Devan S.

Awesome! Rio's are some pretty fish.

@BilletHead no worries I got the tiger. I hear they are getting really big at the White...maybe that should be my new goal. I cannot express how busy it was....even Washington lake overflow parking was full and people parking along the road in/out. Just chaos. We got to Wall lake at maybe 7am and there was people camping there...already swimming burrrr. A pretty place no doubt but busy busy.

Utah Colorado Cutthroat- East we headed. We met several groups of campers packing up heading back west and the farther we went, the less off road vehicle traffic we met. We still met a bunch of vehicles but nothing compared to the pavement of the Mirror Lakes area. We finally settled out at the East Fork of the Blacks Fork Campground. 3 cars in the lot and some horses. Did not appear to be fisherman around. Water looked good and fishy and easy access. We split up and got to work. Brook trout, whitefish, and our target Colorado Cutthroat. Splitting up makes fish+human pictures harder. See exhibit A But I did manage net pictures. Probably better for the fish anyways. We did not have to wade far and this was probably our favorite stream in Utah.

Mirror Lakes/Upper Provo- The goal here was Bonneville Cutts in the river and Tiger Trout in the lakes. We decided on a early hike to lake and then fish the river after lunch. Hindsight being 20/20 I would have just skipped all this chaos and proceeded but we tried to fight through. People everywhere, traffic, and poor signage for such high use areas. We got turned around and started at Washington lake. Took off hiking looking for Star lake. Could have bushwacked but didn't feel like it after a couple hours of sleep. Ended up on easy trail to Wall Lake. no service so we did not know what had been stocked or what to expect. Ended up with 1 brookie, I think. No picture. We fished the Upper Provo in a half a dozen spots. Caught several brookies and 1 tiger. No Bonnies. By this point, we were beginning to get frustrated with the numbers of people and lack of fish besides Brook trout. It was mid-afternoon and we started to wonder about where we might find a spot for some sleep. We made a call the head to the upper Bear River closer to the WY line. Found good water, jumped in waded to the first bend and ran into 3 guys. Disgusted we packed back up and headed East looking for more remote areas. Have I mentioned all the SxS, 4 wheelers, and dirt bikes in the area? Everywhere ripping down the dirt roads.

As we came back east from the Raft River Mountains we made a quick pit stop along the Logan River. Hwy 89 runs along the river for miles and while technically we wanted to go way up we just did not have time. It was light in the flat land but the sun was low on the horizon and getting dark fast in the mountains. We made a quick stop just above Dam 3 and fished briefly for our Bear River Cutt. @Prifish was successful really quickly and I zeroed. We made our way back to town for supplies and to make a plan on for sleep. Our original plan had us driving up along the Mirror Lakes area but we had the option to sleep at the Logan River but there was no camping available in the lower parts. We never ventured very far along Hwy 89. Unfortunately poor planning on our part. Pioneer day was last week in Utah so every campsite we had marked down as a potential sleep site was full. We even tried to find hotels but again zero availability. We basically ended up sleeping in the car on the shoulder of the road along the mirror lakes area. Finally arriving around 2am the next morning.

Well we got back home today. Started out with a change of plans. We landed in SLC and headed directly for the northern side of the Raft River mountains. We decided with short time to try and check off the "hardest creek" first. @BilletHead instead of stopping right at the bridge over onemile, we went up farther and packed over the ridge directly down into Sawmill Canyon(flatlanders at elevation right away). We instantly started spooking fish. Tight quarters but I like this style of fishing. If you can handle the frustration of weaving a rod through the brush without spooking fish. You dip anything around these fish and they hit it like they are starving. We had a little bit of daylight left so off we raced to another stream before dark. We can worry about places to sleep and rations later.

Definitely fished the Deschutes in Washington. Your description of it is spot on....small, brushy river/creek. Fish were likely small resident fish vs. true sea run. Not a destination and as you said many much better places to fish.

I think for the southern gulf coast states...I may have to make a December road trip and just try to get LA, MS, AL, FL all in one swoop.

