Dry Fly Fishing the North Platte with Tyler Soulek

[00:00:00] Podcast. Welcome to The Ugly Bug Podcast, a production of the Ugly Bug Fly Shop and Crazy Rainbow

[00:00:09] Fly Fishing. Welcome to The Ugly Bug Podcast. On today's episode we sit down with Tyler

[00:00:18] Solick, a long time guide here on the plant. He's a ton of fun. For those of you that know

[00:00:25] him, he's an exciting individual. He has a lot of irons in the fire at all times. We discuss

[00:00:32] a little bit of everything, you know, history stories about the North Platt as well as dig into

[00:00:38] a little bit of dry fly fishing and kind of how underrated the North Platt can be for quality

[00:00:44] dry fly fishing. So we'll get to that but first let's step away from a word from our sponsors.

[00:00:50] The Ugly Bug Podcast is proudly sponsored by Fly Oming. Fly Oming rooted fly fishing of

[00:00:59] parallel and accessories, challenging the traditional mode designed by anglers or anglers.

[00:01:05] Tyler thanks for joining us. Yeah thanks for having me. Yeah man. We were talking a little earlier

[00:01:11] I couldn't remember if it was 12 or 13 years you've been guiding on the North Platt. Yeah and then

[00:01:15] we started scratching our heads with Alzheimer's state and it's about 13. 13 maybe 13 this will be

[00:01:23] the 14th maybe 12th this will be the 13th something like that yeah long enough that I have sunspots.

[00:01:31] Yeah and you're still doing it even though you're doing a few other things. Yeah a little busier

[00:01:37] in life than just guiding anymore. Yeah a little bit life changes a lot that the river doesn't and

[00:01:43] it's always been fun and yeah hard to walk away. Yeah river has changed a little bit though. It has

[00:01:49] yeah yeah back when you first started it was kind of leech and rockworm about the only two bugs

[00:01:55] you ever did. When I first started I didn't have to be good to catch people fish. Now I have to be

[00:02:00] somewhat decent which is really unfortunate. The pressure is on. Yeah it really is. So what decent

[00:02:07] is the bar. Yeah yeah it has been for a while. What would you think is the biggest change

[00:02:12] rather than maybe fish pressure? I don't know I think water management has changed.

[00:02:21] We just changed on when they did the flush how they did the flush, how the spawn success rates are

[00:02:26] last week or last year was different because of all the mud that just changed where fish were

[00:02:33] where we got to fish you know where we had opportunities. And obviously when when you hired me on

[00:02:40] we had 10 guides on staff and now we have 35 somewhere in there so that's a big change. Yeah

[00:02:47] I think the amazing thing that you start to learn though is as you progress throughout those years

[00:02:52] you start to learn different sections of river learn how to spread out and we have so much stinking water

[00:02:58] here that it doesn't matter that there's more people on this river you just have to know your stuff

[00:03:03] so that you can go elsewhere. Yeah and you still get away from the crowds or there's not many

[00:03:08] rivers that you can do that. No, probably land access hopes a little bit there too a lot. A few boats ramps

[00:03:13] in the sneakway. Yeah yeah. So we kind of relate that to the reef changes thoughts on the mile

[00:03:22] and how it's kind of shifted or changed over the years. Other than still being finicky like you

[00:03:29] mentioned. Yeah I mean the mile is the mile so funny because it's year-to-year basis on water levels

[00:03:34] in pathfinder or how the fish are running up different times a year. I will say I think pressure

[00:03:42] in November is getting a little insane like the people's ideas of fishing to spawning fish.

[00:03:50] Shifted and has become more acceptable which I think is a little odd in frustrating. Yeah the

[00:03:54] weird one to me is where people like blast that they don't do it and then they're out there doing

[00:04:00] it right. Yeah yeah the ethics I mean I think we're seeing such an influx of sportsmen that

[00:04:08] we're starting to see a degradation of ethics and some of that's people just simply don't know

[00:04:16] and we have to do a better job of educating which hopefully a podcast like this can do.

