It’s pretty true – ish.  Fly fishing in Casper Wyoming has you thrashing the water roughly in the middle of the state of Wyoming. Can we locals claim it’s the center (as in best) fishing in the state, Western United States, United States, globally? That’d be an exercise in futility, however, the North Platte River including Grey Reef, Miracle Mile and Fremont Canyon, have some features that make it very competitive in that absurd contest.

“Grey Reef” is the loose term used by anglers discussing the section of the North Platte River that flows right through the middle of Casper, Wy and most appropriately Alcova, Wyoming where Gray Reef Dam, Alcova Dam and Grey Reef Road live. Grey Reef Road is where The Reef Fly Shop and North Platte Lodge welcome our guests. Notice the different spellings? Yeah, even the locals are confused about the name…more on that later.

Casper, Wyoming is the nearest city to Grey Reef and where you’d fly into if you aren’t interested in making the 4 hour drive from Denver, Colorado or Denver International Airport (DIA) where destination anglers make their flight connection to Casper. Casper is a 30 mile drive northeast from Alcova and is a solid fishery in its own right.  The North Platte River flows about 50 miles in a north and easterly direction from Gray Reef Dam to the Casper city limit. That’s a pile of productive trout water – but wait, there’s more. This part of the river originating from Gray Reef Dam flows, without obstruction, 82 miles to the Dave Johnston Power Plant in Glenrock, Wyoming. Then tack on Miracle Mile, Fremont Canyon and a couple stash tailwaters and you’ve got 100 miles of river to explore. This doesn’t include 2 large reservoirs with very good trout, walleye and carp fishing that are both just a few miles from our locations.

The Grey Reef System is a super-consistent,  year round fishery that is buffered from runoff by Seminoe, Pathfinder, Alcova and Grey Reef Reservoirs. We don’t have runoff. As a result, Miracle Mile and Grey Reef harbor a bunch of wild trout and they grow them to unusual size. 30″ trout are not unheard of and a 20″ fish won’t get tons of fanfare. We are tailwater junkies because we have two outside of our front doors and 5 at our immediate disposal. Tailwaters, or sections of river that pop out of a dam, have consistent water temperatures so perform  important fly fishing tasks: they control wild flows keep water cool in the heat of summer and bug life (trout food) flourishes. Are we proud and extremely fortunate to get to call the lower North Platte River our home-waters? You bet!

Grey Reef or The Reef are how we spell and refer to this extraordinary chunk of river. As you enter the gateway you will notice the street sign says “Grey Reef Rd.”.  Over the years, names have popped up on the map that name it Gray Reef and this is evident with Gray Reef Dam. This might be a result of folks who don’t like the traditional spelling, are outside of the know or aren’t detail oriented. Other terms include Grays Reef, Greys Reef, Gray’s Reef or Grey’s Reef. These terms are incorrect and we generally hear these from anglers who aren’t familiar with the area. That’s understandable and okay. We’ll bet that by the time you depart from your fly fishing trip you’ll be calling it like a local…Grey Reef.

Check out this link to a YouTube video about Wyoming communities and why a visit to fly fish Casper, Wyoming is pretty special.