Backpacking and Fishing Remote Mountain Lakes of the Tetons!
Have you ever wanted to go on the trip of a lifetime? This is it! Imagine backpacking into some of the remotest parts of the Tetons in Wyoming and trout fishing in mountain lakes all above 8000’. This trip will take you to do that and more! Don’t miss out!
How does it get much better than this? In August, we took 4 guys up to the Bridger-Teton National Forest for 7 days. It was a 18hr drive through the flatlands of Nebraska and a decent amount of Wyoming...but let me tell you, it was worth it!
I’m not sure if they say that everything is bigger in Wyoming but it sure felt like the trout were! We arrived at the Boulder Lake on August 3rd and set up camp in main campground around 7,000’ elevation. The mosquitos were decently thick; but nothing like it could have been if we would have come earlier in the Summer. One important thing about going into the backwoods; it is important to plan the best time to go based on weather, bugs and wildlife. It will definitely make a difference.
The next morning, we packed up our gear and set off down the trail. We followed Boulder Creek for the first couple miles and couldn’t help but fish it a little. Mitchell, one of our participants, caught one of the most beautiful Brookies that I’ve ever seen on the first hole we stopped at.
While we could have stayed there much of the day, we knew we had to keep going. We packed up our poles and moved another mile down the creek to a bridge crossing the creek. Here we couldn’t help but fish more. While we didn’t catch anything, we lost multiple flies and lures. Funny how that goes! That was ok because we came prepared for that. We had a snack and kept on trekking. Just past that bridge, the climb was on, away from everything and we climbed about 1700’ to a lake that sits around 8,665’. For the next 4 days, it was just us, the mountains, and trout. We set up camp and marched around to the backside of the lake where the creek was flowing into the lake. We fished until dusk and caught several rainbows and browns. They were beautiful and native; but little did we know that they were just the beginning.
The logs and debris on the backside of the lake were actually an inlet flowing into the lake.
The next morning we packed up, fished a little and off we went. We fished at 3 other lakes before settling down at 9,750’ in a valley alongside a small lake. By this time, everyone had caught fish at all 7+ lakes we had fished at including Boulder Creek! We cleaned some of the fish we caught and made some delicious trout tacos to pair with our freeze-dried pasta. We went to bed dreaming of what tomorrow would hold and the monsters still waiting further up the mountain.
We woke up Saturday morning to a super foggy morning. We quickly packed up because we were excited to get to the next lake! It was much larger than the others and was at an even higher elevation (9,800’). We arrived there by around 8:30am. I switched over to the fly rod on a section where a creek was flowing into the lake. Everyone caught fish at this stop! I caught the biggest brown (at that moment) that I’ve ever caught on a fly rod. I did not expect to beat that one. We ate a little snack and decided to go down in elevation a little to an outlet where the lake emptied into a stream. The water was higher than most crossings so we switched into our crossing shoes and crossed.
From there we noticed a little pool to the Northeast that looked promising. We dropped our gear, tacked up and headed over. It looked promising yet after about 30min; we hadn’t caught anything. This was a little discouraging, but I reminded people to keep moving and pointed out some areas that would be good to try. I noticed some weather coming in so I stopped by to check on our gear and grab some different tackle. By now, two of the guys were already fishing either corner of the pool so I decided to set up in the middle. I casted out, and since the pool was rather deep, I let my line sink so my hook could go to the bottom and drift with the current. My line moved across my field of vision and just as it began to lift, it stopped! Right there, just stopped. I gave the line a little nudge and my entire pole dropped! Fish On baby! What was it? I couldn’t tell but it was fighting like a catfish. After the longest fight of the trip, I pulled out one of the largest browns I had ever caught in a river! It was beautiful. We took some pictures and let it go quickly. Moments later, we had another one on the line; this time it was a cutthroat. These fish were gorgeous! Finally we decided to cook up one of the trout. I cleaned one of the cutthroats and went over to start a fire. Within 20min we were eating fresh trout tacos on the side of this perfect spot.
Looking up, I noticed the weather starting to get more and more sketchy. We went over and fished some more, pulling out a couple more monsters. Just as we were cleaning up our gear and putting our packs back on; it started raining. Not just any rain, like torrential downpour rain. We ran for cover in the trees to wait out the storm. After about 25min of waiting, it started to let up; so we set off. We wanted to make it to another lake with a huge granite face on the backside which we wanted to climb. Sure enough, we arrived that afternoon still full from all the trout we had eaten a couple hours earlier. We fished, climbed and camped there that night on a little peninsula that jettied out into this lake. We were able to fish throughout the evening and even in the morning catching even more trout!
Sunday morning, we packed up and made it back to the main creek which we planned to follow out. We began making our way back down out of the range, fishing the creek in places that looked promising and ended our day near an area of the creek with a cave on the opposite side. The cave was fun to explore and there were even more fish just outside in the pool.
Finally, Monday morning, we work up and hiked the 5 miles back to the truck before starting our drive back home!
This trip was amazing in multiple ways. We were able to be in some phenomenal and exciting terrain. If you have never been in the Tetons, YOU HAVE TO COME WITH US NEXT TIME! We caught multiple species of trout and saw the stars in ways many never get to!
I hope this article has encouraged you to see the mountains differently and take that extra step to do a trek that you may not always do! I promise, you will not be displeased!
Hope to see you on a trek with us soon!
Your Guide, Drew