[00:04:21] Some of that's just I think you've got more people so you're more likely to have fewer spots

[00:04:26] so people are gonna fish the gravel beds. Yeah just the way it is but you know the mile is finicky

[00:04:32] it's got times a year that are awesome and times a year that it's not great I think it's hilarious

[00:04:37] that people don't come up and fish the mile in the summer because I think July is probably the

[00:04:41] best month of the year July and August yeah our hard to beat up there. Yeah very hard to beat. Yeah

[00:04:47] it uh you know it can be a little hit and miss here and there but overall it's a pretty amazing

[00:04:53] fishery um there's not many places left on the planet I think that you can go catch that quality

[00:05:00] of fish routinely right. Yeah I mean the number of times you get to go out with client and tell

[00:05:06] them that you're gonna go catch your new personal best is yeah pretty crazy and you get to consistently

[00:05:12] tell people that yeah unless they've caught a 30 inch trout the odds of them hooking into a new

[00:05:18] personal best for the day are pretty stinking good. Yeah yeah it's pretty unique really unique. So

[00:05:25] you started working was it your first year between freshman year college? First year college yeah

[00:05:31] first time I ever went out and rode a drift boat I rode your boat that you planned on selling me

[00:05:36] yeah and you didn't tell me I was gonna buy that boat so that when I teed off on every rock in the

[00:05:41] river he laughed and it was my fault it was damaging my own boat and uh yeah we went out it was like

[00:05:50] middle of December with my buddy Blake and that's right I spun two different cookies down riffles

[00:05:58] going five you know 500 CFS bouncing off rocks and you cracking up and yeah always learning curve to it

[00:06:05] yeah that was that was about it and then I got to go out a few more times with

[00:06:11] I think Jake I went out once with Jake in a blizzard that spring and he trained me a little bit

[00:06:17] which was Jake probably still remembers that day because he caught like half a dozen fish on a streamer

[00:06:23] that really in like February. The fishing was pretty good yeah and then ginder pack ginder

[00:06:29] yeah it's been some time to ginder yeah cool um

[00:06:35] obviously we're like primarily an infissory around here right but if we were to hone in on like a few of

[00:06:42] your tips and tactics for the North Platt um and be it we could start with nymphin then we can kind

[00:06:49] of jump around a little bit but um I think listeners are always interested in like

[00:06:56] what mistakes do you routinely see from from clients and and you know how do you try to improve

[00:07:02] those little mistakes that seem to happen all the time and then you know if someone's kind of green

[00:07:07] here hasn't ever fished the plot um yeah like for me one I always like tell them don't focus solely on

[00:07:14] the ripples right there's a lot of fish especially in cooler water and the slack water right yeah

[00:07:19] but you got any tips or tactics so you can yeah you know I think one of the biggest things that I see

[00:07:24] here is an inability to read big water um our fishery is such an amazing and unique place to come

[00:07:35] and learn because it's easy to eventually have success yeah uh when you're first learning it it

[00:07:43] can be very challenging and the reason being that there's a ton of subsurface structure that you

[00:07:49] can't see on the surface and so you see people coming up in their own boats and skipping over runs

[00:07:57] and holes and places where fish are stacked up they have no clue is there because they're

[00:08:03] they're not looking at uh color change color changes such a huge piece to reading water

[00:08:10] you know where you see something going from tan to dark green what do you do and not fishing it

[00:08:15] you've got to fish that drop right uh any current change is gonna hold fish you know depending on the

[00:08:21] time of summer you may be passing by 16 inch deep water and it's gonna be loaded with trout that are

[00:08:29] wanting to eat a hopper dropper um I think the other thing that I see a lot is very few people are

[00:08:37] actually fully proficient at mending and setting and those are two things that our river really

[00:08:45] really helps with yeah uh learning how to mend and set our critical for success on our river because

[00:08:51] of the wind because of the difference in currents and I think it's no fault of their own I think a

[00:08:57] lot of times it's they've learned to fish decars and they high stick which you know if I went out

[00:09:05] and tried to high stick tomorrow I'd be horrible at it yeah but um they've not learned to properly

[00:09:11] mend because they don't have a ton of line to manage and so line management here yeah is

[00:09:16] the overall huge yeah yeah I always you know it's always interesting when people are

[00:09:24] I wouldn't say intimidated right but when you look at something like the plat and

[00:09:30] you know I always try to recommend like if you're comfortable fishing a stream 15 feet wide

[00:09:35] look at the river the same way except for five of those streams side by side right the

[00:09:40] the general characteristics of drop-offs foam lines yeah riffles seams like it's trout yeah they behave

[00:09:48] kind of the same anywhere in the country yeah and don't get too intimidated by the width of

[00:09:53] the river because it's really you're looking for the same cues to really find spots and locations to

[00:09:59] pick it apart yeah absolutely yeah well I think it just changes you know it's funny when

[00:10:05] you learn this river you start to learn that each section is different oh yeah and that's

[00:10:10] one of the coolest things about this river is that you could fish the reef and nymph and catch

[00:10:17] 80 fish on a rockworm and a midge and then you could go down closer to town and you could be

