September 14, 2024
The North Platte River – The Miracle Mile
Getting ready to float the "Mile".
Flows: 540 cfs.
Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous (84% illumination).
Water Temp: DNM.
Water clarity: Off color - murky.
Air Temp: 42F @ 8:15a – 82F @ 3:30p.
Hatches: Midge: 9a to 10a. Trico: 9a to 10a. Caddis – a smattering throughout the day. Baetis: 10:30p to 3p.
Spawning: N/A.
Flies: #10 Brown Pine Squirrel Leech, #12 Red and Purple San Juan Worm, #16 Duracell, Baetis Emerger.
Top producers: Pine Squirrel Leech and Red San Juan Worm.
Sunrise.
While growing up in Pennsylvania I - like a lot of other kids - liked the outdoors. Pennsylvania is a Welsh word that translates to “Penn’s Woods” and it seems that you are not far from a thick forest from anywhere in the state. It was a perfect place for kids to explore. The thick woods provided almost instant seclusion with abundant wildlife, rivers, streams – and fishing.
The Gray Reef near the Ludsby put in.
Every Sunday in the 60s there was an outdoor adventure show – American Sportsman – that I’d watch as often as I could. It featured a variety of different wildlife from places all over the world. Its focus was hunting, fishing and conservation and I found it captivating. Over the years it had various hosts, but the most famous one was Curt Gowdy. He was a Wyoming native and besides writing, hosting and producing the show in the 60’s he was a renown sports broadcaster.
The sun just peaking over the mountain range.
My memories of Mr. Gowdy was of him with his cowboy hat on either in a broadcast booth or on the American Sportsman show fly fishing in some remote area of Wyoming. It looked wild and untamed. The whole thing was larger to life to me. It was out of reach – unattainable - but I’d fantasize about someday going there and fishing for those big trout.
Every time I’m in Wyoming I think back to that show and Curt Gowdy.
It was about mid-September and I was with my sons on our annual fly fishing trip. Sam and I were with our guide Andy Brust as we were driving to the Miracle Mile – a stretch of the North Platte River that is famous for holding big brown and rainbow trout. I asked the Andy if he ever heard of Curt Gowdy. Andy is a young man, and I wasn’t sure if he knew who he was even though Mr. Gowdy is revered in Wyoming. Andy says “Oh yeah, sure I’ve heard of him and he’s the guy who named the Miracle Mile”.
Sun up near the Ludsby put in.
Wow.
I was taken aback. You’ve got to be kidding. I’ve never heard that before. It seemed that I’d come full circle. I was here, on the river where Mr. Gowdy may or may not have recorded one of his American Sportsman shows.
There were a lot of tricos hatching as we waited to board the drift boats.
The Miracle Mile is about a 5 mile stretch of the North Platte River between the Seminoe and Pathfinder reservoirs and as the story goes, upon fishing it Mr. Gowdy stated that it would be a miracle if someone didn’t catch a trophy trout in it. Since then the Miracle Mile – or just the “Mile” – was legendary.
The mountain air was crisp as we started the day.
There are two other sections of the North Platte River in Wyoming just south of Casper that is - along with the Mile - referred to as the Gray Reef. One is the Fremont Canyon which is a small stretch of the river between the Pathfinder and Alcova reservoirs and the other is the Gray Reef which is downstream of the Alcova Back Bay. I’ve fished both of these sections a couple of times in the past with Vince, Nick, and Sam and with Brian.
Fishing the Miracle Mile would round out my experience and give me a perspective on each section of the Grey Reef.
Just below the Seminoe Reservoir dam.
Fremont Canyon is by far my favorite place to fish the Gray Reef. It is flies and lures only and you can only keep one fish over twenty inches. It’s a small stream meandering through a meadow in a beautiful setting before emptying into the canyon. The meadow section is wadable, and I might be biased because that is my preferred way of fishing. Sight fishing is the name of the game here and it holds big, beautiful browns and rainbows.
Typical scenery along the "Mile".
The Gray Reef - which is the part of the river below the Gray Reef Reservoir Dam - is my second choice. The section just below the dam has similar fishing restrictions as Fremont Canyon and a lot of it is wadable. And there are some big – big – trout to be had.
I was surprised when Andy told me that the Mile didn’t have any fishing restrictions. You can fish live bait and keep the fish. It’s what is referred to as a "put and take" river. They stock fish and then you can take what you catch. Many a fisherman can attest to the fact that this section of the river holds big trout – very big trout, but it seems to me that they are fewer and farther between than the other sections. Also, this is a drift boat river. Yeah you can wade it but by the looks of it you're kinda relegated to fishing just one spot. It’s not conducive to moving around because the river drops off sharply and there are a lot of holes and obstacles.
A beautiful shot of the moon over the reef near the Ludsby put in.
We had a great time floating the river though. The scenery is beautiful and there is abundant wildlife. I was able to catch a couple of rainbows in the 18” to 20” range and the guys caught between two and seven fish each all in the 10” to 15’ range.
The last fish of the day - got it on the last drift of the day!
It was a day well spent and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
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