Grayrocks Reservoir, Wyoming

[curious wyoming boy]

Has anyone on this site fished Grayrocks Reservoir near Wheatland, Wyoming? Can someone help me with general locations and techniques to fish on this lake. I have been there once but did no good. The lake is usually the first ice free in Wyoming due to the power plant and under ground springs so I wanted to get the boat out in the next couple of weeks. Any help/advive is greatly appreciated.

[wheels]

I typically struggle on the lake too, but I'm thinking about heading up this weekend as the ice is off already. I'll report if I do any good.

"Friends don't let friends fish for trout!"

[Kip3816]

How was the trip over the weekend? Did you do any good?
Thanks,
Kip

[wheels]

Never made it up there. Sorry


"Friends don't let friends fish for trout!"

[Kip3816]

No Problem,
I am thinking of heading up this weekend. I am still hoping that glendo will clear (I would rather go there), but the last report I could find still indicated that it was not open enough for the boat yet. Have you heard anything about it the past couple of days?
Thanks
Kip

[wheels]

See my other post:

http://www.walleyecentral.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=4&topic_id=61550&mesg_id=61624&page=


"Friends don't let friends fish for trout!"

[Kip3816]

Thanks for the info, so are you going to get out this weekend?
Kip

[DennisK9]

I was up there on Friday. Very windy, didn't go on the water as it was still iced enough not to get out. With the strong warm winds over the weekend it very well may be open by this weekend. ..............dennis

[RC]

HOW LOW WAS THE WATER. CAN YOU EVEN USE THE BOAT RAMP?

RC

[eye4aneye]

Grayrocks used to be a great walleye lake but simply put, it is overfished. A 6 fish, no size limit mixed with being outrageously overfished has wrecked Grayrocks. The lake is simply too small for the number of fishermen and it is very common to see folks with a stringer of 12" walleye. Regulation and enforcement are the only things that can save Grayrocks now. Very strict slot limits are the best bet.

[Slim]

AMEN! Now just get someone at Game and Fish to go along with it. Fishing SUCKS at Grayrocks and has for quite some time.

[thompson]

In response to your statement about the lake being ice free because of the power plant.... This is incorrect. The power plant is a zero discharge facility and NONE of the water used in the plant is ever returned to the lake. It is ice free because it never gets cold enough long enough here to make and keep ice on it.

[Foreman]

I am sorry to say, but you are wrong. The LAramie River Power Plant does have discharge and the warm water is transferred to ponds and then dumped into the LAramie River. I ised to be a shift forman there until I transferred to the Wellington, Colorado plant. The Laramie River is heated by discharge, thus warming the inflow into the lake.

[Slim]

I would say that you DO NOT know anything about it. If you did you would know that there is absolutely NO water discharged to the river. Any water that is used goes through cooling towers and to ponds that are lined to prevent leakage, and the only way that this water leaves is by evaporation. Sorry, you don't know what you are talking about.

[GMCO]

I checked the website for the Laramie River power plant and it is
just as Slim said. They get water from Grayrocks but there is no
discharge of water from the power plant after the power is generated.

[Rick-Wy.]

GMCO, you are correct.

[eye4aneye]

I have heard theories that the Wyo G&F is only concerned with freshwater trout fisheries and could care less about managing reservoirs and introduced species like walleye. That must be the case because it is sad to see lakes like Grayrocks and now Glendo so overrun and overfished. A six fish, no size limit is idiotic. I have seen people (yeah, with green plates) keep limits of 12" and under fish. When you visit Glendo on a weekend, especially since the demise of Big Mac, it is amazingly overrun. It cannot stand up to the fishing and boating pressure and I fear it is headed the way of Grayrocks only on a much larger scale.

[Crusher23]

I'll take serious exception to the "greenies" comments. Me and my family haven't kept a fish from Grayrocks in over 12 years. All the time we see plenty of people with resident plates hauling out stringers full of 10" and 12" fish. Lets face it, the lake is over fished and over harvested. Period. Don't try to blame it all on us "greenies".