[00:10:24] fishing a leech and a worm and you know absolutely crushed fish down there and then you could go

[00:10:30] east to town and fish hoppers and streamers and and you're not going to catch the numbers but the

[00:10:36] size of trout that you're catching down there amazing and each section is so different and offers

[00:10:42] something completely different yeah and I when you talk about what this river has to offer I think

[00:10:49] that's something that we really have to put at the forefront is we're known so much as a nymph

[00:10:54] fishery because March through the middle of July we're stacked up with clients that want to come

[00:11:00] and they want to catch you know 40 trout a day or whatever that number is for whoever it is

[00:11:08] but they're missing out on the opportunity to learn how to do some of these more skilled

[00:11:14] techniques like hopper dropper fishing like dry fly fishing you know we get insane pods of fish

[00:11:21] on trichos and blue wings and cattus from the middle of July all the way through November

[00:11:29] that people don't know about and they're not taking the opportunity to

[00:11:33] take experience I think a little bit of that is you know when you get known for like large fish

[00:11:38] numbers to come and dry fly fish all day and catch eight or ten people are like why you know it wasn't

[00:11:44] really that productive but if you look at eight or ten good fish on a dry you can go to some of the

[00:11:50] greatest dry fly fish you know go fish the Yellowstone and eight or ten good fish on a dry there

[00:11:55] as a hell of a good day too right yeah like so work you know you you're not really comparing apples to

[00:12:02] apples in a sense of comparing a dry fly day to a nymph fish day in the spring right you know

[00:12:08] you really start comparing it across the board it's it can be a pretty special fishery right well

[00:12:13] it's just dependent on what people want experience yeah I mean if you if you want to come up and you

[00:12:18] want to catch just a boatload of fish on an emphoric go do it yeah your opportunity to catch a trophy is

[00:12:25] so amazing here the numbers of fish are great but if you're a guy that wants to experience some

[00:12:31] streamer fishing or experience some dry fly fishing you're gonna take a little more risk

[00:12:36] but it can be super rewarding as well yeah yeah as I seem to get older and fish more and more

[00:12:45] you know more experience per se I think more fishing is like trying to create a memory every day

[00:12:52] right yeah in a fish that I'll remember and often those like large fish number days unless I catch

[00:12:59] a giant I don't really remember I remember the fishing is good but I don't like remember a

[00:13:05] take that I saw yeah the way it jumps sort of thing because it all runs together versus

[00:13:11] you know if I'm throwing a streamer and see a big fish pull off the bank and smoke it like

[00:13:15] I'll float by that corner 12 years later and be like yeah I remember once I kind of

[00:13:20] know yeah yeah to me that's it for everyone it's a little different but well I think that's somewhat

[00:13:28] based off of the idea of the unknown right like you're our attempt at discovering the unknown and

[00:13:36] when we have harder days of fishing it's harder to know it's around that next bend and what could

[00:13:41] happen yeah versus what you know should happen yeah and that what could happen is sometimes

[00:13:48] far more important in our lives and our experiences than what should happen

[00:13:54] so I'll say I like it I like it a lot you're uh let's dissect your dry fly game a little bit oh boy

[00:14:03] yeah so you know generally I mean not that every year is the same but generally we're going to get

[00:14:10] some blue wing stuff in the spring um it times it can be pretty good at times we're still in our

[00:14:17] kind of spring weather in Wyoming where it can be windy and not that you can't find some soft

[00:14:24] corners but at times we're a little limited um you kind of go to blue wing dry general prospecting dry

[00:14:32] oh gosh whatever's easy to tie but I love the parachute atoms I mean there's there's no beating it

[00:14:38] have it in a bunch of different colors and size 16 to 22 I mean gray is go to yeah but purple

[00:14:47] haze that sort of thing is are you there big believer in the purple at lower like conditions

[00:14:54] and gray at sunnier conditions or do you just I'm a big believer in whatever they want to eat

[00:15:00] it's I don't know that it matters I think sometimes we overthink why fish do what they are doing

[00:15:05] and a lot of times they're just eating and it doesn't always make sense there's a lot of science

[00:15:11] to fly fishing which is a ton of fun but I think it has probably more to do with the silhouette

[00:15:18] on the top you know if your shape is right they'll probably overlook color most of the time yeah

[00:15:26] yeah do you uh I mean obviously I think often people change bug too quick in a dry fly scenario just

[00:15:37] the drift isn't good enough right they're getting a bunch of drag and once you get a good drift

[00:15:42] they'll eat it versus changing bugs and continue to get a bad drift or they're not gonna eat it

