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The State Fish Photography by Russell Graves

In the deep backcountry of Wyoming’s Shoshone National Forest—America’s first federally designated national forest—the journey is anything but easy. This is not your typical drive-up hotspotting found just to the west in adjacent Yellowstone National Park. At 2.4 million acres, the best water here requires a daylong commitment, but the payoff is substantial: large numbers of some of the most genetically pure strains of cutthroat trout found anywhere.
Encompassed within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosytem, the Shoshone is part of an unbroken expanse of federally protected, intact wildlands that spans some 20 million acres. These are the same fish Jim Bridger would have encountered, and plenty of them. Catching 20 to 30 fish per day on a 4-weight is common, leaving little wonder why this natural gem is Wyoming’s official state fish.

Photographer Russell Graves fished for native Shoshone cutthroat with Van Beacham of Solitary Angler, which is based in Taos, New Mexico. For more information on fly fishing in Wyoming, New Mexico, and Colorado, visit www.thesolitaryangler.com.

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Gray's Sporting Journal MMN
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Photography by Russell Graves

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