North Platte (Grey Reef)

Grey Reef!

Experienced a little March Madness in Wyoming this weekend. Ben Lewis and I stopped by Wyoming Fly Fishing’s booth at the Fly Fishing Show in Denver this past January and spoke to Greg Mueller who stated that the fishing would be good in March up on the Grey Reef section. “Good” turned out to be “did that day of fishing really just happen please get me ice for my arm GOOD”!

Back yard of our Red Butte Ranch lodging

Ben and I arrived Friday night around 9 at the Red ButteRanch where we would be staying for the weekend. Ruth Romp, Proprietor of the B&B, met us at the end of the drive and we followed her up to the guest house. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw our accommodations for the weekend. It felt like home right away. Ben and I unloaded the ridiculous amount of gear we drug up and crashed out for the night.

We woke up the next morning to the smell of breakfast burritos. We had an outstanding breakfast, courtesy of Ruth, and loaded up the boat. Off to the Grey Reef! I have heard so much about this section of river and knew it should be good fishing but I was about to get schooled on what Wyoming fly fishing is all about. Greg had rigged us up before we left so we put in and started casting just downstream from the boat ramp. Unfortunately it took a full 2 minutes to hook up (notice the boat ramp in the background). Greg told us to imagine what it would be like if we had a good guide! Ha! Love this guy already! I was a little leery of the quick hook ups because I’ve had days where I’ve hooked up quickly only to get shunned the rest of the day. This however, would not be the case today.

We continued to hook and land quality fish on egg patterns. Greg would put us through good runs half a dozen times! The “outhouse” hole was a blast. Greg must have rowed us to the head of that run 6 times. We hit trout every single time. We could have done that all day but Greg’s arms would have wound up being as sore as ours. We hit every good piece of water for the next 9 miles. Ben and I both hooked our biggest fish in the same run at the same time! Unfortunately we lost both of them. Both were north of 20” and absolute slabs. We ended the day somewhere around 40-50 fish! What we didn’t know is that Greg was just warming us up for round two.

Next morning started out with Ruth cooking us another awesome breakfast for the road. We were going to hit another section of river that will have to go unnamed. Please hold the hate mail. I know a guy that can put you on this water anytime (wyogilley@aol.com – ask for Greg). I promised I wouldn’t say where we were going since it’s a pretty uncrowded piece of water that Greg gets to guide on. From what Greg was telling us the day before this water was really good. Again, another understatement. If Greg ever tells you that a piece of water is great, quit your job if you have to and start driving to Casper. “Really good” equated to one of the top three days of fly fishing I’ve ever had.

We arrived and only saw one other truck in the parking lot. We drove down to the boat ramp and the other boat was anchored just across river from us. We were going to be the first boat downstream. We pushed off and unfortunately we didn’t repeat our 2 minute hookup time. We had to settle for 45 seconds! Uh….. WTF! Do Wyoming trout fast during the month of February? You can’t see the boat ramp in this picture but you can see some individuals that were punishing the water for a while before we put in without a take. Sorry guys! We peeled out of there and headed downstream. I don’t know how to write about what would follow. It’s kind of a blur of red stripes, kypes, and diving indicators sprinkled with short bouts of shit talking. The result was an 80 fish day to include 3 fish over 20” and the elusive cuttyrainbrown. The average fish was probably 17”. If we went more than a minute without a hit something felt wrong. Good thing for us that happened exactly twice as I recall. Okay maybe three times.

 

I’m still blown away by the weekend of fishing we had. It’s hard to think of hitting some of the spots I’ve been wanting to hit outside of the U.S. when there is fishing like this to be had close to home. This will be an annual trip for me 

As a bonus we discovered a new species of trout! It's born without a body so that it doesn't have to stop eating in order to wait for digestion to occur. Its tail is connected directly to its head so that all caloric intake goes into growing its killing apparatus located on its head.

 A HUGE thanks to Ruth and Greg for a fantastic weekend of fly fishing. Their company added immensely to our enjoyment of the awesome fly fishing Wyoming has to offer. I highly recommend hitting these two up if you want to experience the North Platte the right way. 

Ruth Romp

Proprietor

Red Butte Ranch

Greg Mueller 

Head Guide

Wyoming Fly Fishing

307.267.5494