Let’s start with another quick little update of water conditions on Grey Reef, Miracle Mile and Fremont Canyon. Grey Reef is at 500cfs as of this morning and conditions, other than floating vegetation, are excellent from the Dam to Glenrock, Wyoming. Upper Grey Reef is as clear as we have ever seen it in October. The Miracle Mile is at 550cfs and clear as well, with the lake level still holding at mid-lower Chalk Bluff. Fremont Canyon continues to flow at 72cfs and is slightly off-color(typical of this time of year due to the unicellular algae).
We had the pleasure of shocking with the Game and Fish Department earlier in the week. As you would expect it’s a great experience getting to look at the river from a fish management/population perspective. The section we shocked was below Casper(Big Muddy access to Rabbit Hill). Water conditions were excellent-clear with very little floating debris. As far as the fish population is concerned, numbers were fair, at best. This seemed to be of no surprise to our biologists and fishery technicians, considering several poor recruitment years and low, warm water, early this summer. That being said, the fish that were shocked are extremely healthy. Our largest fish was a rainbow trout around 20.5 inches and we managed four brown trout, 12″-18″.
Our weather continues to hold strong and fall has been nothing short of spectacular, thus far. Upper Grey Reef is still producing some excellent dry fly fishing opportunities. Fremont Canyon has been our most consistent area for streamers, throwing goldies and/or olive envy. MIracle Mile is seeing some increased pressure with a good number of people having their hunting camps set up on the river.