Wyoming’s Famed North Platte Fly Fishing Is Local Guide’s Office

Trent Tatum was 5 when he first had a fly rod placed in his hand.

Now in his 40s, Tatum still has one handy as he and his partners in an Alcova, Wyoming, business share their love of Wyoming and fly fishing with people from all over the world who come to fish the North Platte River’s Grey Reef.

The Reef Fly Shop, Cottages and RV, and North Platte Lodge are just one cast away from some of the most productive trout fishing in the West.

The North Platte’s Blue Ribbon fly fishing is famous, and frequently is listed one of the best spots for trout fishing in the United States.

“I first fished this river in 1999. I heard about it my freshman year at (the University of Wyoming),” Tatum said. “We came up here and fished for the day. I have never seen trout fishing like this.”

Tatum and his partner Erik Aune converged on the Grey Reef section of the North Platte River from different states, but similar backgrounds as fishermen and lovers of the outdoors. Aune was part of the original outfitting crew when the business was established in 1998 as the first permitted fish outfitter at the Grey Reef. Tatum joined in 2001.

The pair teamed up to buy the business when it became available in 2007.

Evolving Demand

Tatum said the business of Wyoming fly fishing has changed a lot on the river since his initial arrival in 2001 when a couple of days could go by before someone showed up looking for a guide. When they bought the business in 2007, the fly shop was smaller, they did not have their four cottages and 12 RV sites, and part of the lodge was his living quarters.

“We slept eight people in the basement, we had a residential kitchen upstairs, and my wife and I lived on the other side,” Tatum said. “Erik and I worked together through all of it thinking what we can do to expand.”

Over the years the partners took a leap of faith to expand the lodge to offer all-inclusive accommodations for 12 with a commercial kitchen serving three meals a day. It’s open and booked from late April into October. They built the cottages and RV sites along the way.

While their stretch of the river can be fished 365 days a year, Tatum said the really busy season starts this month through the first part of June. He believes the growth of fishing along the Grey Reef and Miracle Mile sections of the Platte has mostly been by word of mouth.

“When I started there was one other operation on the river,” he said. “Now there are now seven to nine local outfitters on the river.”

Tatum said the Grey Reef is special because of the size of fish that come out it. This past week, a customer pulled out a brown trout about 28 inches long.

“Every day you fish this river, you have a chance to catch a fish like that,” he said.

‘Food Factory’

Tatum, who earned a degree in fisheries and wildlife biology at the University of Wyoming, said the river is a great “food factory” for trout. Some streams might have trout that just have a big stonefly hatch that has to sustain the fishery for a season.

“Whereas this thing has leeches, midge, scud, various mayflies, stonefly, caddisflies,” he said. “We have hatches going on from spring to fall, and you have all that other baseline forage for them like the leeches and scuds. They’ve got food and there is no shortage.”

For customers at the outfitter, a typical day begins with meeting a guide around 7:45 a.m. and then a day in drift boats on a river that the 10-12 guides at Reef Fly Shop know well. The fishing day usually ends around 4:30 p.m.

Because the reef is below the Grey Reef Dam controlled by the Bureau of Reclamation, water flow can vary between the seasons and days. The water flow impacts fish behavior, and Tatum said his team understands that well.

“In the winter, the trout metabolism will be the slowest during the year. You are going to find them in the tailouts, the deeper runs,” he said. “With hatches coming off, fish will move into the faster water, the shallower water and move up on a shelf.”

On days when more water is released through the dam, the fish typically “move over to the banks because that is where the holding water is, the bug activity,” Tatum said.

The challenge for fly fisherman entails mastering the art of rod, line and fly placement, as well as understanding the science of fish behavior.

“In the trout fishing world, it really is, even though it is cheesy to say, matching the hatch,” Tatum said. “What are these trout feeding on today? And again, there is an art of it. It’s pretty captivating to watch somebody who can cast a rod well and present a fly well to watch them fish.”

Beginners Welcome

For people who want to explore fly fishing, The Reef Fly Shop offers guides who love to teach. Tatum said a typical day begins learning and practicing how to cast a fly rod in the yard. The guide would then imitate what a fish would feel like on the end of the line.

This helps the angler learn how to set the hook and how to keep the fish on when they get a bite.

While fly fishing is the mainstay of the fly shop and lodge for much of the year, Tatum said the business also offers guided hunts for grouse and big game as well.

The team does not have plans to grow much bigger in terms of boats on the river.

“My partner and I don’t want to, then you start to take away from that (Wyoming) experience,” he said, pointing from the lodge porch to the river and mountains southwest of Alcova. “Just to see how vast it is and be on a river … that is what (customers) come here for. They want that experience, the solitude, the meadowlarks chirping, that’s the Western experience for a lot of people.”

As for his own fishing experience, Tatum looks back at his 5-year-old self and says he now enjoys teaching his children to fish and explore all the things that Wyoming’s outdoors has to offer. And he still willingly picks up a rod.

“For me personally, it’s doing something off the beaten path, finding that path myself or doing something different that may have nothing to do with catching a bunch of fish,” he said. “It’s catching one fish a certain way or finding a new piece of water. It’s just more about the experience. The passion is still there.”

Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.