The Crusher

[petewyo]

I don't mean to stereotype everyone from Colorado. Heck, I lived in Denver for 4 years. But the majority of the people who at grayrocks are from that state, and I have seen how they have no regard for other sportsman out on the water. Case in point, my friend and I were in a 2 man, flat bottom boat, fishing in the shallows near the mouth of the river. We tried to keep away from all of the skiiers and jet boats, yet a boat with colorado tags thought it would be funny to ski literaly 20 feet from our boat, laughing as they went by. The lake is certainly big enough to keep your distance from other boats (Which is actually a Wyoming boating law that you must have no wake within 100 feet of another sportsman). Our boat is small, and any big wake would have swamped us. They were so close, that my friend actually casted his line into the other boat. Again, I don't mean to harp on everyone from CO, but I have fished grayrocks ever since I was little, and I have seen how they treat our lake and our land.

[Crusher23]

I know what you are saying but lets admit that there are rude boaters from every state. If you spend any time fishing at all you can quickly learn to hate all PWC's and water skiers. I'm sure everyone has a list as long as their arm of stories about skiers and such coming within easy casting distance only to hear laughter coming from the other boat. I have had cabin cruisers with resident tags come so close to me on Flaming Gorge that their wake rolls over the bow of my boat and threatens to swamp it. Thats not an easy thing to do to a 20' walleye boat. When I have my wife and two boys on the boat it is all I can do not to chase them down and strangle them. Residents of yout state can be quite rude as well.
I'm done posting about this so everyone can take shots at me if they want.

My .02

The Crusher

[hippie]

I doubt that anyone will be able to do much this year at Grayrocks, unless you have a small boat you can carry down to the mud puddle. There was 26 cfs coming in just awhile back and there are 40 cfs going out so Nebraska is happy. Do the math. It won't take long and there isn't going to be much of anything left there. Pray for rain!

[hippie]

I have had my share of encounters with these folks too. To be fair though, they truely do not have the market cornered. Everyone needs to be more considerate and really think about how we all do things. It all works a whole lot better when you do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Everyone seems to have forgotten what a little PATIENCE, KINDNESS, RESPECT, and FORGIVING, will do in any situation. Slow down, stop and smell the roses, be considerate of others, respect other people, treat everyone the way you would like to be treated. I have met many good and decent people from many different states and dummies from each of these states too. Bite your tongue, take a deep breath, smile. Everyone came out to the lake to have a good time. Don't forget that yourself, and don't let someone else spoil your fun. I used to let some of the bad behavior bother me. Now I just move as far away as I can, and practice what I have written here. No matter what there will always be somebody that only thinks of themselves.

[petewyo]

Well said.

[eyewinder]

As one who fishes Nebraska reservoirs, I can tell you that the 14 cfs may meet legal requirements or some such, but it's not going to fill our reservoirs either.

We're all hurting, and I believe that the divine intervention (aka: lots of rain) that you mention is our only (faint) hope.

[hippie]

You missed what I was telling you. Nebraska gets it all, all 40cfs that must be released. If 26 cfs is coming in total, Grayrocks in turn is reduced by the 14 cfs that you referred to, as long as the release is at 40 cfs. Grayrocks is now at less than 42% of it's total capacity and I know this is the story all over. Pray for rain...