[00:15:48] oh yeah it's it's the don't kill your don't kill your guide situation where you watch a client cast

[00:15:55] multiple times and they're just getting a tiny bit of drag and they get frustrated how to

[00:16:00] guide do that this fall is a blast a great guy fished to a pod for 15 minutes couldn't get him to eat it

[00:16:06] he goes okay you've tried to coach me now just show me and so you pick up the rod get that one cast

[00:16:14] or you just get absolutely lucky and you know no drag and the fish eats it yeah and I think that has

[00:16:22] so much to do with if you get the right drift whether it's dry fly fishing or an empty the odds are

[00:16:31] you're probably gonna get something yeah interested yeah when you're uh so parachute atoms I assume

[00:16:42] he might be able to run a light drop underneath it but it's not like you're running a beat head

[00:16:46] sort of scenario into that so when you're running a dry dropper set up do you have kind of a go-to

[00:16:52] bug combination there that's your first grab or anything that I like the name of

[00:16:57] um no you know big bulky foam with some good poly on top so I'm usually looking at the fat

[00:17:04] Albert doesn't really have the poly on top but it's a good bulky bug anything that sits high

[00:17:12] gosh there's there's so many great hoppers that it's hard you know doesn't always says a PMX

[00:17:18] PMX is a great bug um big foam cat us it doesn't really matter most of the time for me so long as

[00:17:25] I can see it they can see it's got that's why I like the poly on top yeah are you uh

[00:17:32] if you've gotten into the pertergones dropper thing a little bit or you

[00:17:35] I like the jig heads for sure on the dropper stuff but I'm kind of a classic

[00:17:40] soft tackle hairsier guy especially here east of town you have a selection of soft tackle

[00:17:49] hairsiers so with a couple different color variations it's about as realistic a cat us as

[00:17:54] you're ever going to get yeah there's days that you know pertergon is definitely better

[00:18:00] yeah or dorisl yeah I mean I obviously got it some sink advantage but then

[00:18:07] like down you know a lot of times through here those facial beasts shallow that

[00:18:12] that pertergones gonna snag bottom before it ever gets the fish sort of thing if you get

[00:18:17] a good drift so yeah and the soft tackles got such a nice presentation I think that we overlook

[00:18:23] soft tackle I mean the dorisl has got a soft tackle on it that's just perfect that's part of

[00:18:28] our soft tackle too they slam it on the swing get a crappy cast yeah if you suck they still eat it

[00:18:34] yeah yeah they do they do um goofy guide stories throughout your career you got anything that pops

[00:18:41] into your mind as far as like a weird oh gosh odd memory I've got I've got a bunch there mostly

[00:18:50] other people's stories you know hiring people that drive little tiny red cars with boats behind

[00:18:57] them that are so high up that you you can see the boat over the top that one was actually pretty good

[00:19:06] I'm assuming you've introduced Dustin before on the podcast yeah yeah Dustin's been introduced

[00:19:12] I think that was probably one of my favorites is getting a phone call from you while we were at

[00:19:15] a different outfit or who the hell did you hire this driving a Honda fit out to the miracle mile

[00:19:22] these stuck to see a boat bigger than the vehicle yeah that one was pretty good um I do give him credit

[00:19:30] though on a few of the like somewhat sporty launches that I saw come out of that yeah hot rod

[00:19:37] his some serious skill to drive that thing I've seen people in pickup trucks get stuck out there

[00:19:43] in places he never got stuck now the plastic and the whole axle fell off on the way home for him but

[00:19:49] you know it happens yeah it's just the way it goes um you know I did have a gal early in my career

[00:19:55] that was really funny she started the day um basically looking at me she forgot her fishing license

[00:20:02] had her like eight-year-old son in the boat and her husband and her husband was just T and off

[00:20:08] and she said oh mommy's got to work today like what in the world is going on so we finally

[00:20:14] finally pull over and we're taking a picture of this guy's fish and she looks at the fish she goes

[00:20:21] oh guys you got to hear my work for today and honestly the only couple things that I can remember

[00:20:26] about her work it was writing poetry she wasn't selling it and uh the only lines I could remember

[00:20:35] were her reading off and saying a good parabutes a good parabutes in the hot summer sun having sex

[00:20:41] on the beach with you and that was that was it that was the whole phone well I'm trying to take a

[00:20:46] picture of fish and I'm sitting here thinking what the heck this day couldn't get any weirder so go

[00:20:50] down to the next hole and I pull up the guy's line and I put a nymph like an actual nymph that he

