Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"\"This dog is an idiot...\""}]

Smile 9 14 24

Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>Daily Smile: Saturday, September 14, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

"This dog is an idiot..."

Daily Smile: Saturday, September 14, 2024

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Fishing

Upper Sunshine Reservoir near Meeteetse is popular with local anglers, particularly for ice fishing, but the reservoir is being drained so fishing there won't be an option for two years.

The Greybull Valley Irrigation District is draining the reservoir “to perform critical irrigation infrastructure repairs,” according to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

Upper Sunshine is expected to be completely drained by Sept. 1, so engineers can inspect infrastructure and determine what repairs are needed.

It will start refilling Oct. 1 but will be drained again in 2027 for the repair work. Repairs are scheduled for completion by April 2028.

“Game and Fish will not stock the small pool that will form during the 2026-2027 period, as it will be drained again in the fall of 2027. Stocking to rebuild the fishery will resume in the fall of 2028, once repairs are completed and water levels stabilize,” according to the agency.

Dalton Epperson of Cody and his friend Tyler Geving of Meeteetse have fished at Upper and Lower Sunshine reservoirs for years.

Upper Sunshine is primarily for ice fishing, they said.

“It’s usually the first thing that’s frozen” in the area, Epperson said.

Upper Sunshine doesn’t have much fish variety, he added.

“It’s all suckers and cutthroats,” he said.

Meat from the suckers makes good lake trout bait, he said.

Because this past winter was so dry, Upper Sunshine Reservoir wasn’t in the best shape anyway, Geving said.

“It was pretty low during ice fishing season,” he said.

Even so, with plentiful fish and easy access, it’s remained popular, Geving said.

“Upper Sunshine is a good starter lake. It’s a good place to take somebody and teach them ice fishing because you can catch 14- and 15-inch cutthroat all day long,” he said.

The reservoirs are the site of an ice fishing derby during the first week of February.

Epperson said Upper and Lower Sunshine are go-too fishing spots for Park County locals because they're about 40 minutes from Cody.

And from Meeteetse, “locals can be there in about 10 minutes and have their boats on the water,” he added.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Long-Term Goals"}]

While the drainages and construction will tank fishing at Upper Sunshine Reservoir in the short term, the repair work should have lasting benefits for the fishery, according to Game and Fish.

“Recent sampling has indicated reduced growth rates in stocked Yellowstone cutthroat trout, likely due to an overabundance of longnose suckers competing for resources, and the drawdown will significantly reduce the sucker population,” Cody regional fisheries biologist Jason Burckhardt said in a statement from the agency.

Refilling the reservoir will release “a surplus of nutrients” from plants and soil, he added.

That will boost plankton production, so trout should grow faster and bigger, Burkhardt said.

While Upper Sunshine Reservoir is down, anglers can turn their attention to Lower Sunshine Reservoir and other waters in the region.

Some of those include Boysen Reservoir south of Thermopolis, Buffalo Bill Reservoir west of Cody, and Meadowlark Lake in the Bighorn Mountains.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Let’s Go Splake Fishing"}]

Epperson and Geving said draining Upper Sunshine Reservoir will put a pinch on their local angling opportunities. But they understand the work has to be done, and there’s no shortage of other places to fish.

“I know they’ve got to upgrade stuff and keep things fixed, to keep the reservoirs running right,” Geving said. “And Lower Sunshine is more fun to fish because it’s got lake trout and splake, and bigger fish.” 

Splake are a sterile hybrid species popular among Wyoming anglers. They’re produced in Game and Fish hatcheries by crossing male brook trout with female lake trout.

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<title>Upper Sunshine Reservoir Near Meeteetse Drained, No More Fishing For Two years | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Upper Sunshine Reservoir near Meeteetse is popular with local anglers, particularly for ice fishing, but the reservoir is being drained, so there won’t be any fishing there for two years. It’s expected to be completely drained by Sept. 1.

Upper Sunshine Reservoir Near Meeteetse Drained, No More Fishing For Two years

Facing extreme drought in the wake of an exceptionally mild winter, officials in Colorado and Oregon have thrown up their hands and told anglers at some reservoirs: Catch all the fish you want, because they’re going to die anyway.

Conditions aren’t nearly so dire at two of Wyoming’s premier fishing reservoirs, Flaming Gorge in Sweetwater County and Boysen in Fremont County, where limits remain in place and the angling should remain good this summer, a state park manager and marina owner told Cowboy State Daily.

