Fly Fishing the Grayling Creek - Fly Fishing Yellowstone National Park

**Riffle, pool:** This is typical for Grayling
Creek. There are a few runs.

You will usually have the creek to
yourself. Grayling is not fished by
many anglers. They pass it up for
other destinations.

Grayling Creek is a small, medium gradient stream located in the Northwestern Corner of Yellowstone National Park. It’s formed in the Gallatin Range of mountians. The stream flows into Hebgen Lake not far north of West Yellowstone Montana. The stream is overlooked by most anglers.

Grayling Creek has everything from rapids to meadow sections but most of the stream is of moderate declinations that consists of runs and riffles. Outside bend with undercut banks and small pools are good places to catch its numerous cutbows. They cutbows average from 6 to 12 inches in size and are a lot of fun to catch. We have been able to catch over thirty or forty trout in just three or four hours of fishing on this stream.

Access:
U. S. Highway #191 follows along Grayling Creek for several miles. There are several places you can fish the stream from the highway just from pulling off the road. The upper section of Grayling Creek can be accessed about eighteen miles north of West Yellowstone on Highway # 191. There’s a pullout area there where you can park and fish up or down the creek.

The Grayling Creek Bridge on #191 is another access point. It’s just over ten miles from West Yellowstone. The stream follows the road and crosses it between the bridge and the upper parking area just mentioned. It’s about seven miles upstream of the bridge. You can find other areas you can park and access the stream along highway #191. Of course there’s also plenty of areas that’s well off the highway you can hike into and fish. Most of the lower area of the stream is a good distance from the highway. The stream flows outside of the park and onto private property in its lower section.

Comments:
Grayling Creek is a good stopping off place if the Gallatin River is crowded. The fish are generally small but usually eager and very aggressive. For some reason you wouldn’t think would be the case, there seems to be an unusual amount of wildlife along this stream even though much of it is close to a fairly busy highway. We have spotted elk, deer, moose and even wolves along this stream.