[00:20:57] had hooked on my finger to show the boy and his dad and I'm talking to them about the entomology

[00:21:03] and she looks at me and she goes let me see that she pulls my hand to her face looks at the bug then

[00:21:09] sticks my finger in her mouth and eats the bug off of my finger so it got a little weirder

[00:21:17] proceeded down to the next hole this is all like a half hour span and we go down the run the husband

[00:21:24] catches a fish we row back up she turns around she looks at him she goes honey what you're doing

[00:21:29] today is incredibly sexy you're gonna have to take care of me tonight I sit here going oh my gosh

[00:21:37] I got to get out of this boat this is awful so the next run we pull in she says yes these

[00:21:44] rest room well I pull over I tell her to sit down and I absolutely annihilate her rock she falls

[00:21:50] out backwards soaking wet she proceeds to fall out one more time later in the day hands down the

[00:21:56] worst day of guiding I've ever had she was not drinking she was a hundred percent sober falling

[00:22:01] out yeah that one was unique I think one of my favorites Jamison way back in the day love to play

[00:22:10] pranks on me because I was a young probably big headed kid and I showed up to work this is probably

[00:22:22] early June and I was rowing my boat around for probably about a month when finally Jamison and

[00:22:27] I get put on a group trip and I pull off and I've got a kiddo in my back of my boat and

[00:22:35] I have to go grab a I think it was a life jacket and so I go into my center bin

[00:22:41] to grab a life jacket and I look down and here's like 75 pounds of weights stacked on a chain inside

[00:22:51] of my boat back yeah lumped gym yes and I look up at Jamison I look at him I go what the hell is going on

[00:23:01] any kills overlapping and he proceeds to tell me that those weights have been in my boat for over a

[00:23:08] month and a half and I've been rowing with an extra basically an extra human I think had close

[00:23:13] three hundred pounds in there okay maybe that's what it was I was part of it initially

[00:23:18] he was giving me like a daily update he's like didn't figure it out today he didn't figure it out today

[00:23:24] yeah that one is pretty good I remember those weights you chucked him on the bank there at Wind Island

[00:23:30] I remember I finally picked him up a couple of months later because he still sitting in the grass

[00:23:36] and that was a good one he was he definitely was the king of pranks or the worst I saw

[00:23:41] to him once he riced crispy the guy or Captain Crunch is a guy a guy's drift boat in Montana so

[00:23:49] he went to the grocery store and bought a full bottle of Captain Crunch and then we sprinkled it

[00:23:53] over the whole boat and then he like just lightly missed it well when Captain Crunch dries right it

[00:24:00] turns to concrete and with the like speckled berry colors and everything on a white drift boat it was

[00:24:06] it was an absolute mess and you know he was good at just acting non-chalant that it wasn't him it

[00:24:13] couldn't have been him right but he got him pretty good with the race crispy or with the Captain

[00:24:18] Crunch he did do a race crispy to a guy with a raft which is pretty not like because when that stuff

[00:24:26] dries on that like PVC material I'm sure he just and he can't really scrub a raft with like

[00:24:32] a wire brush oh yeah you'll hurt the the rubber itself so that one's bad yeah he was definitely the

[00:24:38] king of did he get you with the stacking your axle on boards no I showed up dan and him

[00:24:50] flipped my boat around one day because I'm notorious for showing up 20 minutes early which is 10

[00:24:57] minutes late and you know and the the old foggies of the group decided they're gonna teach me a

[00:25:03] lesson so I showed up and my boat was on my trailer backwards yeah he got someone some day did

[00:25:10] that you know jacked it up and put the tires a quarter inch off the ground then of course

[00:25:16] when you pull four to falls and collapses he was definitely the jokes true the bunch yeah he's a good guy

[00:25:23] yeah we were talking yesterday about when Devon brought it up about me throwing a snake at Ben

[00:25:29] Bruce and him nearly passing out about the yep I totally forgot about that for a while that one

[00:25:35] was great it collapsed you've done a few snakes at people that were not the West Virginia boys

[00:25:42] I talked to Lane today actually yeah do you still apologize no I think he's I don't try to bring

[00:25:49] it up anymore I think he's forgotten about it as well so at least you know you pick up

[00:25:54] bull snakes and not live rattlesnakes I know a few guides that have tried to kill rattlesnakes

[00:25:58] and then pose with pictures of them while they're alive and yeah Ohioans you just don't want to

[00:26:03] trust them right I can't trust them yeah awesome we'll appreciate you coming down yeah thanks for

[00:26:10] having me hanging out and we'll have to do it again sounds good man next time yeah thank you

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