In northeastern Oregon, fishing limits were lifted on three reservoirs on the Powder River, a tributary of the Snake River, which originates in Wyoming.

Colorado is allowing unlimited angling on Antero Reservoir on the South Platte River in the central part of the state, and the Nee Noshe Reservoir to the southeast.

Utah has loosened catch limits on Crouse Reservoir, east of Salt Lake City, and Nine Mile Reservoir, south of the city.

In each instance, state agencies surmised reservoirs are getting so low and stagnant the fish are doomed regardless, according to numerous media reports.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"No Emergency, Yet"}]

Despite drought conditions across the state, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department doesn’t have “immediate plans to enact emergency regulations to liberalize creel limits,” according to fisheries management coordinator Mark Smith.

“However, conditions could change rapidly. If an emergency change to creel limits were to occur that information would be disseminated widely to the public and posted at the water for anglers to find,” Smith said in an email to Cowboy State Daily.

Some of Wyoming’s larger reservoirs have conservation pools, or “dead pools,” to act as buffers for fisheries when water is running low, Smith said.

Even so, “all stored water has limitations,” he added. The water at Flaming Gorge and Boysen is expected to drop enough to render some boat ramps useless.

So, Game and Fish is watching closely for a “tipping point” that might warrant a change in fishing regulations, Smith said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Bad New For Small Waters"}]

For smaller fisheries, the news isn’t quite so good.

“Ultimately, our goal is to protect all of our fisheries, but we recognize that some of our small waters have already been lost, or will be lost, to drying,” Smith said.

Sometimes that happens so fast there isn’t time to react, he said.  

“For example, when we were finally able to access roads and assess small ponds in the 33 Mile country north of Casper this May, most of those fisheries had already succumbed to low water elevations and poor water-quality conditions,” Smith said.

“Other sagebrush stock-water reservoirs could face a similar fate,” he added.

Emergency regulations require the governor’s signature.

“Emergency regulations take effect immediately upon the Governor’s approval and would be lifted if conditions improved and fish were likely to survive,” Smith said.

Boysen Reservoir has been roughly 70% full during June, Boysen State Park superintendent John Bass said.

Boysen is one of Wyoming’s top destinations for walleye, and also boasts good trout fishing.

Bass said he doesn’t anticipate the reservoir dropping to the point of mass fish die-offs or calls to lift all fishing limits.

According to Bureau of Reclamation estimates, Boysen will slowly fall, but remain above 50% capacity.

All four Boysen boat ramps are usable, he said. They are Bannon, Tough Creek, Fremont Bay and Cottonwood Bay.

“Although, as the lake starts falling, the Fremont and Cottonwood Ramps will be too shallow to use. But that’s a fairly common occurrence in my 10 years here,” Bass said. "The Brannon and Tough Creek boat ramps will be usable for the remainder of the year, until ice-up.” 

Likewise, there’s no reason to think officials will call for a free-for-all at Flaming Gorge, which straddles the Wyoming-Utah state line, Buckboard Marina owner Tony Valdez said.

“I don’t think we’ll be at the stagnant water level, where we could lose all of the fish,” he said.

Flaming Gorge draws anglers from all over the region for its prized kokanee salmon. It’s also known for lake trout and other species.

The Bureau of Reclamation this spring announced that Flaming Gorge is set for a million-acre-foot drawdown to make up for severe shortages downstream at Lake Powell, on the Utah-Arizona state line.

An acre foot is the amount of water that would flood an acre of land to the depth of one foot.

Valdez has previously expressed concerns the drawdown could ruin kokanee spawning areas. Kokanee are already under pressure because of competition with lake trout and burbot.

Wyoming Game and Fish and the Utah Division of Wildlife already lifted catch limits on smaller lake trout (under 28 inches) and burbot, in hopes of helping the kokanee.

Valdez said he doesn’t expect fishing limits to be suspended on any other species.

However, boat ramps could be rendered useless as the reservoir drops for the drawdown, he added.

Valdez said his marina could also tank this summer.

“This year, the marina could be gone. In fact, I’ve got to go deal with that right now, and move some stuff around (because of dropping water levels),” he said during a telephone interview with Cowboy State Daily.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Catfish Getting Scarce"}]

Valdez said if there’s any danger of water dropping to fish-killing levels it would hit first upstream, at Fontenelle Reservoir.

“If it did get that low, the first one to go would be Fontenelle, then the Green (River) and then Flaming Gorge. But I don’t see it dropping that low,” he said.

