Yellowstone Park Fly Fishing Info

Yellowstone Park attracts numerous anglers who love to fish those small backcountry streams, rivers and lakes while enjoying the spectacular attractions of the world’s most popular national park.

Overview of Location

Yellowstone National Park is an impressive park, with scenery that rivals anyplace on Earth, thermal features that attract millions of visitors each year, and a fabulous location to get in some incredible fishing.

Type of waterways

In Yellowstone’s millions of acres, anglers find more than 800 miles of rivers and 175 lakes, not to mention miles and miles of backcountry streams, that provide excellent fishing opportunities. Whether boating the lakes, wading the streams or fishing from shore on a wide river, you’ll discover premiere fishing in Yellowstone.

Fishing seasons

Fishing season starts in Yellowstone usually on the last weekend in May, on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. It extends through the first Sunday in the month of November. Fall is said to be the best time for fishing in Yellowstone, although you will find that early in the season through to June is also ideal.

Most common fish species

Within Yellowstone, you’ll catch many trout, including cutthroat, brown, lake, brook and western. Other native sport fish are the Arctic grayling and the mountain whitefish. Non-native species you’ll catch are the rainbow and cutthroat-rainbow hybrid and the lake chub.

Popular fishing areas in Yellowstone

Yellowstone Lake is a fisherman’s paradise, with plenty of cutthroat trout ranging from 15 to 17 inches. Most of the trout here feed near the shore.

Shoshone Lake is the second largest lake in Yellowstone and boasts big lake and brown trout as well as brook and cutthroat.

Lewis Lake is another popular fishing spot to catch some brown, lake and brook trout.

Firehole River is known for its consistent dry fly fishing, although the fish may be smaller than you’d like.

The Madison River, its headwaters within Yellowstone, is easy to wade and provides exceptional fishing through the year.

In the southeast corner of the park, the Yellowstone River is known for its extra-large cutthroats.

There are a number of other lakes that can be accessed by taking a short hike. These, in the northeast corner of Yellowstone, include Wolf Lake, Heart Lake and Trout Lake.

(Each area in Yellowstone Park has specific fishing regulations and you should become familiar with them before fishing the area. Some places are closed to public. The park management provides details in a downloadable Fishing Regulations Handbook on the National Park Service website.)

Fishing guides can help you find the best fishing spots, and with their know-how, can assist you in getting that trophy catch and making this your best fishing experience ever.