Epic Swing Day 4 - "Feels Like 18°" 30Apr19

The snow and cold came through as forecast, got ~3" of wet snow and lower temps to greet me in the morning, and it'll probably stay for another day. I took the chance to setup my tying station in the E1 as I was running low on some midges, and I understand some more effective patterns for this section as well now. The temp is okay at 28° but the "feels like" is much lower, and on the river it's even worse. I did get back to town to buy a new wading staff - sheesh, the beneficiary is the Platte River Fly Shop. Now I'm all modern like Jim & Scott. I took the selfie overlooking Pete's Draw and the river while I was out - the fly shop indicated I was in the right place and the looks of the downstream portions of the N Platte toward Casper are more off color (and have many fewer guide cars parked at the access points). I guess I'll get back to tying while I debate whether to hit the Miracle Mile section or just hang here at Grey Reef. A closed section due to spawning action opens up tomorrow so that might be my objective.

Grey Reef Is An Awesome Fishery... After returning from Casper I made lunch at camp and waited for the sun to shine (it never did) and the snow to melt (it did somewhat) and the 4 fishermen parked in the Pete’s Draw Outhouse Run near camp to vacate (they didn’t). I stopped waiting and stopped tying and headed out to new sections of the Grey Reef tailwater, despite the chill. I first went below the campground to an area with redds prevalent but not occupied (the spawn is over here)  but no real deep run where I seem to find the fish on this river. There is no bank structure here or other cover so the fish seem to be mid-stream and often deep in channels or deep runs. I did see one lady and caught her. I pretty quickly moved 1/4 mi ahead of the boys parked in prime and found a somewhat similar situation to Pete's deep channel run at the Trapper’s Route walk-in access. I had BB weight, a #18 mercury head FBPT and a #22 Jimi’s Axe (WYO only allows two flies vs COLO at 3). I caught ~20 fish in 2 hours! They equally hit on the beatis and the midge, and all were 18”-20.5”. The longest was a skinny 20.5” chrome but some of the many 19”ers were fatter and stronger. It was amazing again today here - it's a crazy good river - this section of the N Platte has a well-earned rep IMO and is reasonably close (5 hrs) to COLO - a trip among friends to Grey Reef is warranted, if not demanded. These are some of the nice fish, plus a requisite shot of my mug. I followed the starlings and squawks of the many waterfowl along the river to some of the best hatches I've ever encountered. Strange this is that these awesome fish I caught aplenty are probably only 3 years old; the river is that productive. I didn't fish right below the dam for the 30"ers but dreamt of them. Oh yeah, my guides froze closed and I needed to suck on them to clear 'em and even my reel was frozen solid with ice for a bit - WYO is not for the feint of heart - but I didn't need to deploy my new staff as the wading is fairly tame despite the big water.

Epic Swing Day 3 - Grey Reef @ Campground And New Camp Cookery Kit 29Apr19

It got very cold last night but the heater in the camper ran all night to keep me toasty.  It did mean I had to put on frozen waders and boots this morning - a challenge. Too, I did it again and installed my vest-cam backwards so no fish pics, just sky. It's still not above freezing at noon and the wind is ~18mph so it was cold out there on the river and I fished only 90 minutes but caught several nice fish with 3 dory boats traversing the same segment I was fishing. Kind of a scene - they did say "nice fish" for the ones I landed: a skinnier 18" rainbow, a strong 20" cutbow and smaller 17" Snake River cutty, all on a zebra midge or Jimi's Axe (a local mentioned purple was a good color for midges when the swallows were around). I need a picture for the post so here's the section of water I'm fishing on the North Platte.

I somehow lost my wading stick at the PT last week and probably should have one in the big water here. I went to the nearest fly shop, Reef Fly Shop, cool logo, but they were just building out and didn't really have inventory except for flies. So far I'm being pretty conservative in my wading as a result - if I get to Casper again I'll buy one.

Back at camp, before snowfall comes tonight, I setup my new propane system to make fajitas. I bought hoses (~$30 each) to attach my normally 1# bottle appliances to a standard 20# tank. I bought a "Y" (~$20) for the tank to allow me to drive two appliances (normally the skottle and the infrared grill) at once...  it all worked great. It'd been a little nicer to attach the appliances directly to the camper's high pressure propane line instead, but I couldn't find a "Y" with that connectorization; besides, this results in my carrying a spare propane tank.

