West Trip 2009

Right now, as I mentioned in a previous post, I'm in the early planning stages of a possible West Trip 2009. The idea this year is to try and hit the famed Salmonfly hatch somewhere in the Rockies, and if all goes well, several somewheres. Early June it will be in Colorado, specifically the Gunnison and Colorado rivers. I'm hoping to fish Colorado for at least a week or two and maybe longer before heading north towards Yellowstone and Montana. Up there, I'm hoping to fish YNP and also the Madison outside the park and perhaps the Yellowstone. Other rivers that are under consideration to fish on this trip include the Green and Bighorn.

As I said, I'm currently searching for any useful information for this trip. I've done a lot of research online and will continue to do more. However the main problem for me is money so this trip needs to be cheap. What I want to know is, what campgrounds do you recommend staying at while fishing the Yampa in Colorado, the Green in Utah, and the Madison and Bighorn rivers in Montana? Any other advice would be appreciated and if you would be willing to answer some other questions that would be great. Feel free to reply here or you can email me.

The biggest problem with these trips is that there is so much water and only limited time to fish it all... I'm hoping to get to Yellowstone while the Firehole and Gibbon are still fishing well since it has been a few years since I've got to fish that side of the park. In Colorado, the Taylor, Gunnison, Frying Pan, Roaring Fork, Colorado, and Yampa are all on my list of rivers that I would like to hit. In Yellowstone, I would like to fish the above mentioned waters as well as doing some exploring and probably fish the Yellowstone if it is fishable while I'm there...