It all started in January this year. Tim Graham and Kenny Klimes were at the Denver Fly Fishing show checking out all of the seminars and fly-fishing booths. A great show that Tim has been bugging Kenny to join him to see for a few years now. Tim stopped by the Cowboy Drifters lodge and started inquiring about dates to fish the Miracle Mile and Grey Reef area of Wyoming. Tim scheduled dates and looked at Kenny and said, “Well, you going with me?”.  Kenny was now under the gun – and said – sure!! The trip was on the calendar.  Tim asked Jim Craig and his Colorado friend Steve Ellsworth to join us and the plans were rolling.

Jim and Kenny arrived in Colorado on Wednesday, March 11^th and headed on a shuttle up to Windsor, Colorado to Tim’s house OR so they thought. Arriving at the address the women that greeted us at the door was not sure why we were there, i.e. it wasn’t Tim’s address. We smiled and said, “we’re here!”. She advised us that we were at the wrong address Tim doesn’t live here!? BUT by some weird chance we were actually at the house of Steve Ellsworth. Still not sure how that happened. I guess we had Tim’s address wrong after all these years – one number off – 5808 vice 5880?? But all turned out well as the Ellsworth’s drove us to Tim’s house.

Thursday, we took the long drive up to Alcova, Wyoming and had the chance to visit with Tim.  With Steve arriving later in the day Tim, Kenny and Jim decided to wade fish in Fremont Canyon for a few hours. A great move as the three caught around 12 trout between them with all being 17 inches or above – big rainbows and tough fighters. Some acted like they have never seen the P&P midge that we use here in Missouri and ended up in the net.  A few were caught on beads (egg pattern) which we found out that we will use much in the days to come.

On Friday we met our guides. Jim and Kenny fished with Zach while Tim and Steve fished with John. Both were outstanding guides and were willing to do whatever to get us on fish and to give a memorable experience.  We fished the Grey Reef on this cold day that turned colder (freezing) as the day went on and ended in 4-5 inches of snow.  The Grey Reef is an awesome fishery with big rainbows and browns. We used large tippet 3x and 2x (these fish are not leader shy) with beads, leeches, san juan worms and a few midge patterns.  The only thing that was frustrating about the fishing was your guides freezing up during every cast. Several fish were lost when our guides froze up and the fish busted off when it ran. Check out the pictures for the size and colors of fish caught. The Grey Reef had a beauty of its own that will be remembered by the guys.  The trip ended near dusk but with a blizzard starting the guys cried “Uncle” an hour earlier than planned. Man, it WAS cold.

On Saturday we met up with the same guides (can you believe they wanted to fish with us another day?). This time we had a longer drive to fish the Miracle Mile. Fortunately for us the road to the Miracle Mile just opened two days before we arrived.  The road was covered in 4-5 inches of snow and frozen solid, so travel was easy. On the way back driving to the lodge not so much.  The Miracle Mile, as the Grey Reef, was a beautiful place to fish. The weather slowly warmed up, but balaclavas and gloves stayed on. They say the Miracle Mile has bigger fish than the Grey Reef and we found that to be true. We caught many fish in the 20-23” range.  The wind kicked up at the end, but the day proved to be awesome fishing.  We finished up with a slow, MUDDY drive back to the lodge.

On Sunday, we decided to sight-see instead of fishing for just a few hours before heading home. The truth is – we were beat. Took the long way home back to Tim’s house to check out the scenery.  We found a great little restaurant/bar in Laramie, Wyoming and had lunch before landing again at Tim’s house.  We enjoyed a super evening meal made for us by Tim’s wife, Rhonda, and had a great time visiting with her and their son, Logan. That night Jim and Kenny got their shuttle to the airport at 2:50am to end the trip back in STL around 9am on Monday morning.

A HUGE thank you to Tim for all the work he put into this trip – scheduling it, arranging lodging, buying all the food (and awesome food), driving, etc. Thanks to Steve and Jim for doing a lot of the cooking too.  Kudos to our guides, Zach and John, and to Cowboy Drifters for being first class!!  The Grey Reef and the Miracle Mile area has unbelievable fishing all year round. Pick anytime and you won’t be disappointed.

The pictures will tell more of the story!