This is my wife wade fishing below Grey Reef Dam on a Saturday in mid-July. Fish were plowing PMDs and Yellow Sallies. There was only one other angler, several hundred yards upstream.
In July, the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission passed a series of new regulations that will impact how anglers will approach Miracle Mile, Fremont Canyon and Grey Reef. We’ll go through the details and provide our perspective.
Barbless – Single point barbless hooks are required on the entirety of Miracle Mile, Fremont Canyon aka the Cardwell Access Area and Grey Reef to Government Bridge.
We are strongly in favor of this new regulation. We’d support the inclusion of other Wyoming rivers and streams going barbless. The Reef Fly Shop and North Platte Lodge have required our operations to pinch all barbs for 25 years. It is the least we can do to step up our game and be serious about doing as little damage to our partners, the fish, as we can. Make sure you have a strong hemostat ( smooth jaws are better than serrated) to smash and wiggle the barb down, completely. Guides and anglers who haven’t practiced barbless, will need to spend a bit more time on honing their skills. To the wardens, you are really going to have to write-up folks who are cheating with a partially/hardly pinched barb. This will be the hack and there shouldn’t be tolerance for it.
Pegging – Pegging beads (or attractors as they are now called- more on that in the next segment) Is now prohibited in Fremont Canyon aka the Cardwell Access Area and Grey Reef Dam to Government Bridge.
We are strongly in favor of this regulation although we feel it falls short. We have never participated in this practice for several reasons. It is snagging, the fish does not voluntarily take the hook into its mouth. Snagging is beneath our skillset, there it is and we aren’t ashamed to say it. “If done properly” the first pegger to get to a clean trout is likely the one who breaks, damages or completely rips off the maxillary process. Pay attention to grip-and-grins, there are so many mangled trout on display throughout the trout fishing world…not just Grey Reef. These mangled trout have a more difficult time feeding making them undernourished. This can and does make trout incapable of spawning. Miracle Mile and below Government Bridge will be the sections of river that the studies are used to compare the different regs. Since we have a clear view of what these trout looked like prior to pegging we feel pretty comfortable the Grey Reef – No Pegging Rule will set the stage for the entire State of Wyoming to abolish the practice. Let’s hope Wyoming has the balls to do it first.
Pegging Beads vs Attractors – This changes the definition of “trout beads” to “pegged attractor”. The “trout bead” definition allowed ONLY pegging a plastic bead. The change to “pegged attractor” legally allows other materials like chenille, squirmy worm, zonked squirrel…whatever.
Pegging beads was officially allowed starting in 2014 despite our protests. Coincidentally, the definition of snagging was removed from the Wyoming State Constitution at the same time. The definition of “Trout Beads” was clear that it was a plastic bead resembling an egg and nothing else. However, folks were pegging other materials that were outside of the definition. In 2017 , I received a letter from John Kennedy – Deputy Director of the Wyoming Game and Fish stating that only beads were allowed. Over the course of the past ten years I have asked several folks from the Wyoming Game and Fish if anybody had ever been cited for illegally pegging materials other than beads. None could think of a single citation and said they wouldn’t be able to effectively search due to the way the wardens have to categorize the violation. This change lets thousands of game violations off the hook….but not until Jan 1 2026. We despise pegging and what it has done to the fishery we love so, needless to say, we aren’t fond of this change.
Spawning Closures – Cable to Cable is now closed from April 1 to May 15 (increased from April 1st to May 1st) Ledge Creek downriver for 1.2 miles has been added to the spawning closure and will also run April 1 through May 15.
The April river closure between the cables in front of the North Platte Lodge on upper Grey Reef has been around since 2008. This closure was designed for “spawning eduction” rather than protecting spawning fish. This was a lousy workaround to keep folks from targeting spawning fish…but at least it worked out great for us! These closures basically encompass the spring baetis hatch. Both of these areas have some amazing and legitimate (not targeting actively spawning trout) fishing during the spawn. Closing sections of the river during this time will add pressure and congestion to other parts of the river…that should be pretty obvious. Folks will still target spawning fish, stomp redds etc. We are hopeful that these closures will make a positive impact on recruitment and hopefully send a message that targeting spawning trout is not cool and is counter to a healthy, wild trout fishery. Spawning closures wouldn’t be necessary if anglers just refrained from targeting them during this crucial time.
Watercraft Restrictions – Watercraft (including anything that floats) will be prohibited from Kortes Dam to the Bridge at Miracle Mile. No Boats above the bridge, wade fishing only.
This will congest boat traffic on the lower Miracle Mile significantly, it will also create more conflict between wade fishers and boat fishers. There will be an incorrect stigma that wade fishers should stay above the bridge and boats get everything below the bridge. It might have been better to just abolish boat traffic on the Mile altogether. This is a tough pill since we started the practice of guiding the Mile in drift boats 25 years ago. Back then the Mile was widely considered not worth fishing and there were hardly any anglers through the 2000s. Folks started catching onto it about 15 years ago and, admittedly, has gotten out of hand since. we don’t see this one ending well but do support a resurgence of wade fishing. It is arguably more rewarding and you generally poke fewer fish. Also, boats can access productive water that wade fishers really can’t. This will be a good thing for the fish who hang out on the upper portions of the Mile. It’ll be a significant way to compare the impacts and likely will shape future regulations. We supported this compromise but the reality is that much of the congestion and damage to the fish could be substantially relieved with regulations like no pegging, and a 2 fly/hook max per rig. This is really where it should start.
Leftovers – There is one part of the initial proposal that was left out of the final draft that we were in strong support of….2 hooks per rig maximum. This would have reduced allowed 3 hooks to 2. A 2 fly rig is plenty. At the end of the day, an angler or a guide can easily have stellar days within these new regulations and a less proficient angler can have just as good of results. It might also reverse this modern “fly” fishing mindset that anything goes as long as you identify it as fly fishing and fling it with a fly rod.
The Wyoming Legislature recently passed an odd bill that is directed at float guides, or folks who guide commercial fishing trips out of boats. The way it is shaping up is to permit every guide at a fee of $600/year/guide. This was a knee-jerk proposal with little reliable metrics or a baseline to compare the metrics. Most gov folks throw around subjective terms like “overcrowded” with no real basis for their statements. There are spring days, on Grey Reef, where it feels like too much. This is a pretty short-lived phenomenon and by the time July hits there are days we don’t see any other boats/anglers on the sections we are fishing. We feel the conflict is exacerbated by outfitters who don’t self-limit the number of trips they book in a day. When these outfitters book trips that exceed their guides’ ability to provide a quality experience then that is where the conflicts start. The inexperienced guide are trying to make something happen for their guests and may target spawners, may encroach on wade anglers and other boats, may stay in a productive run too long or even float the same short section of river twice in a day because that is the only water they feel like they can get the job done.
This bill doesn’t cover commercial wading trips. So before we celebrate restrictions on guides, the obvious consequence is that IF outfitters actually get their folks in the water it will tie up much more river that public float anglers won’t be able to fish without causing conflicts and encroaching on commercial trips. Some of the think is shortsighted. We knew and expressed what the result of pegging would be and this new legislation will go the same way…the unintended will cause larger problems that better fishing practices could do a lot to alleviate.
At the end of the day, it’s a good start.