Drought has ruined some of the fishing on the Blacks River, which feeds Flaming Gorge on the west side, Valdez said.

That river once was a hot spot for catfish, he noted.

“People still catch catfish near the confluence, more so in the lake than on the river. The river gets stagnant,” he said.

While Flaming Gorge is holding its own for now, the long-term picture could be stark.

During a Tuesday meeting in Denver, members of the Upper Colorado River Commission said conditions along the river system – which includes the Green River – are dire.

Wyoming state engineer Brandon Gebhart said it could be the 

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<title>Colorado And Oregon Lift Fishing Restrictions, Drought Will Kill Fish Anyway | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Facing extreme drought in the wake of an exceptionally mild winter, officials in Colorado and Oregon have told anglers at some reservoirs: Catch all the fish you want, because they’re going to die anyway. In Wyoming, emergency measures are on hold.

Colorado And Oregon Lift Fishing Restrictions, Drought Will Kill Fish Anyway

You Still Here

[{"type":"text","text":" If Stayin' Alive had been written in the 16th century......"}]

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<title>Bonus Video 2: Thursday, June 25, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

If Stayin' Alive had been written in the 16th century......

Bonus Video 2: Thursday, June 25, 2026

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

Wyoming congressional candidate Reid Rasner, who works as a financial advisor, was “discharged” from his broker clearinghouse company in late April on allegations that he “engaged in unapproved outside business activity,” 

Reid Rasner is also running in a 10-candidate Republican primary race to win the party’s nomination toward Wyoming’s lone U.S. House seat. Last year he announced, and later suspended, intentions to buy the tech giant TikTok amid congressional efforts to transfer the Chinese-involved company into American hands.

 also appears in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission profile, which says he started working through the investment clearinghouse LPL Financial LLC on March 1, 2019, and remained there until spring of this year.  

LPL Financial discharged Rasner on April 24 due to allegations he engaged in unapproved outside business activity, the profile says in a “disclosure” category. The disclosure doesn’t elaborate.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) profile of Rasner says he was registered previously as a broker “and is currently registered as an investment advisor.”

He’s held state registrations in New York and Wyoming, the profile says.

Before Rasner’s seven-year relationship with LPL Financial he was with Edward Jones for a year.

In 2019, the year Rasner’s work with LPL Financial began, he registered Wyoming Wealth Advisors LLC with the Wyoming Secretary of State’s office, and three years later he registered his business Omnivest LLC with the state.

“Our Website is currently under maintenance!” the banner says. “We’re sorry for the inconvenience.”

A disclosure brochure about OmniVest, dated June 15, says Rasner has a non-financial affiliated business as a congressional candidate.

“Approximately 10% of his time is spent on these activities. This does not present a conflict,” says 

LPL Financial did not respond by publication to an email inquiry to its press line.

[{"type":"text","text":"FINRA directed Cowboy State Daily to LPL."}]

Rasner, in response to an inquiry sent to his campaign team, said “Omnivest Financial is a registered RIA based in Wyoming, proudly serving veterans and clients across multiple states. In our industry, the transition of business relationships is a routine and common occurrence, particularly when professionals launch new firms.”

Rasner added, “I remain fully focused on growing my new firm, continuing to deliver exceptional service to clients, and helping bring investment, jobs, and economic opportunity back to Wyoming.”

As for what LPL Financial could have meant with the “unapproved outside business activity allegation,” Riverton-based financial advisor Mike Zirbel said, “It’s hard to narrow down.”

[{"type":"text","text":"That’s because financial advisors are tightly regulated, he said."}]

“There are so many things that would count as unapproved activities,” Zirbel added. 

[{"type":"text","text":"A Little Background"}]

Rasner’s first-quarter Federal Election Commission report for his House campaign says he has loaned himself $1.2 million and contributed another $9,072 to his own campaign. That’s within a total of about $1.264 million in total receipts.

Rasner also ran an unsuccessful 2024 campaign against incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. John Barrasso

[{"type":"text","text":"Barrasso defeated Rasner 70,494 to 25,427 in the 2024 GOP primary."}]

Rasner’s total receipts for that campaign finished off at $1.33 million, the 

[{"type":"text","text":"Rasner loaned himself $1.28 million in the 2024 campaign.  "}]

Editor's note: Two days after Cowboy State Daily requested a comment from Rasner for this story, his business Omnivest Financial sent the following quote:

“Mr. Rasner was never an employee of LPL Financial. He was an independent contractor who owned 100% of his prior business. The transition Omnivest Financial made was a negotiated business transaction in which LPL purchased client relationships as Mr. Rasner launched his own registered investment advisor firm. Any suggestion that Mr. Rasner was terminated for misconduct is inaccurate, misleading, and unacceptable.”