I have pseudo set a goal of trout in every state. I say pseudo because I have not done research to confirm trout are available is every state. Here I will keep track of states and locations. Overall my goal is the get a native/self supporting as possible although that may not be possible. In cases where Trout is not possible, I will likely defer to state specific native species. Alabama Alaska Arizona-Rainbow-Wildcat crossing(Black River), Brown-Little Colorado upstream of Greer, Gila-Dude Creek, Apache-West Fork of Black River(Thompson Meadows), Brook-Hall Creek, Artic Gralying-Acker Lake, Apache-Acker Lake, Cutthroat-Luna Lake, Rainbow Luna Lake, Arkansas-Rainbow/Browns-Beaver Dam Tailwater, NF tailwater, BS Tailwater+Brook California-Eagle Lake Rainbow-Crater Lake, Goose Lake Redband-Lassen Creek, McCloud Redband-McCloud above Falls. Colorado-Greenback Cutt-Herman Gulch, Rainbow/Brown-Big Thompson, Colorado Cutthroat-Mohawk Lakes Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho-Redband-Mores Creek above Idaho City Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas-MLWA Trout pit #30 Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri-Rainbow/Brown-Taneycomo, Roaring River- All rivers of Blue Ribbon trout slam Montana-Brook and Westslope-Big Bear Lake, Maney Lake Nebraska-Brown- Middle Fork Soldier Creek, Brook-Wood Reserve Trout Pond, Cutthroat-Wood Reserve Pond, Rainbow-Grabel Ponds Nevada-Lahontan Cutthroat-Pyramid Lake, Gance Creek New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico- Brook-Cabresto Lake, Gila-Mineral Creek, Rio Cutthroat-San Cristobal Creek, Brown/Rainbow-San Juan New York North Carolina North Dakota- Camels Hump Lake- Stocked Rainbow Trout Ohio Oklahoma Oregon-Bull Trout-Metolius/Wenaha, Redband-Crooked River Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota- Spearfish creek, Castle Creek-Browns, Rainbows, Brook trout Tennessee Texas-Rainbow- Guadalupe River Utah-Entire Cuttslam+Tiger Trout+Brook trout, North Fork Ogden, Upper Bear River, East Fork Blacks Fork, Upper Provo Vermont Virginia Washington-Coastal Cutthroat-Deschutes River West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming-Entire Cuttslam + Lake Trout, La Barge Creek, Salt Creek, Snake River, Soda Butte Creek, Lamar River

I've fished Bob Kidd a couple times and I think it has potential and we figuratively filled a cooler of big gills but nothing close to 1lb. A bunch of .6 to .7lb fish and a couple .7 lb Redears.

I've seen some indication of swepco having some big redear and some bigger catfish. I've considered a trip but mostly held off due to overall pressure/parking. At the end of the day, I'm mostly a weekend warrior. The problem with redear is that they are bigger but the requirement is 1.5lbs. For the bluegill specifically I've tried to find smaller bodies of water that are devoid of the larger predator fish(catfish, bigger bass). I think a place where there is potentially an abundance of small bass would keep overall numbers low and allow the bigger fish to escape predation. I've got a spot I have fished 10-12 times and caught some good fish but nothing bigger than .7lbs. It honestly maybe that rock bass becomes the easier option. The Ark state record longear was caught in table rock so who knows....

I'm really down to 4 categories: + I want a 25lb Striper just for the rush. I've caught a couple in the upper teens and set a goal so here we go. Perch: Just almost 99% positive this will be an Arkansas TRL walleye. I've been close a couple time but haven't gotten there yet. There is an off hand chance at a Sauger at Ozark L&D but I've travelled there 4 times and haven't caught anything yet but would like one for species. Trout: Based on time, my most "fished for fish" although the overlap between Trout and Walleye below Beaver is enough that "any given time". Honestly I expected based on location and volume of fishing time one of these would already be done. I'm going to start expanding my trips toward BS/Norfork tailwaters to up my odds at trout. The ability to fish from the bank makes this attractive before or after work for shorter commitment trips. Catfish: I've tried up around Holiday Island from the bank a time or 2 with nothing. Beaver certainly has flats, channels, and blues big enough but rod and reel really limits things. If it were jugs and/or set lines I think I could pull this off really easily. We will see. Right now its really not a priority. I think there are more target rich locations in Arkansas for all 4 species than the NW corner. Bream: I really think in NWA this is the hardest category. Possible, yes. Likely, no. I cannot tell you how many bluegill, green sunfish, longears I have weighed. I've double, triple, quadruple checked my scales are accurate at the sub 1 lb marks. I've really never been close. I know google has information on lots of lakes that say 1 lb Bluegill but I just don't know that I can trust it. Until you really start putting numbers of Bream on a scale for weight....you don't really realize how big a 1 lber is.

