SHERIDAN — Joey’s Fly Fishing Foundation founder and owner Joey Puettman recorded 25 years of field notes in a book intended as an all-inclusive guide for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department Cutt-Slam Challenge.
Starting soon, anglers or those looking for the perfect gift for their angler friends and family may purchase “Joey’s Wyoming Cutt-Slam Challenge: A Guide to Wyoming’s Native Cutthroat Ranges,” which provides maps, stream access, camping and regional guide advice from the voice of children involved with Puettman’s foundation, and people who help guide them.
WGFD Cutt-Slam Challenge is a free challenge set by the department for anglers to catch and release Wyoming’s four Cutthroat sub-species in their native range in Wyoming. Anglers must take a clear photo of each fish and label it with the date and location, complete an application and submit it and the pictures to WGFD via email, online or through the mail.
After receiving multiple random calls from individuals seeking help with the Cutt-Slam, finding Puettman’s foundation website following a simple Google search, Puettman decided it was time to put literal field notes all in one place to serve as a guide for all who wanted to complete the challenge.
Being that his experience with the Cutt-Slam most often happens with children and mentors through his foundation, Puettman combined his industry experience, youth stories and Wyoming Game and Fish Department expertise to compile the all-encompassing guide to completing the Wyoming Cutt-Slam Challenge.
“Why I wanted to do this is it gives people six months to get ready to go,” Puettman said. “It’s a pilgrimage. It’s quite the adventure. You’re going to go through the whole state of Wyoming. I can’t personally be your fly-fishing guide and take you, but you can buy the book and I can ride along with you through word.”
Foundation executive assistant Alex Phelps compiled all the notes from Puettman’s years of experience and extensive research, in addition to editing notes from lead Chelsea Coli and Mike Glenn. Puettman first told Coli of the idea while on a Cutt-Slam in 2017.
“His excitement is contagious and he’s constantly coming up with ideas and ways to do things better,” Coli said. “At the beginning of all of this I felt like my job was to help organize his initial vision.”
Coli said she believes the book will help bring anglers and tourists into Wyoming and help get natives to explore other parts of the state.
“I think Joey’s Fly Fishing Foundation is a big name in Sheridan, but I think that working with Wyoming Game and Fish, and travel and tourism and all these other entities will open more doors for the foundation,” Coli said. “I think the book will do the same thing — it’ll make the Joey’s name cross borders. I think all of this will bring a lot of opportunities to Joey’s.”
Puettman’s biggest vision for the book — which Coli said was “out of his realm” and commended him for his vigor and collaboration with several entities — is to bring people together, share his love of fishing and help those less fortunate.
“As you dive in, really think about not just catching a fish or receiving a certificate, but the whole adventure of grabbing a loved one, getting outdoors and enjoying nature together,” Phelps writes in her forward. “Really, slow down and feel it. That experience for you is what this book is all about.”
The book starts with goal setting and expectations, followed by preparation plans and a literal checklist of items needed to master the challenge. Weaved into the more than 150-page guide are details on each fish of the Cutt-Slam — Bonneville, Colorado River, Snake River and Yellowstone cutthroat trouts, in addition to “stories from our Cutt-Slam survivors and a few “fish tales,” Chapter 5 promises.
The book will be available via Amazon, Apple and the foundation website, and will be available at local retailers in Sheridan soon. Puettman said he’s finalizing plans to carry the book in as many of Sportsman’s Warehouse’s 112 stores nationwide.
“The Cutt-Slam is one of our most popular fishing programs that we have and the program continues to grow,” WGFD Public Outreach Specialist Sara DiRienzo said. “We broke a record last year with about 144 anglers completing the challenge. The more people know about the Cutt-Slam, I imagine the more people who will participate and the more people who will grow to appreciate the native species that we have in the state, which is really the ultimate goal of the program.
“It was started because we wanted to teach people more about the native cutthroat trout,” she said.
Staying true to the foundation’s mission, 100% of the proceeds from the book filter directly back into the foundation to offset program fees for participating children.
Ashleigh Snoozy joined The Sheridan Press in October 2016 as a reporter before moving into the managing editor position in November 2018. She is a native of Colorado and graduated from Biola University in Los Angeles.
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