The story had not accused Rasner of "misconduct," but had drawn from the language of the SEC disclosure, which says his "termination type" was "discharged" for allegations of "unapproved outside business activity." 

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<title>Wyoming Congressional Candidate Reid Rasner Fired By Clearinghouse | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wyoming congressional candidate Reid Rasner, who works as a financial advisor, was “discharged” from his broker clearinghouse company in late April on allegations that he “engaged in unapproved outside business activity,” federal filings say.

Wyoming Congressional Candidate Reid Rasner Fired By Clearinghouse

As of Monday, 35 Wyoming political candidates have sworn to love their enemies.

 after the public killing of conservative icon Charlie Kirk, and has since been working to restore the servant spirit and civility to the public arena in Wyoming.

The Tuesday after the May 14-29 filing period ended for political candidates, the group sent each candidate a pledge, group incorporator Matt Micheli told Cowboy State Daily.

“I will love my enemies, not just my friends. I will stand faithfully upon my convictions without giving into cruelty,” the pledge says. “I will call out wrongdoing without canceling people. 

"I will refuse to let the letters on someone’s hat or the hashtags in their bio mean more to me than the Gospel. I will not be swept up in the outrage cycle, but will instead step out of the chaos and boldly examine my own actions.”

The signers also commit to “bring the peace of Christ back into the public square — to show a divided world what it truly looks like to follow Him, not as a culture warrior but as a Kingdom person.”

The pledge invokes the group’s founding verse, Matthew 5:9: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

Two of the three GOP candidates for governor had signed the document as of Monday: Sen. Eric Barlow and Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder.

So too had three of the 10 Republican U.S. House candidates: Senate President Bo Biteman, former Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, and Casper-based veteran Kevin Christensen. U.S. Senate candidate Jimmy Skovgard is also among the signers.

In the governor’s race, Barlow told Cowboy State Daily he doesn’t normally answer candidate questionnaires, but this one was “quite simple” and in line with the promise he made last year to run a clean campaign anyway.

“And whether we agree on issues or don’t, we can still be respectful and honoring of them as, you know, fellow human beings,” Barlow said.

Degenfelder in an email said she's a "devout follo

wer of Christ and certainly agree that politics has become increasingly unchristian."

"People of faith can and should do better following Christ’s teachings as we engage in debates about policy and Wyoming’s future," she said. "We can do this without compromising on our convictions. I will always take an unequivocal stand on issues that are black and white for me - like protecting the Second Amendment, defending the sanctity of life, reducing taxes, and promoting Wyoming’s legacy industries."

She said she completes other questionnaires from voter groups, the media and industry associations "whenever possible" and sees them as a way to be transparent. 

Another GOP gubernatorial candidate, retired Marine Col. Brent Bien, did not comment in response to an email and voicemail.

[{"type":"text","text":"Wyoming Can Use It"}]

Cowboy State Daily this pledge could be effective in Wyoming, and that he wants to help the group’s cause.

Another former lawmaker, Fred Harrison, was less optimistic about the pledge’s ability to curb vitriol in the state’s political arena. But he said each person should take the effort seriously.

[{"type":"text","text":"As for Micheli, he said the pledge is meant to be unique."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Wyoming candidates face a number of pledges and have for years."}]

In 2020, the group Wyoming Gun Owners launched a pledge-style survey to candidates and derided the political hopefuls who didn’t sign it with phrases 

, “(it’s) a very dangerous situation for gun owners,” or “we all know what that means.”

More recently, the Wyoming Republican Party and its county subgroups launched a candidate pledge based on the state party platform. 

Some candidates have pointed to inconsistencies in the platform wording and called the 

 Others have called it a much-needed revival call for Wyoming’s broad-based GOP.

Micheli said the Peacemakers pledge isn’t meant to be used as ammunition, because its wording discourages that.

“The goal of this is kind of the opposite of all these other pledges you see out there,” he said. “The other pledges are kind of putting people into tribes and trying to figure out what tribe you’re in.”

Micheli said this pledge, however, tells each candidate to “look inward” and improve instead of “hammering anybody else over the head with it.”  

