Angling in Yellowstone National Park is a major reason many visitors come to the park each year and since it was created in 1872, the park has drawn anglers from around the world to fish its waters. In 2006, over 50,000 park fishing permits were issued to visitors.[1
Angling in Yellowstone National Park is a major reason many visitors come to the park each year and since it was created in 1872, the park has drawn anglers from around the world to fish its waters. In 2006, over 50,000 park fishing permits were issued to visitors.[1] The park contains hundreds of miles of accessible, high-quality trout rivers containing wild trout populations—over 200 creeks, streams and rivers are fishable. There are 45 fishable lakes and several large lakes are easily accessible to visitors.[1] Additionally, the park's remote sections provide anglers ample opportunity to visit rivers, streams, creeks and lakes that receive little angling pressure. With the exception of one specially designated drainage, all the park's waters are restricted to artificial lures and fly fishing. The Madison, Firehole and a section of the Gibbon rivers are restricted to fly fishing only.
Anglers visiting the park to fish will encounter cutthroat, rainbow, brown, brook and lake trout, mountain whitefish and arctic grayling. The park's fishing season runs from the Saturday in May associated with Memorial Day to the first Sunday in November each year. The National Park Service regulates angling in the park and classifies different fish available to the angler as either Native or Non-Native species. Any native species—cutthroat trout, grayling and whitefish—caught must be immediately released unharmed. Non-natives—rainbow, brown, brook and lake trout have different bag limits depending on the waters fished. Some non-natives are also subject to catch and release regulations and all lake trout caught in Yellowstone Lake or river must be killed. All hooks used in the park must be barbless or have their barbs pinched down. Many specific waters or sections of waters are closed either permanently for either safety reasons, wildlife management or to protect thermal features. The National Park Service may also enact emergency closures and restrictions because of low water, high temperatures or fires.
Anglers should always be familiar with the most current regulations, restrictions and closures. A Yellowstone National Park fishing permit is required to fish in the park. State licenses are not required.[2]
Angling supplies are available in the park's concession stores and in the towns associated with major entrances to the park—West Yellowstone, Montana; Gardiner, Montana; Jackson, Wyoming; Cody, Wyoming and Cooke City, Montana
History
Trout have been planted in nearly all streams in the park except those that are tributary to Yellowstone River, and the experiment has been so successful that there are now but few places in this country where better sport can be had by the fisherman...In order that it may never be necessary to make any restrictions it is strongly urged that a small fish hatchery be established here. If this can be done the streams can be kept so full of trout that it will be impossible for the tourists to deplete them.Probably the most dramatic example of this is the Firehole River above Firehole Falls. When the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition camped on the shores of the upper Firehole in the fall of 1870, the river was barren of trout. The same was true of the Gibbon River and Gibbon Falls. Today, the upper Firehole is one of the premier angling destinations in North America. One of the earliest accounts of trout fishing in the park is from Mary Trowbridge Townsend's 1897 article in Outing Magazine A Woman's Trout Fishing in Yellowstone Park in which she talks about catching the Von Behr trout in the Fire Hole [sic] river.
— Captain John Pitcher, Acting Superintendent, 1901, [7]
Long dashes down stream taxed my unsteady footing; the sharp click and whirr of the reel resounded in desperate efforts to hold him somewhat in check; another headlong dash, then a vicious bulldog shake of the head as he sawed back and forth across the rocks. Every wile inherited from generations of wily ancestors was tried until, in a moment of exhaustion, the net was slipped under him. Wading ashore with my prize, I had barely time to notice his size—a good four-pounder, and unusual markings, large yellow spots encircled by black, with great brilliancy of iridescent color—when back he flopped into the water and was gone. However, I took afterward several of the same variety, known in the Park as the Von Baer [sic] trout, and which I have since found to be the Salmo fario, the veritable trout of Izaak WaltonIn the early days of government stocking operations all types of attempts were made to introduce desirable species for the angler. In the case of Yellowstone, both landlocked atlantic salmon and largemouth bass were introduced but never established themselves in the park.[5] Yellow perch were illegally introduced, established themselves in a few lakes and were later poisoned out. By the early 20th Century, a number of hatcheries were established in the park by the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries. These hatcheries not only produced stocks for the park, but also took advantage of the great spawning stock of Cutthroat trout to supply eggs to hatcheries around the U.S. Between 1901 and 1953, 818 million trout eggs were exported from the park to hatcheries throughout the U.S.[7]
— Mary Towbridge Townsend, 1897, Outing Magazine, .[8]
The hatcheries and stocking operations had both positive and negative impacts on the quality of angling in Yellowstone National Park in the first half of the 20th Century. Many native populations were displaced by non-natives, but there was quality brown and rainbow trout fishing in the Firehole, Madison and Gibbon river drainages. Stocking and hatchery operations had had an overall negative impact on the Yellowstone cutthroat and Westslope cutthroat populations and in 1953 the National Park Service began closing the hatcheries and stopping stocking operations. The last fish stocked for the benefit of anglers was in 1955 after some 310 million fish had been released in park waters since 1889.[7][9]