Epic Swing Day 2 - Grey Reef Tailwater Of N Platte River 28Apr19

After heading in to Casper to get a new faucet, and installing and testing it, I was finally ready to head over to the river. I'd passed so many fishing lodges (Crazy Rainbow, Alcova Lodge, Reef Fly Fishing and several more) that I had some expectations but feared crowds. There are a lot of Clackcraft dory boats here. I found my lone spot though and let others float by. Freakin' fabulous fishery. It was windy and I was cold but the fish don't care. I caught fish every 3rd cast or so for about 2.5 hours from 12:30-3:00 and every fish was big (18"-21") and strong - I am amazed. While I didn't catch any trophies and I didn't catch any browns today (reported at <10%), the fishing was as advertised on this "one of the best tailwaters in America." I was nervous I wouldn't know the water or bugs but I read stuff and used a large silver bead zebra midge and a #18 mercury bead FBPT (as the beatis are coming off here right now) - the fish hit both equally in a mid-river channel at the bottom of a riffle... I stayed in one spot! Not "hunting" is unusual for me but it was that good - I also used an orange scud till it broke off in some pig (my scuds are old and rusty and pre-date my CO days and I should have known better). By the end of my outing I was actually seeing some fish well, despite the white caps and deep water - this shortened my line out and increased my take rate even further. My images are all of different rainbows/cutbows and some other big ones were left in the river or lept from my lens before photo worthiness - it was awesome. Check my net out with the big 'bow jumping mid-river after another epic run with reel singing. The North Platte is big water and I did not wade in too far and I stopped early to warm up. This place is highly recommended pre-runoff & post spawn (1st week of May) and it's relatively close. I now understand the lodges and the fact that every other car in Wyoming sports a rod rack.

Epic Swing Day 1 - Gowdy Trails & N Platte Camping 27Apr19

First stop on the Epic Swing #1 was a great trail ride on Gowdy St Pk trails (keen park next to Medicine Bow NF). Top rated trails like OWF - well made, groomed and nice - though I did partake of some gnarlier shit on Cow Ck Trail in the park, I mostly rode the intermediates which were awesome. Saturday riding here led to folks of all kinds throughout this popular park right between Laramie and Cheyenne. Laramie (UW Cowboys) and Cheyenne are pretty cool cities IMO... refueled and stoked in Laramie near the Cowboys campus, sweet. Funny however I captured the entire ride with my helmet cam facing backwards - dumb ass; I included one shot for grins.

In the "no good deed goes unpunished" category I stopped in Laramie for my non-resident license at a fly shop; they wanted cash or local check. I went on to the WY Game & Fish office, which was closed; ultimately Walmart took my credit card. I arrived at Pete's Draw CG @ 4:30pm (on a Sat) to find a site in this smallish but nice spot (my first choice CG for the area) right on the N Platte River below Grey Reef Dam. I was lucky to find one remaining site and booked it as a senior for 4 nights for just $20. The wind was howling all the way from Laramie to Alcova so my mileage was really bad. My camper even fell off its front support once when setting up - all recovered without damage but wow 45mph is a lot for a popup. The wind continued all night so I cooked inside. I discovered too that my faucet leaks so I disassembled and rebuilt it twice but ultimately had to drive to Casper to get a new one - grrr - all good now though.

Stupendous Outing On The PT 25Apr19

I was sight targeting big fish all day on the PT out of Nature Center and it worked. I caught many fish over 20" today including a massive 23"er that I couldn't even hold - and which took 10min to land, a super-strong 21" male after a 7min fight, a great 21" brown (1st of the year for me here), and other great colored 20"ers. This morning was the best half day of fishing I've every had as to consistently great sized fish. The day was gorgeous @ ~65°, the flows were perfect @ ~300cfs and there were "only" 5 other guys on the river. The best bug was a merc head flashback black beauty but Destiny's Child and merc head FBPT also worked later when the BWOs started. I hit Valco too after 2pm and caught one nice fish there - it was harder to spot them there. It's hard to imagine but these are just some of the fish I caught today... woohoo.