Fishing · agates · the trail
The Yellowstone at Terry
The Yellowstone runs along the edge of town on its way to the Missouri. Bring a rod, a boat, or just good boots for the gravel bars.
Photo: Bureau of Land Management
Fishing
Warm-water fishing on the lower Yellowstone
Down here the Yellowstone is a big, braided prairie river, and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks counts it among the region’s warm-water fisheries. Expect walleye and sauger, catfish in the slower water, and the odd surprise.
You’ll need a Montana fishing licence; buy one online from FWP or at the regional office in Miles City. Pallid sturgeon live in this river and are endangered: if you hook one, let it go at once.
FWP fishing regulations
Every spring
Paddlefish season
Each spring, eastern Montana’s rivers draw anglers after paddlefish, a prehistoric-looking fish that’s snagged rather than baited. The Yellowstone’s yellow-tag section runs from the mouth of the Tongue River at Miles City down to Sullivan Creek, about half a mile below the old Calypso bridge west of Terry.
Tags are sold over the counter at FWP regional offices, and the harvest is capped for the whole season, so the rules on which days you can keep fish change from year to year. Check the current regulations before you come.
FWP paddlefish regulationsGetting on the water
Fishing access sites near Terry
Montana FWP runs these three on the Yellowstone. Each has a vault toilet; bring your own water.
Fallon Bridge
Exit 185, then the frontage road northeast about 2 miles
Concrete boat ramp, vault toilet, primitive camping (7 nights, trailers to 20 ft)
FWP site detailsBonfield
Upstream of Terry, reached by county road from Kinsey
Vault toilet, primitive campsite (7 nights). Rough road with a narrow bridge
FWP site detailsKinsey Bridge
Near Kinsey, closer to Miles City
Boat ramp, vault toilet. Day use only, 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
FWP site details
Rockhounding
Hunting moss agates on the gravel bars
Terry calls itself the home of the moss agate, and the Yellowstone’s gravel bars between Custer and Sidney are said to be the best stretch for them. They look dull and grey-brown until the light comes through, and then you see the dark, plant-like “moss” inside.
Late summer and fall, when the water is low, are the usual season. Walk the bars near the fishing access sites, go slowly, and walk toward the sun so it shines through the stones. Montana’s stream access law lets you walk the river below the high-water mark, but stay off private land above it.
Found nothing? Prairie Unique on Logan Avenue sells local agates.
In the making
The Badlands to Badlands trail
A planned trail linking the Terry Badlands with the badlands of Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota.
The route starts at the Terry Pavilion at Four Corners and follows Old Highway 10 east for about ten miles to Fallon, where it crosses the Yellowstone. From there it heads on toward Glendive and, one day, the Maah Daah Hey Trail in North Dakota.
It’s a work in progress, so treat it as a ride or walk along the old highway rather than a finished trail.
Stay close to the river
Fish the evening, walk the gravel bars in the morning, and sleep in town in between.