Yellowstone
National Park Road Trip
Summary
Once a year
my brother Mark and I pick a location to do an “epic” backcountry adventure.
The last couple of years we have headed from Roseville California to the
Bridger Teton Wilderness area. From a trailhead in Bridger we would start our
30 mile hike to the southern border of Yellowstone, base camp at Bridger Lake
and then hike from there fishing the Yellowstone River for Cutthroat Trout. The
experience and fishing have been phenomenal.
This year,
2013, I purchased a Big Tuna from Headwaters Kayak and started thinking about
kayaking and fishing across the Yellowstone Lake, dropping our kayaks and then
heading into the backcountry to fish the portions of the Yellowstone River that
we have not yet gotten to. I brought this idea up to Mark and we thought this
might be a new and exciting trip, something that we haven’t done before.
The problem
was that most places only rent kayaks for the weekend and what they rent isn’t
something I would want to take across the Yellowstone Lake. I was still in the
process of ordering my Big Tuna and talking with Dan on how best to set it up
when I told him of our trip and asked if he would be willing to rent us a Cuda
14 for two weeks. I told Dan the specifics of our trip and he said “sure ill
rent you a Cuda 14”, Dan sat back and thought about it for a bit and said he
would do one better.
Dan
(Headwaters Kayak) decided he would like to Sponsor our trip by lending us a Cuda
14, a Go Pro and a waterproof camera to help document our trip!!!!! How awesome
is that????Huge thanks to Dan and Headwaters for helping us and being a part of
a trip that we are very much looking forward to.
On July 26th
we leave Roseville California heading to Yellowstone for what I hope to be an
awesome kayaking, hiking and fishing trip. I will be documenting this trip via
Go Pro, a camera and daily tracking via the Spot Device.
We will
return to Roseville, on August 4th, 2013 and will share our pictures and
video’s with Dan and the Headwater’s crew and other folks.
Yellowstone,
here we come!
The
Fishing
We have hiked into the southern part
of Yellowstone a couple of years in a row. The hike takes us 30ish miles to get
to a small backcountry lake (Bridger Lake). This spot is the most remote spot
in the lower 48 states. We base camp there and then start hiking out and
fishing the Yellowstone River which is about 20 miles from the lake itself.
This year we are kayaking and fishing across the lake and then will hit the
river and fish sections we have not yet been able to get to from hiking in from
the southern border.
Fishing in Yellowstone National Park
is different than the last trip because we were mostly in the Bridger Teton
Wilderness area. Being in a wilderness area has fewer restrictions than being
in a National Park.
For example:
You cannot fish in the national Park
(Even though we will be deep in the backcountry) with ANY lead based products!!!
(One exception: Lead core line and lead weights greater that 4LBS )
So….
I have been on a mission to get the
lead free gear I need to be able to fish both the river and the lake. Here is
what I have found:
ACME fishing lures are all lead free –
who wudda known…..They include
-
Spoons
o
KO
Wobblers
o
Kamlooper
o
Little
Cleo
o
Phoebe
o
Thunderbolt
o
And
More
-
Kastmasters
– not my favorite but hey they are not made out of lead
Rapala – Most of the divers are balsa
wood and lead free
Eco – Makes Tungsten spinners
-
Dave’s Tangle free steel weight
-
1oz,
2oz and 3oz Steel with a plastic covered weight
And of course, my fly fishing gear is
lead free
And a variety of other spoons and gear
that took me awhile to figure out that they were lead free!!!!! A lot of
research and extra money to make sure I was lead free!!! Well, I did cheat a
little. I am using a couple of dipsy divers as well.
-
Trolling
rig with 10lb test
-
Ultra
light 6’6’’ pole for light casting and river use
- Fly pole with both sinking and
floating line
Here is what I am after!!
The Big Tuna – or as my wife now calls
it – “The Big Kahuna Tuna”
- I will post an updated pic soon
This
kayak is bad ass!!!!
- Fish
Finder - Went with a Lowrance 4 Elite
o
With Dan’s help we installed the fish finder
(Dan took pics if you want to know how it was installed – came out very clean)
o
Battery – I went with a 10amp/hr batt and ran
the cables to a black pak that I purchased from Dan
o
See how I installed the battery
- Dan
Installed a pulley anchor system
- Dan
Added Gear Tracks on the left and right side of the boat for a trolling mount
and the mount for the fish finder
- Yak
Attack Black Pak – again, purchased from Dan
The Details
The
drive is going to take us approximately 14hrs (881 Miles). We will start
driving as early as possible on July the 25th and arrive sometime on
July the 26th. When we arrive we have to stop at the ranger station,
check in, get our boats inspected, get our boat permits, watch a safety video
and get our fishing permits. We will launch out boats from Sedge Bay and start
the kayaking portion of our trip sometime late afternoon on the 26th.
From
Sedge Bay (5K4)
- 7/26/2013
Kayak and FISH!!!!!! to 5E9
- 7/27/2013
Kayak and Fish to 5E2
- 7/28/2013
Stay and Fish from the kayaks @ the southern arm 5E2
- 7/29/2013
Beach the kayaks and hike to 6C2 fishing the river along the way
- 7/30/2013
camp at 6D1 fishing all the way
- 7/31/2013
continue fishing the river and make our way back to either 6D1 or 6C2 – we are
going to try and make is as far south as we can to fish the river and be able
to make it back. We have made it as far as 6Y2 ish when we have hiked in from
the south in prior years
- 8/1/2013
Make it back to our kayaks
- 8/2/2013
fishing along the way, make it to 5E9
- 8/3/2013
fish our back to the starting point.
- Start
driving whenever we get to the vehicle
Map(s)
Links
That looks amazing!
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