Ut/Wy/Mt

[Devan S.]

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. 

[Biglerma]

The Madison river and Gallatin river in Montana are both iconic.   The Gallatin was in a river runs through it and the Madison is just an amazing fishery.    Eaton's outfitters out of Ennis MT is who I recommend for the Madison.  Fished with em probably 10 times.  You fish out of drift boats, very enjoyable experience.   

[Quillback]

No advice from me, but looking forward to hearing how your latest adventure goes.

[BilletHead]

             I have some places on all three states. Includes two streams in Montana just north of the park for your jumping into Montana.  

I assume you have your cut locations picked out for those states?

 

[Al Agnew]

It would be interesting to see what your plans are exactly; that way we'd know what part of Montana would be easiest to reach from where you are in the other states, and perhaps what you could do in one state that would be different from what you find in another.  

If interested in Yellowstone cutthroats as part of your cut-slam, I can give you some can't miss options.

[kjackson]

I'd offer the Clark Fork above Missoula and Mussigbrod lake for grayling.

[dpitt]

WY,  North Platte - Grey Reef and North Platte- Miracle Mile, special place, big fish,  you use 3x on the mile.    Casper/Alcova  area of Wyoming.

[Devan S.]

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. 

[BilletHead]

AH yes Devin,

   Montana says that the native challenge is too much like a derby and don't want the state to go that way. Yes very specific stocked lakes for the native challenge. It sucks so can't help you there but can give you places for just catching the Yellowstone and then way north for the west slope. 

   We crossed the decide on the forest service road to fish upper la barge for the Colorado River cutt. Pretty drive across the pass. Expect some crappy roads, lots of sheep and sheepherders with their camps. We blanked on la Barge but that was in 2010 just after they poisoned that creek to kill non-native fish then restocked it. I will be interested on how it's recovered and how you do there. We found another place cottonwood Creek north west of Pinedale. I will have Pat help me find my maps for better information. If you go for your Bonneville in salt Creek not far from there is salt river. It was a very fun place for the snake river fish. There is a forest camping in that area too. One improved and lots of open camping in other places. Like I said will help you anyway we can. 

[Devan S.]

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.