Crappie 2.5lbs both blacks and white. I knew going in this would be tough. I enjoy crappie but don't have live scope and all my life probably have seen 1 crappie in my life in the realm of 2.5lbs. I have spent a couple years and probably 5-6 trips down south to Millwood lake chasing big pre spawn-Crappie. Taking wife, friends, ect down and doing live scope trips with a guide to fill a cooler. Millwood/Arkansas have generous limits and after the first time fishing with Jared I knew I'd be back. Its a good way to have a good time and bring back enough fish for a fry and then some. There is a ton of Crappie tournament results for Arkansas online and based on the results and guides is how I ended up at Millwood. I really think it has a reasonable shot a 3lb Crappie in Arkansas in early spring. Over the 5-6 trips I have caught maybe 25 fish between 2-2.5lbs. Again 16 or 17" fish with golf balls in their bellies. Not true 2.5lbers but pre-spawn fat fish that hit the mark with eggs. This year I finally hit 2.5 after having several in the 2.4 range. This one I question multiple times. After being so close several times I weighed 3 times. 2.51, 2.52, 2.49. Close enough and plus I'll be back.

All the remainder of '21 and into 2022 I struggled. Focusing on fishing reasonably locally at the right times. Walleye spring, striper winter/spring, trout fall/winter, Bluegill spring summer. Ect. I was overwhelmed....multiple species and spread thin. As I recall I caught walleye and trout in excess of 8lbs in Kings river and below Beaver respectively but that was as close as I had been. I had mostly kept fishing the right locations but cared less about the goal. Someone at work told me they were working over the big whites up below Beaver Dam. Wouldn't give me a spot but said...its specific....start at houseman and fish down until you find them. Said they estimated their big fish were 3.5 to 4lbs and 18 to 20" and lots of them. Not just a 1 or 2 deal. Good enough for me to check out. I fished down...until I had chasers on a A-rig. Then began working them with an 1/8oz zig jig. The flood gates were open albeit just barely and the fish were stacked up on an inside bend eddy. I was the only boat there. Most others were chasing late season walleye stragglers in May. Whites only need to be 3.5lbs. I don't like to eat them so was CnR only. I don't recall the numbers.....and you wouldn't believe me if I did say them but I wore out multiple white zig jigs. No marabou; coming untied. I weighed a bunch of 3+lb, 18" whites that just would not hit the 3.5lb mark. 3.2, 3.3, 3.4....over and over...A lot of fun. Most looked like they were packing golf balls in their stomachs. Unfortunately I was solo. I finally hit a 3.52lb fish. Frankly it was fun catching but I'm not happy and still chasing the 25lb striper.

Overall I enjoy any species but walleye, big gills, whites, and crappie has been what I have chased in Mo. as a kid. Although I grew up in Golden I had never fished Beaver lake but I know Striper was a likely an easier target for "temperate bass". I've caught a bunch of big whites as a kid but never in the Arkansas portion of TRL so I set out focus on Striper on Beaver as my check mark. In the process of throwing early spring top water, for Striper near Indian Creek I have caught 3 small mouth in rough master angler size. These are all May time period big top water fish caught on the obvious main lake points in the dam area chasing swirling striper. To be fair this was 100% accidental all 3 times and in all 3 cases the fish were essentially 3.5lbs. I worried about this group early on. I don't like fishing for bass, river bass are fun but a 10" is as good as a 3.5 lber for me. I will say...hindsight tells me this would be hard if I didn't luck into it like I did and that smallmouth in the right location is probably much easier than the other 2 options. Original thread here:

As a challenge I have focused on this specifically for several years and thought I would break down how things have gone, research into locations and how things should go(at least according to my plan). To date I have caught fish qualifying for 4 Arkansas master angler awards which also qualifies me for the coin. I also have 2 additional fish that I did not submit that would duplicate other fish. The first category I targeted and was successful was miscellaneous. I had planned for gar or paddlefish but knew there was a good run of spoonies below Beaver dam. FWIW I live about 30 minutes from Beaver dam so it was an easier target. After a couple failures....someone showed me the ways and I quickly connected. I don't fish this category at all. I think Bowfin would be fun to chase but at the time I wasn't nearly as interested in species as I am now. The original catch thread is here:

Tons of people I know talk about going over to OK to catch those Mississippi whites.....

@BilletHead sounds like we are on similar paths. Sawmill canyon is on our list. Of course there is others options but not a lot so that is target #1. Mirror lake scenic byway is the route I had selected out of SLC and eastward along the upper provo. Lots of lakes and best I can tell several stocked with tigers. I had not stumbled upon Star Lake. Will add it to the list. My concern with the Washington/Trail lakes campground area is use and harvest of tigers. I had some numbered bear lake watershed lakes just down the road along the mirror lake scenic byway. They had been stocked in the last year or 2 and show to be bushwhack hikes at best.