The regulation of anglers in the park also evolved significantly since the park's creation. Original angling was a subsistence affair to fill a camp's larder and feed visitors to the park. Although fishing methods were limited to hook and line early in the park's history, there were no limits. In the 1920s, a daily limit of 20 fish was set. This was reduced to 10, then 5 and then 3 in 1954. Limits have fluctuated based on waters and species ever since then. Until 1969, bait could be used in most waters. In 1950, the Madison and Firehole rivers were designated as "Fly Fishing Only." The lower Gibbon river was given that designation in 1968. In 1970, regulation turned to minimum size limits for cutthroat trout and there began an era where the emphasis of regulation became the protection of native species. Angling permits were free in the park until 1994 when a $10 fee was charged for a 7 day permit.[9][10]
The Outfitters and Writers
In 1936 and 1937 a British businessman and fly fisherman who emigrated to New York in 1930 by the name of Howard Back visited the park and compiled the first real assessment of the various waters and what the fly fisherman could expect from them. In his The Waters of the Yellowstone with Rod and Fly (1938), Back described his fishing experiences on what he called the Four Rivers which include the Madison, Firehole and Gibbon rivers, as well as the Yellowstone river. Prior to Back's work, the only available serious reference for anglers was a 1921 Bureau of Fisheries publication entitled: The Fishes of the Yellowstone National Park—With Description of Park Waters and Notes on Fishing, a publication that Back encouraged all prospective anglers visiting Yellowstone to read,[11][12] In 1938, at the same time Back was publishing his work, Dan Bailey, another eastern angler was opening Dan Bailey's fly shop in Livingston, Montana 55 miles (89 km) north of the Gardiner park entrance. Although Dan Bailey guided and serviced fly fisherman throughout South Central Montana, much of his business was guiding and outfitting fishermen in Yellowstone National Park. Dan Bailey's Fly Shop is still in business today servicing anglers visiting Yellowstone.
Although West Yellowstone had become the major tourist entrance to the park since the Oregon Short Line began operations in 1907, the establishment of serious fly fishing outfitters in West Yellowstone didn't occur until the mid-1930s when Don Martinez, the fly tier who popularized the woolly worm opened a seasonal, one-room fly shop. In 1947, a fly fisherman and tier who worked for Martinez, Pat Barnes opened a fulltime fly shop, which today is Bob Jacklin's Fly Shop on the corner of Yellowstone and Canyon streets.[13] The real landmark came in 1952 when a young man from Manhattan, Montana by the name of Bud Lilly opened Bud Lilly's Trout Shop on the corner of Madison and Canyon Streets. Lilly guided anglers, taught fly casting and outfitted anglers in Yellowstone for 35 years and did more than anyone else in the 1950–70s to promote fly fishing and fisheries conservation in Yellowstone throughout North America. Many of the great post-WWII era anglers first came to Yellowstone and the West because of Bud Lilly's Trout Shop and his writings.[14]
Gardiner, Montana although not the size or draw of West Yellowstone got its own local fly fishing legend in 1953 when Merton J. Parks opened Parks' Fly Shop. Still operating today and run by his son, Richard Parks, Parks' Fly Shop and its guides have contributed significantly to the angling history of the park with the publication of Fishing Yellowstone National Park—An Angler's Complete Guide to More than 100 streams, rivers and lakes (1998).
Many well-known angling authors have written about their experiences in Yellowstone National Park. Howard Back was the first, but many influential anglers used Yellowstone as a backdrop for their angling stories, adventures and technical work.
Ray Bergman, the well-known angling editor of Outdoor Life magazine was a fan of the Firehole river and gave it many pages of coverage in his classic work Trout (1938, 1952). Here's a typical passage describing his fishing experiences in the Midway Geyser Basin section of the Firehole:
...Then came an experience that was new to me. By this time I had reached within casting distance of a sizable boiling spring and could see its waters mingling with those of the stream. Close to the wrinkle caused by the meeting of the hot spring and the cold water I saw a trout rise. It was only a dimple, but from the suction I thought it was a good fish. Conditions couldn't have been better for the float of the fly. When the little Royal dropped to the water it drifted along in a lifelike manner until it reached the place where I had seen the dimple, and then it disappeared. I raised the rod and was fast to what felt like the best fish of the day. Vint came along just as the hook went home, and some minutes later I had the satisfaction of having him take my picture as I held up the seventeen-incher with white steam of the boiling spring for a background. It wasn't the best fish of the day, but it was the first time I had ever taken a trout where I could have boiled it within a few feet.
— Ray Bergman, Trout, 1952[15]
One cannot own a river or even part of it, except in one's heart. But if affection, pride, knowledge, and experience for and about a river counts for anything, the part of the Madison River in Yellowstone Park belongs to me. It also belongs to 220 million other Americans, but few know and love it as I do.[10]
Fly Fishing in Yellowstone
| Major hatches and typical patterns used,[18][19][20][21][22][23],.[24] | |
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| Hatch | Typical Patterns |
| Mayflies | |
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| Caddisflies | |
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| Stoneflies | |
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| Terrestrials | |
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| Baitfish | |
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