Member Tim Graham fished the famous Miracle Mile this past week. Here is his report – Thanks Tim!

I fished the N. Platte River in central Wyoming this week with my friend and neighbor Rich Stover.  We arrived Monday and fished Freemont Canyon on day one for 3-4 hours and then floated the Miracle Mile the next two days with our guide/outfitter Cowboy Drifters.  I have fished with CD for three years in a row and I have been very fortunate to experience really good fishing every trip.  My past trips were in February and July.  I have met anglers from all over the US and some international anglers that travel here to fish and all say that there is no place else like the Miracle Mile and the Gray Reef on the N. Platte.  It is certainly the best fishing that I have experienced.  The tailwaters are nutrient rich and the trout grow large, plus the flows on the N. Platte are typically favorable.

The Miracle Mile, named many years ago by one of Wyoming’s favorite sons, Curt Gowdy, is remote.  Fortunately for anglers it does not get too much pressure.  Wyoming is very sparsely populated.  Casper, Wyoming is the nearest town of any size and it is more than one hour away and without significant commercial air travel.  The drive in to the Miracle Mile is about a one hour trip from our lodging on the Gray Reef.  The route is on a mostly, heavily rutted dirt road and we hope it stays that way. There are no lodges or accommodations at the Mile, except for camping.  There were only a couple dozen campers on the Mile which is actually 6-8 miles in length in normal water years and 10-15 miles long during drought conditions.  It is between Kortes and Seminoe Reservoirs on the upper end and Pathfinder Reservoir on the lower end.  The Miracle Miles is at least 45 minutes or about 50-60 miles from anything (fuel, food, telephone, etc.).  Only a few very large ranches with few buildings exist within a 40-50 mile radius as it is mostly public/government owned land.  The area is very scenic big sky country and there is a lot of wildlife.  On this trip we saw many antelope with new fawns,  a number of bald eagles and of course pelicans that stay well fed with all of the trout.

At Freemont Canyon on day one I managed to catch a 19” rainbow on a size 22 Manhattan midge that Kenny tied for our Bighorn trip.  The stream here (between Pathfinder and Alcova Reservoirs) is running very low and it is gin clear.  The Bureau of Reclamation has been holding the water in Alcova Reservoir that would normally be going out to Nebraska for irrigation because of the flooding in that state.  The Gray Reef section of the N. Platte is below Alcova Reservoir and it was running at about 500 CFS (winter level).  It is fishing well, but because it is low we decided to go up above to the Miracle Mile which is flowing at 3,000 cfs.  The numbers of fish caught on the Gray Reef is normally higher than the Mile but the size of the fish caught up on the Mile is typically larger.

Before I get into the fishing report for the Miracle Mile I need to tell you about the 4 foot long rattlesnake that swam within one foot of my friend Rich while he was waste deep in the river…yikes.  Rich is a Colorado native who grew up working in the fields in the Arkansas River Valley and he knows a rattlesnake when he sees one  The water was very cold and we were surprised the snake crossed the river.  Perhaps the snake was seeking heat and that is why he came so close.  There are more than a few snakes here.  The next day we were sitting on a small cut bank on the Miracle Mile about 100 feet off the river eating lunch and a large bull snake came within ten feet of us…they look very similar to a rattlesnake.  We decided to finish lunch in the boat.

The fishing on the Miracle Mile was really good.  We fished it two days with our guide Tony English, who did a great job of putting us on fish and back rowing many, many times in a very productive run that extended one-half-mile.  His black lab, Ruck was a pleasure to fish with.  He loved to watch us land fish.  Seldom did we make a drift without hooking a fish.  We caught so many fish that we did not even attempt to count the numbers.  The outfitters report that currently a typical day on the Mile is about 30 to maybe 45 fish per boat and we were somewhere in that range on hookups but as usual we were not able to land all of our fish.  All fish were good size, mostly 18” to 23” with an overall average of about 19”.  All fish were rainbows.  Past trips I have made to the Mile have yielded large browns.   A husband and wife team from Chicago that stayed in the cabin adjacent to us were fishing a run we were on and she caught a monster which their guide measured at 26”.

We spent part of Thursday morning scouting the wade fishing access points on the Gray Reef before travelling home.  We found a new route down through the Medicine Bow Range that begins near Government Bridge on the Gray Reef that was really spectacular.  We avoided the interstate entirely (50-75 miles west of I-25) . There is a whole lot of snow up on the peaks in the Medicine Bow and The Snowy Range and the high prairie in the valley floor was very green due to the abundant snow this spring.  This route took us down through Laramie and the University of Wyoming.  The Gray Reef is about a 3 hour drive from our home in Windsor, Colorado.  I certainly plan on returning to fish the N. Platte, God willing.

Photos shared with you.

Tim