As these things do, we gain insight and species goals begin to develop beyond the existing targets. Here is a some additional lifers we would like to luck into: Tiger trout-Utah has stocked lakes all over so its really about finding a good option along the way. Lake trout-Obviously several options in GTNP and YNP. I don't know if it will happen but we are bringing jigs and spinning rods so the ability to fish deeper will be available. Whitefish-Seems that they are everywhere. Maybe we can luck into some. Goldens-I've been scoping some locations in WY. Its likely going to be a time commitment to hike to something so we will see.

At this point, I will take what I can get for recommendations. Believe it or not....this trip is harder to plan. Previous trips have had many limitations on when/what spots could be used for various slams. Outside MT this is wide open and it seems as if there is plenty of acceptable options outside the already discussed limitations. Here is my first swag at leg 1. I figure it would take us to maybe early mid-day 2 to cover this water and probably get us 3/4 of the way to UT Cuttslam the chief goal here is to get out east for the Colorado CT but check others along the way. Target 1 would be the Upper Provo river for Bonneville CT. Seems several miles of stream parallel to the road. Lots of campgrounds. There is also a bunch of lakes in the area...if we wanted to explore something still waterish. Target 2 would be Bear River for Bear River CT. This is right where the path juts off due east. Again great access area and lots of camping. Mostly likely the "STOP" for night 1. May or may not fish this area on day 1. Target 3 would be the East fork of the Blacks fork for Colorado CT. The jut east is all dirt/gravel road so no idea what we will get into but again lots of options for camping/lakes, ect. From here we have 2 roughly equidistant choices - North into WY and onto the next slams(we could theoretically pick up Colorado CT in WY on the blacks fork vs. la barge creek) A bit north(maybe have a shot at blacks fork WY and then west to UT for Yellowstone CT.

In MT it looks like Elk lake has nice west slopes, grayling, lake trout....no idea how easy or not but its fairly close to where we are going to be. In WY Tri-basin is a good base spot. Like you said Salt River/Creek are both "on our way". The map shows a bunch of blue lines. I have no doubt we can simply catch small natives in a lot of spots. We are obviously going to be right in the midst of Yellowstone/Tetons so there's always options there too. The nice things is that this trip doesn't have multiple 5-8hr drives to get from spot to spot like previous trips. Lots of ability to go a couple hours and fish. Lots of people say they do the Cutt slams in 1-2 days so we feel like we have more time to explore and less windshield time. We just don't want to miss out on something cool if we can keep from it. Maybe even catch some other species....whitefish.

Here is a rough outline: Day 1-land in SLC mid-day. Per the UT cutt-slam map....we should be able to find Bonneville close by-No specific stream picked yet. Would be nice to get Colorado Cutts too but nothing specific picked out yet either. Day 2-3 maybe shuffled around a bit to maximize daylight fishing but we have to make a trek out to west Utah to get Yellowstone Cutts(limited options) and then circle back to probably get bear river cutts going North out of UT toward WY. WY - We are probably headed to Tri-basin divide to fish la barge creek for our Colorado Cutt...to get there we will go over multiple bear river cutt spots. Snake River and Yellowstone have pretty prolific areas to catch. Nothing at this point set in stone. UT/WY is about the state specific slams and dragging along species for the Western Native. MT is a bit different. They don't recognize fishing challenges so for the Western Native we limited to very specific spots(stocked locations). Right now we have targets Elk Lake which is North of Red Rock lake. I would say generally western part of WY, Northern UT, and very limited MT. Again we haven't really selected a specific stream/spot in more than about 2 or 3 spots.

Starting to plan out my July trip. Planning on Utah/Wyoming/just a touch of Montana. Is there any place/stream/location that is a must hit or things we absolutely shouldn't miss? Obviously going to do the Utah/Wyoming cutt-slams and jumping across into Montana to fish one or 2 spots. We should have plenty of time vs. previous trips.

I passed up chasing a shad bite below the dam and found some of those top water stripers. Nothing big but ended up catching 7 total. Pretty good day. Had one good follow on the fly rod too.

I'm starting to plan my next moves for states to check off and ND/SD. One spot that consistently comes up for trout is Garrison Dam tailrace but there is not a lot of details. Is this a reasonable spot for Trout? ND says they stock but all the details show catfish, walleye not trout. Is this even a place one could bank fish and stand a chance? I am certain its water level dependent. Just trying to get some general information.