Time: 2:30PM – 3:30PM; 4:00PM – 5:30PM

Location: One hour at the tailwater just below Grey Reef dam; 1.5 hour at the Alcova Afterbay

North Platte River – 03/20/2018 Photo Album

My friend Steve and I decided to renew our annual pilgrimage to the North Platte River near Casper on March 20, 2018. This was our fifth such trip, and we experienced good to phenomenal fishing during all our ventures. Steve made the arrangements and scheduled the float trip with Wyoming Fly Fishing for the last day of the spring flush. The water managers release a surge of water from the upstream dam for ten consecutive days to cleanse the gravel spawning beds of the rainbow trout. This action also stirs up the sediments of the riverbed, and this in turn creates a conveyor belt buffet of eggs and worms for the resident trout.

Our 2017 trek was less successful than previous years, and we attributed this to two factors. Our visit took place after the conclusion of the flush; and the weather was extremely formidable with wind, rain and temperatures that hovered in the upper thirties. It was difficult to maintain focus under these severe conditions. Steve communicated with Liz in the shop in order to pick a date that coincided with the last day of the flush.

Fortunately Steve was willing to drive his car, since the spring on our overhead garage door snapped the day before our departure. I arranged my gear on the porch, and once Steve arrived, I transferred the cargo to his Subaru. We departed northern Denver by 8AM, and after a four hour drive we arrived in Casper, WY. We stopped for a quick lunch and checked into our room at the Hampton Inn, and then we headed west to the parking area below Grey Reef dam.

Steve Covers a Run Above the Boat Ramp

The temperature was forty degrees as we prepared to wade fish, but the ever present wind blasted across the relatively flat high plain. I wore my heavy down coat, hat with ear flaps and two layers of socks; and I was thankful for the insulation. Steve and I rigged our rods with a plastic apricot colored egg, split shot and indicator. After fifteen minutes with no action, I added a pine squirrel leech, since the same fly proved its value on an earlier visit to the tailwater during the flush. Unfortunately the additional weight of the conehead leech pattern caused my flies to continually snag, until I broke off the leech and replaced it with a red annelid worm.

Pine Squirrel Leech Failed to Produce

We worked our way up the right bank toward the dam, although when we arrived, six fishermen were spaced out between our positions near the boat ramp and the dam. These anglers, however, cleared out and ceded an open path to our progression. By 3:30 Steve and I were very chilled and bored with the lack of action, so we decided to relocate our efforts to the Alcova Afterbay area.

Steve Feeling the Chill

We stowed our rods and gear, and after a brief drive we bounced our way down a rough packed mud road to the crude boat launch area of the afterbay. Steve chose to begin in the area near the launch, while I hiked upstream to the “post”. A thick post protruded from the river twenty feet beyond the bank, and I recalled landing several nice rainbow trout from the same area during our 2017 trip.

I fished the deep trough between the post and the bank with no reward for my efforts, and then I waded to a position just below the post and began fanning casts to an area of moderate depth between two merging currents. Roughly halfway down the V-shaped merge area, the indicator dipped, and I set the hook. Unlike the endless previous sets that yielded bottom snags, I felt movement and weight, but as soon as I applied pressure, a rainbow rolled on the surface, and the hook released, as two flies hurtled back toward me. After two hours of frustrating fly fishing, my opportunity to tally a fish count evaporated in an instant.

I moved downstream a bit more, and as I was doing this, a guide appeared on the bank. He offered that his client was on fire with a purple rock worm and midge pattern. I did not possess a purple rock worm, so I exchanged the red rock worm for a pink San Juan worm, and then I added a 3X section to the eye and knotted a salad spinner to the end. I returned to the top of the moderate riffle and repeated the downstream prospecting but with no positive results. Apparently only the lower portion of the afterbay was on fire.

My feet morphed into stumps, and I began to shiver, so I climbed the steep bank and spotted fish for Steve over the next half hour. I was amazed by the number of large visible trout, but most appeared to be in spawning mode and showed little signs of hunger. Steve persisted with some nice fly fishing, but he was unable to interest the pods of fish in his offerings, so we called it a day and returned to the hotel. After showers we drove a short distance to J’s Bar and Grill and enjoyed a casual dinner. Our thoughts now turned to our much anticipated float trip on Wednesday.

Fish Landed: 0