A Yellowstone Cutthroat Story:
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While attempting the Wyoming Cutt Slam, I knew the Yellowstone Cutthroat was going to be a double whammy by qualifying my entry for the Cutt Slam but also contributing to the WNTC. As a YouTuber though I wanted to center my focus on the Slam as a "series" entirely separate from my WNTC adventure. While departing from Dubois early and forcing our way to our next camping spot at the Grays River, this became my next mission. A forest fire gave us an extra half day to fish the mainstem of the Grays but only my uncle Scott was fortunate to land some YCT.
I went to sleep that night a little dismayed that I went an entire day without catching a fish but I needed to redirect my focus to the next day. Afterall, I had only peeked at the river in contrast to what was upstream. We woke up on the first morning of our last full day and drove up the river. The road that follows the Grays is a well maintained dirt road that can take the majority of vehicles. The river was 2.5x larger than I expected. It's funny how we study maps for months on end and make sense of the real deal when we finally hit our target spots. Keep in mind it was the 2nd of September and the water seemed a little low but make no mistake, there are no concerns from my perspective regarding how much water may actually be flowing at all times. I see choppy runs with little to no pools. Tall bank grass boarders the river along with shrubby bushes. There are little to no people in sight for miles.
I am armed with a 5wt western fly rod and I started with streamers. I threw my fly in every spot that made sense but started to grow wary that we were going to work hard for our catches after hours with no strikes. The morning up until brunch consisted of hopping in the car, find a "fishy" looking spot, cast for 10-15 minutes and then drive up the road to the next spot. Scott was again fortunate to wipe off the skunk as we found what looked like a lake in the middle of the river. A deep sandy run fostered a few cutts for him but the event was short lived. Back to the car and up the road we go!
A few miles up the road, I see a tributary coming into the mainstem. This is a perfect spot for a tenkara rod I think to myself. Scott strikes me as a bigger river guy so I take the opportunity to pull out my DRAGONtail Ragnarok and communicate with him that I am instead going to run up the creek while he fishes the same pattern we have been grinding all morning. About 30 yards up the creek, I found a nice switchback bank that looked perfect for a trout. I still have the exact pheasant tail kebari that landed my YCT from the Wind River and lazily opted to keep that on rather than match a hatch. I believe I went four casts with zero strikes but refused to believe a fish would not be hiding before me. On the fifth cast, I set the hook on the smallest Snake River Cutt of the trip. Holding a net that is clearly overkill for a 6" fish, I scoop up the trout and eagerly announce my first fish on camera of the day. The next 30 minutes or so would be spent exploring the tributary creek and landing four or so trout; all YCT before making my way back to the car to meet back with Scott.
Relieved to end the skunk I mentioned to Scott that any tributaries I see would be the ideal route for me if we see them. Only a few miles to our next spot, I found a moderate sized tributary that created a nice confluence with the mainstem. I was grinning as I saw this and Scott opted to join me for this one. We would spend half of our day on this creek landing YCT one after another. The production was so fast, I stood on the left side, while he stood on the right. The creek would canyon a few time on us but we were fixated on the trout. We probably landed 50 fish before hiking our way out. All were roughly 7" on average. hardly boast worthy. The creek itself though was a gorgeous adaptation of Wyoming. It resembled creeks I would see from home but with a little more freestone style to it. We saw occasional sculpin in the waters and knew we were in a healthy system.
It's rare that I get bored of fishing but I truly did want something with some size quality so as we approached the later afternoon, we decided to hustle to the lower reaches of the mainstem which had the deepest pocket we could fish. Scott is not a tenkara guy; he was switching between a 3wt and a 5wt through the day and this spot was certainly 5wt worthy. Within minutes he was pulling in fish back to back. I asked him what he was using and it was a size 20 midge. I threw literally everything but a midge dry and they seemed very disinterested unless it was basically a gnat on the top water. I still had my Ragnarok with me so I sucked up the moment and threw the small fly I could to match Scott. Suddenly I was getting take after take but my fly was too small to hookset. Who would have thought this was going to be my new problem I think to myself while letting out a small chuckle. With slow motion hooksets, I was able to coax some fish in the next marking the Grays River the largest river I have ever fished with a tenkara rod. I was able to land an admirable 13" YCT with fine spots but that was the end of a trip for Skiddy.
To be fair, I don't anticipate I will share many locations to this detail from my WNTC adventures at least on a public thread but the Grays River is mighty enough to handle the pressure and Wyoming seems to have done a great job managing the SRCT/YCT in the western parts of the state. I thought it was entirely possible to catch different trout species but every single fish caught on that trip from me was a cutthroat. We probably landed 70 fish in that entire three day camping trip. My turn in catch for the YCT will still be my catch from the Wind River but 2024 was a special year for me as I had come to learn that I hooked and landed Yellowstone Cutts from five different locations in three states, giving me some wiggle room to adjust my WNTC submissions if needed. The next fish on my radar will be the Westslope cutthroat from Montana.
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