This year Howard took me to Alcove, Wyoming to fish the Grey Reef Section of the North Platte River. Originally he wanted to go up-river to Saratoga to float that canyon in the mountains but that section of river was seeing record levels due to the run-off. That will have to be for another time. The Grey Reef section was supposed to be more fishable.......and it was!
We left at 8:00 on Tuesday and drove the 6. hours to Alcove. We basically back-tracked on I-80 to Rawlins, WY and drove north to just below Casper. We stopped at Independence Rock along the way, very neat. We got to the great city of Alcove around 4 or so. The sign on the main strip of the town read "Alcove, Summer population 20,000. Winter population less than 50." It had a handful of old hotels and cabins, a gas station, marina, The Grey Reef Fly Shop, and of course the Bar. Our cabin was run by the owner of the bar so that's where the "office" was. It had dollar bills taped to every inch of the walls and ceilings. Not the best decor but for 50 people, who is there to impress? We got checked in and unloaded. The cabin was real small, functionable, and nice. It could accommodate up to four in bunk beds and a pull out. Perfect for the two of us.
We could see the river from our cabin and it was high but not all that off color. We were excited because most of the rivers we had passed were nothing but mud. We decided to head over to below the dam to investigate. We suited up and familiarized ourselves with the area. We tried our luck in a few spots but didn't spend too much time. We caught nothing but we saw some other anglers catch a few real nice ones. One particular man was up to his armpits in water trying to keep a fish on. We realized this would be a tough place to wade. He did however land the nice rainbow. We asked what he was using and he said a rock worm, a size 8 red midge really. Interesting......
We hit the marina along the reservoir for dinner, the bar being the other option. I had a bacon cheese burger with fries and a coke while Howard had ribs. Both of which were delicious. We were pleasantly surprised. We decided to drive around a little more and then get to bed early so we would be well-rested for our guided float in the morning. Our goal we came up with in the car on the way over was to catch the biggest trout of our lives thus far and so far the area looked very promising.