[{"type":"text","text":"Might Just Work"}]

Peterson, who served in the Wyoming Senate from 2005 to 2018, lauded the effort.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I could certainly get behind a movement like that,” said Peterson."}]

Peterson had voiced similar goals one week prior on a live video interview on Cowboy State Daily's Morning Show With Jake, 

Though the effort is “the light at the end of the tunnel” in what Peterson cast as a darkening, exhausting political arena, people will have to refocus on one another as fellow human beings to make it work, he said.

“If you love the person that’s opposed to either your way of life or philosophy or way of thinking,” he said, “and in your mind, your core belief is this is a brother, a sister, a person — and I don’t know what life experiences they’ve had, what brought them to the beliefs they have — it at least gives (one) the courtesy to be patient and listen.”

It takes effort to see the person through the issues. It’s also difficult to ratchet people down from the fiery realms to which public discourse has risen, said Peterson.

“It’s hard work to listen to somebody yelling and screaming at the top of their lungs, random thoughts and things to be argumentative … and say, ‘Oh, I can see you’re very passionate about your belief but you’re not making any sense,’” he said.

Rules of decorum in public arenas, the humility to apologize to one another where necessary, and applying mental rigor toward the actual issues are the way back to civility, Peterson added.

If people avoid dehumanizing and screaming at each other, their conversation will also get smarter, he said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Starting With You"}]

Harrison wasn’t as optimistic as Peterson, but called the pledge’s mission a worthy undertaking for each individual regardless of what society does.

“I’m not seeing a willingness on both sides of the aisle to discuss (differences),” he said. “I appreciate what they’re doing. I think it’s a wonderful idea.”

But, he added, “I’m not sure it’s always going to work, but that doesn’t mean anything. What did Mother Theresa say? We’re called to be faithful, not successful.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Harrison served in the Legislature from 1983-1992."}]

He was a Democrat then. But, ardently pro-life and socially conservative, he parted ways with the party starting in about 1992 and is now Republican. He’s also grown more fiscally conservative, Harrison said.

Harrison now writes a regular column for Cowboy State Daily in which he often scrutinizes the current state of the judiciary and jurisprudence.

“People think my articles are pretty sharp,” he said with a chuckle. Yet on May 9, he penned a 

 against resorting to violence or violent sentiments against judges, saying that nullifies good arguments on the issues.

If people wish to apply the peacemaker group’s pledge, it will take honest discussion, he said. People also have to start taking the high road and stop de-humanizing each other, he added.

[{"type":"text","text":"The Signers, So Far"}]

Micheli told Cowboy State Daily the group didn’t give candidates a deadline to sign the pledge. So this list isn’t final. As of Monday, the 35 signers spanned the governor’s, congressional, state legislative, and county commission races. They are:

State Superintendent of Public Instruction candidate

Update -  This story has been updated to include a post-publication comment by Megan Degenfelder. 

Mix Collage 23 Jun 2026 06 04 PM 252

<title>35 Candidates, Including Two Wyo Gov Hopefuls, Sign Love Your Enemies Pledge | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The Wyoming group that launched a civility movement after the killing of Charlie Kirk has gotten 35 candidates to sign a peacemaker pledge to love their enemies. That includes gubernatorial candidates Eric Barlow and Megan Degenfelder.

35 Candidates, Including Two Wyo Gov Hopefuls, Sign Love Your Enemies Pledge

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's business and tourism reporter, Renée Jean

Renée Jean

Business & Tourism

Business

Some of Wyoming’s 1860s prospectors would be rolling over in their graves if they knew just how narrowly they might have missed striking it rich in South Pass City and other 19th-century gold hotspots.

Gold was there in those arid hills. All those poor pioneers really needed to find it was a helicopter and some artificial intelligence.

Not to mention modern geological science, which has led Relevant Gold founder and CEO Rob Bergmann down a multi-billion-year-old channel called the Abitibi Belt, to what he believes is a hidden gold belt underneath Wyoming.

“We can’t promise anything,” Bergmann told Cowboy State Daily. “But we do believe that all of the data indicates there’s a lot of opportunity that has really just never been tested in Wyoming — especially along these Archean belts that were once connected to the Abitibi.”

Helicopters, artificial intelligence, and geology are giving a modern mining company a second shot at finding gold in historic Wyoming mines. The company believes there's a hidden gold belt and technology allows them to see 400 meters below the surface.

Daily Smile: Saturday, September 14, 2024

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