Every once in a while an opportunity comes along you have to take. I put this experience right up there with fly fishing in Patagonia. This part of the world is the most remote in the lower 48. The Teton Wilderness is also the largest designated wilderness area in the lower 48.
We met at the Colter Bay campground Monday night and set out Tuesday morning to the trail head, where we met our fishing guide and outfitter.
I was on Reonda, Frisch was on Snickers, Jerry was on Sid and Sage was on Hickory. I nicknamed my horse Shanaynay and it stuck, even the cowboys started calling her by her nick name. Our guide Erik works for the Feathered Hook in Afton and the outfitter we went in with is called Yellowstone Outfitters.
At the base camp they weighed and loaded our gear onto the mules.
Then we hit the trail on a 24 mile journey that would take us 8.5 hours.
We worked our way up to the Two Oceans area. A creek flows into a cliff and it splits into two creeks. One is called the Pacific and the other is the Atlantic. This is a very unique spot as one creek flows to the Columbia (Pacific) and the other one flows to the Mississippi (Atlantic). Wow!
The scenery was un-real.
In this shot, a Grizzly Bear was eating grass out in the meadow. Hard to make out in the photo but it was thrilling to see. In all we saw deer, elk, moose, bald eagles, golden eagles, cranes, frogs, pelicans, hawks, big horn sheep, wolf tracks, lots of mosquitos and of course big Yellowstone Cutty's!
I won't lie though.... The horse ride in was tough. It seemed to never end and I was very sore to say the least.
Once you get to camp though it all melts away and you become instantly relaxed and at ease.
A shot of the kitchen and camp fire area.
There were several folks in camp. In our party was Ryan, Jerry, Sage, Erik (our guide) and myself. In camp there was a guy from Tennessee and another from France. Lyn is the Owner of Yellowstone Outfitters and he had his Grandson Brandon running camp with him along with a tough young cowboy named Scotty. Suzy was the cook and a dam good one at that.
Speaking of the food.... We enjoyed pork roast/potatoes one night, T-bone steaks the second night and meatloaf on the third night.
This is the Atlantic Creek where we did most of our fishing.
Everyone relaxing after a long day.
Typical evening around the fire...
View from camp.
Making sandwiches for our first day on the river.
First fish was a beauty!
More shots from the trail.
Right up near the pass
The mules were tough!
So was my horse!
All smiles
Nice water fall.
This is a view of the mountain called Hawk's Rest.
Frisch with his biggest.
These are all lake dwellers who are in the river system to spawn. They were all 19-23 inches. Literally no small fish.
You had to work to get them in! Sometimes it would require a chase down stream to get them to the net.
Hoisting one up.
Fish after fish just like this one.
Awe!
We were giving Sage a hard time because he holds his fish like a burrito...
There you go.
Jerry in spawning mood with the fish.
Frisch and I
Jerry battles one down stream.
Success!
Fish of a lifetime for me! We were all eating lunch over looking the river. We spotted this guy and I started casting to him. Sure enough I hooked him and I jumped off the bank to chase him. I knew he was special and I told myself I would chase him as long as it took. I finally got him in way down stream and I couldn't believe my eyes.
I will never forget this guy...
Fished water like this all day.
Lyn came down for a few fish.
Jerry with a hog!
Frisch with a hog of his own.
At the end of the day this was the best two days of fishing I have ever had. I come to that valuation after the sheer number of fish over 20" in one session. I am so glad I got to do this and I will think of it often down the road.
Let's go back! Who's coming with me?
Giles-
