the year, and the saltwater was always pretty chilly. That was the extent of my experience with saltwater fly-fishing until this December, when my family decided to take a little trip to Sayulita, Mexico. Sayulita is a little town about 45 minutes north of Puerta Vallarta. It's more popular for its surfing and yoga than its fishing, but that wasn't going to stop me from trying! Our first full day in Sayulita, we went swimming at Playa de los Muertos, a smaller, less crowded beach on the South side of town. As we were floating in the surf, we noticed bait busting around us. I waited until I couldn't stand it anymore