[collie]

Most of the people that have "Green" plates are from some place else originally, lots from Cal. and places else where. Do you think I like to share my favorite lakes with a bunch of snobby A-- Wipes? I dont, but all of us are subject to what Mother Nature has thrown our way, no moisture and people with too much money and ones that dont mind driving three hours to another State. I have fished in Wyoming, Nebraska and the Dakotas. My father use to live in Scottsbluff in the late 70's and then in South Dakota in the 80's. I have cousins in North Dakota and I am a third generation "Greenie" with a lot to regional ties, I dont feel guility going to these other States as I dont feel like a complete intruder or has you called it a "Cancer". I fish a lot here and I catch my biggest walleyes here, I dont keep anything as I just like to fish. I could get crappy and spout off like others do, but why? I can see all of your frustrations as I have felt them in the past and feel them every time some one crowds in on me, my two cents worth. Collie

[vince55]

eyeman 20000,

Do you even realize that the majority of the water in Eastern Wyoming and Nebraska's reservoirs come from the northern mountains in Colorado. If it weren't for that, we would have less reservoirs. I am a born and breed Wyomingnite that lives in Wheatland, Wyoming and I can vouch for our lakes being overrun with "greenies" but in some aspects it is their water that falls in their state that fills our reservoirs, I just wish more snow would fall there. Also the economic impact is great from all those "greenies" stopping here in Wheatland and filling up with gas etc.

Oh and by the way, I was curious if Coloradan's had names for us Wyoming boys(now be nice) as we always refer to them as "greenies." Never heard a Coloradan call a Wyomingnite a name at the lake, maybe cause their on out home turf! Ha

[colorado]

Eyeman,

Vince makes a good point. 95% of Colorado's water goes to other states. Exactly which of "your" Nebraska lakes don't need Colorado for their water.

According to your theory, what belongs to Nebraska shouldn't be shared with the rest of the country...How long would Nebraska last if Colorado took this same view with our water?

As far as the question, do Coloradoans have similar names for out of stater's like "greenies". The answer is yes...Here's what we call people that take water from our water shed:

"Those downstream leeches, that take our water, and then complain when we go fishing on the lakes we supply".

[eye4aneye]

Easy, fellas. The way I see it this should be a discussion about the Wyo G&F and their reluctance to manage their fisheries properly. I have hunted and fished CO, WYO and my native NE a whole bunch so I don't have the border war mentality that many Wyomingites tend to have. If you drive down to Ft Collins you will see an awful lot of Wyo plates. If you drive up to the CO mountains, there are a bunch of Nebraskans playing there. I haven't heard any complaints from the Coloradoans yet.

I've seen more lazy, road hunting people from Wyoming than any other state. Would it be right to say all Wyo people are slob hunters? Heck no, I know that's not true. If 80% of the fishermen at Grayrocks are from CO and you see poor behavior, it stands to reason a "greenie" is to blame. If you go up to the Mile on the weekend and cannot find a rock to stand on because of overcrowding, the 75% green plates get the blame. The fact that the only metropolis in our region is in CO is a reality that hasn't set in on alot of folks, I guess.

Fact is, we are all Americans and an imaginary line is drawn by the color of our liscense plate. Another overlooked fact is that people who live in a highly populated urban environment tend to be more comfortable when they are crowded by other folks. Rural folks don't care for crowding. It's something we have to overcome when fishing nowadays, like it or not. As others have said, pleasure boaters and Jetskiers cause more heartache than fishermen, ten times over.

[eyeman200]

I would like to take some of it back, but we dont seem to have any problems with our Wyo,South and North Dokota or Kansas fisherman. I do realise that there are bad apples that give outhers a bad rap. Yet it never seems to end like last fall 2 fisherman from Colorado were cought with 66 walleye and 41 of them were under the limit. To top it all off they had no fishing permits. They had rented a motel , cleaned the fish in the room and trashed the place. This is why it makes it tough to see eye to eye. If I were a coloraden I would be pissed. Yes we get our water from colorado and Wyoming. Every body must remember this water is bought and paid for through our farmers and ranchers who bye the water rights. This means we pay for it and people like that spread the cancer.

[eyeman2000]

I dont fish there any more. The last time I fished there our boat was broken into and was cleaned out. Sometimes we must bite our lips and times not. Low water conditions get our flustrations high and on edge for every one.