Montana Fly Fishing: Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park offers exceptional opportunities to catch trout and other gamefish and is a premiere fishing destination offering rivers, lakes and streams for novice and expert anglers to enjoy.

Each Memorial Day weekend when fishing season begins through the first Sunday in November, anglers make their way from nearby Bozeman, Montana and from around the world to fish seven varieties of game fish in gorgeous Yellowstone National Park: cutthroat trout, rainbow trout, brown trout, brook trout, and lake trout, including the Arctic grayling and mountain whitefish.

Best Time to Fish

Late spring through the end of June is a great time to fish in Yellowstone.

Best Place to Fish

Firehole, Gibbon, Madison, Lewis and Yellowstone Rivers
From late spring through the end of June, these rivers offer excellent dry-fly fishing with afternoon mayfly hatches.

Yellowstone River is synonymous with truly spectacular western fly fishing. This 671-mile river holds rainbow trout, cutthroats, browns and mountain whitefish. Originating in Wyoming at 12,000 feet in the Tetons, the Yellowstone is the longest free-flowing, undammed waterway in the lower forty-eight states. With many feeder streams and other nearby rivers teeming with trout, the Yellowstone River is a “must fish” river!

Yellowstone, Lewis, and Grebe Lakes

Yellowstone Lake deserves special mention, located in the middle of Yellowstone National Park, with 87,000 acres and more than 110 miles of shoreline, Yellowstone Lake is the largest body of stillwater in the area. The north shore is accessible by road while the rest of the lake must be reached by boat or on foot.

Quality fly fishing for native, 15–18 inch Yellowstone cutthroat, the only trout species available, can be found right alone the shoreline in early summer where the bulk of all aquatic insect activity occurs. There are restrictions highlighted in Yellowstone's official angler guide that can be acquired a Yellowstone Visitor Center or Ranger Station.