WES SMALLING Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Thursday, April 10, 2008 12:00 am
Twenty years ago, a trout fisherman on the North Platte River below Gray Reef Dam could pretty much have the water to himself. He could walk the riverbanks enjoying the solitude and some spectacular fishing, interrupted only by the occasional rancher waving a friendly hello. A handful of locals fished the river and almost nobody came to Casper to go to fly-fishing.
My, how that's changed.
Not the great fishing, mind you, that's still the same. It's probably even better now. But like many popular trout rivers across the West, the days of having the water all to oneself are few and far between.
"It's partially my fault," said Mark Boname, owner of the Platte River Fly Shop in Casper, accepting some of the blame for the once-secret North Platte River becoming a world-class fly-fishing destination.
In 1987, Boname became the first fly-fishing guide on the river near Casper and has seen the North Platte change over the years. It's less muddy now, private lands are off-limits on the banks, and at times, the river is crowded with drift boats of anglers, many of them from out of town.
But a fly-fisher griping about sharing the river can't really pin all the blame on the 20 or so guide companies and fly shops that make a living floating clients down the now famous North Platte River.
The 1992 movie, "A River Runs Through It," triggered a fly-fishing craze in the 1990s and the North Platte along with pretty much every other major fishery in the West was never the same.
Fly-fishing is big business.
Today fly-fishing books, magazines and Web sites herald the North Platte as one of the top trout streams in the country and the river lives up to the hype. Almost year-round, anglers can reel in catch after catch of fat, healthy trout averaging more than 16 inches in length.
"It's the best big trout river in America," said Jim Sparks, 69, who spends a few days a week fishing the river and works part-time at the Ugly Bug Fly Shop in downtown Casper.
Each mile of the river from Gray Reef Dam to Casper holds thousands of fish. Since the water flows from a dam, it stays a fairly consistent water temperature so the fish stay on the feed in almost any kind of weather.
That brings fly-fishers flocking to Casper from across the country, especially during spring and early summer when the water is running high, making it perfect for drift boating.
"It's a multi-million dollar business for the Casper economy now if you figure in gas, food and lodging. That's a pretty good chunk of change that river brings to town," Boname said.
The busiest season on the river is from April to July, said Platte River Fly Shop manager Liz Ozinga.
"We have 10 boats scheduled to go out next Monday," she said. The springtime rush has started. The fly shop's phone is ringing off the hook and the fishing report on its Web site is getting hundreds of hits a day.
Most visiting anglers come from Colorado, Boname said, since the Platte is a relatively short drive from the Denver area.
"That's how you tell that it's springtime in Wyoming. The license plates turn green," Sparks said. "Some people say that the North Platte River near Casper is the best river in Colorado."
Sparks, like many local anglers, has mixed feelings about the river's popularity.
"I know that helps our economy, but I'm not so sure that it helps the river. But this is America and everybody should get an equal opportunity. It does get terribly crowded though."
Crowds are something Wyomingites aren't used to with the state's vast open spaces and having one of the lowest population densities in the country. But compared to some other popular fly-fishing rivers of the West that get swamped with hundreds of boaters a day, Casper's North Platte River looks downright lonely.
"A busy day here on the upper river you might see 30 boats. A busy day here is not like a busy day on the Green, Big Horn or San Juan," Boname said of a few of the famous fly-fishing rivers of Utah, Montana and New Mexico where the anglers are as thick as flies certain times of the year.
Besides being good for the local economy, the river's popularity with fly-rodders has made the river's health and fish habitat a little more of a priority.
It's considered the major trout fishery of the Casper region and one of the top in the state by the Game and Fish Department. The agency manages it as a Blue Ribbon fishery with tight bag limits and tackle restrictions, and doesn't stock it with hatchery-raised trout from Gray Reef Dam to Casper. Instead, the agency focuses on managing the river's habitat and monitoring the health of its wild, naturally reproducing trout that grow to immense sizes. Every year the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation conducts "flushing flows" - temporary surges in water releases from the dam - to flush sediments from the river bottom, which improves trout habitat and cleans out spawning beds, even in drought years when water demands are strained.
"They've done a really fantastic job of managing the resource as far as the water is concerned with flushing flows and meeting their water-use obligations while protecting the fishery," Sparks said.
Flushing flows and other actions have greatly improved the fishing since the early 1990s, even through periods of drought and after a devastating gasoline spill killed 100,000 rainbow trout in 1992.
Today the fishing in the North Platte is simply dynamite.
"Six hook-ups was a good day back then," Boname said. "Now I tell people if they get 40 hookups in a day they've had a good day."
Even the wading is better now since the flushing flows started in the mid-1990s, said Bill Mixer, a fly-fisherman from Casper.
"Back then you'd wade into the river and be in muck up to your knees. You needed a tow truck to get out."
Stretch of river closed during April
A portion of the newest public access area on the North Platte River is closed to fishing during the month of April while the river's rainbow trout are in spawn. The closed area is the half-mile stretch between the two cable crossings just below the Gray Reef boat launch. Boaters are welcome to float through but angling is prohibited until May.
The Wyoming Department of Game and Fish plans to develop an interpretive area at the site where visitors can learn about spawning rainbow trout and observe fish during the spring spawn.
The state closes some rivers to fishing during spawning runs to protect the fish. But instead of closing the immensely popular North Platte to fishing during spring, the Department is closing only the one short stretch in an effort to raise awareness about the ethics of fishing for spawning trout, said fisheries supervisor Al Conder.
"It's more of an opportunity to observe fish spawning than to protect spawning fish. It's an important area to the spawn but there are a lot of important areas," he said. "Here's a place to learn about spawning and learn about some of the ethics about fishing during spawn. This is quite honestly something we've never tried. We're tiptoeing into it to see how it goes."
The closed area is within a 1.3-mile stretch of riverbank that was acquired last year for public access in a collaborative project of the BLM, Wyoming Department of Game and Fish Department, The Conservation Fund, Wyoming FlyCasters and landowner Brett Van Rensselaer.
Elbow room
Spring and early summer are the busiest months of the year on the Gray Reef of the North Platte River. Chances are you won't have the whole river to yourself these days. Do you know your fishing etiquette?
The Wyoming Department of Game and Fish has released the following guidelines to help make everyone's day on the water more enjoyable and reduce conflicts between anglers:
1. Floating or wading, it's first come, first serve.
2. If you come across a stationary angler, leave the water and quietly walk around him or her.
3. Don't crowd. If you are interfering with another angler's ability to fish, you are too close. Some even feel if you can see another angler, you are too close.
4. Boat anglers should give shore anglers a wide berth. They have more flexibility. Boat anglers should even stop fishing while passing a shore angler.
5. Anglers fishing upstream have the right of way over those fishing downstream.
6. Always yield to an angler fighting a fish.
7. Do not stand in front of someone already in the water.
8. Know the property boundaries and respect private property.
9. Do not litter.
10. Get your boat and trailer ready before you launch.
The Department also wants to remind anglers that several changes have been made to fishing regulations around the state this year. Refer to the state fishing booklet to check for changes in bag limits and tackle restrictions.