Wyoming

Fishing in Wyoming

If you have a plan to spend this vacation doing fishing in Wyoming, let me congratulate you, because it is the perfect plan, as the state is full of lakes, reservoirs, streams and rivers, which present limitless opportunities for an angler, may it be cutthroats or catfish! And you need not worry about the regulations too, as the Wyoming Game and Fish Department has the charge of more than 21000 lakes and around 225 miles of streams, who sees to it that you won’t be missing the fishing triumph, without crossing the rules.

Lodging

Plenty of lodges with pleasing western hospitality are there to welcome you in Wyoming, all of which are preferable to fancy hotels and have something exclusive especially for anglers.

Best Places for Fishing

There are innumerable water bodies in Wyoming, making it difficult to decide which the best is. Yellowstone National Park is world famous for angling. It contains miles of high quality accessible rivers filled with trout. Other best places can be the Rivers Snake, Colorado, Bear or Bonneville, and Yellowstone, the Reservoirs Flaming Gorge, Alcova, Buffalo Bill, Boysen, Deaver, Glendo, Keyhole, and Pathfinder, and Lakes of Beartooth, Fremont, Jackson, Bighorn, Cook, Cameahwait, and so on.

Licenses and Creel Limits

A Wyoming State Fishing License is necessary for fishing anywhere in the state. Yellowstone National Park permit is required for fishing there, no state license is required.

A creel limit is applied for the fishing of trout, catfish, largemouth and smallmouth bass, and walleye. Any fish caught exceeding this limit should be released. This is necessary for the healthy balance of fish population.

Fish Species

Cutthroat trout, the rightly chosen state fish, is the only native fish of the state. They are found in Colorado River, the Snake River, Bonneville (Bear River) and Yellowstone, though they have lost their original range due to over-fishing. You can learn more about cutthroat, through “Cutt-Slam” (link), the educational program. Rainbow trout found almost anywhere, Golden trout found in high lakes in the Wind River Mountains, Brown trout of most cold-water lakes and streams, Brook trout of the small lakes and streams above 10000 feet and in some lower elevated locations, and Lake trout of Flaming Gorge and Buffalo Bill Reservoirs, Bearthooth, Fremont, and Jackson Lakes, are the fish, anglers are passionate for. Other species are Kokanee salmon, Mountain Whitefish, Walleye, sauger, bass, yellow perch, char, pike, catfish, grayling, and so on. So you can see what an enchanting scope there is for fishing in Wyoming!

Peak Season

As such the Wyoming Game and Fish Department has permitted anglers to fish for the whole year, for the whole day. Still April to October is the best season as these are the proliferation months for majority of the fish species.

Unpredictable Weather

A beautiful, sunny morning can turn into a windy, rainy afternoon. There may be a foot-thick snow in July. That’s the peculiar mountain weather. So be prepared for anything and everything when your fishing equipments are concerned, so also clothing and shoes.

Equipments

Cutthroats love dry flies! Size 8 dries like hoppers and Turck Tarantulas are preferred more. Rarely size 6’s and even 4’s are also used. Don’t presume that you will always have to dead drift the fly; a little twitching may bring you give you highly-charged strikes. Wulffs, Stimulators, Trudes, Humpys, Power Ants, Turck Tarantulas and Jay-Dave’s Hopper are common. If your style is streamer, you can try JJ Specials, Muddlers, Woolly Buggers, Zonkers, and Kiwi Muddlers. While for nymphs, Hare’s Ear, Yuk Bugs, Pheasant Tails, and Prince’s, with or without bead heads, work well.

Regarding rods and lines, Wyoming has such vast opportunities of fishing that there is a time and a place appropriate for just any type of rod and reel combination, ranging from 7-weight to 0-weights. For the Snake River 5-weight 6-weight rod-reel-lines are recommended as you will face a number of situations. For one who is a newbie or has an intermediate level of skill, 6-weight is advisable. And if you have skills that are good, you can comfortably carry on with a 5-weight mostly.

For driftboat fishing and wading, longer rods of 9’ are perfect, majority of times. The shortest should be minimum 8 to 8 ½ ‘ can be used, as longer rods give more strength and are good for mending.

Keep one thing in mind that 3 to 4-weight rods and lines will do in the morning calm conditions, so you can bring them if you want, but in the afternoon when wind starts kicking up you will better use heavier of them.

So, aren’t you now excited about fishing in Wyoming?