Fishing in Yellowstone

[sigpros]

Looking at spending a couple days in Yellowstone and my son would love to do a little fishing. He would love to catch a grayling. I just would like to be able to say we fished in Yellowstone. That being said we would be using spinning rods so looking for tips or ticks to catch a couple fish. Hopefully we will have some great pictures

We will be going the third week of September also

 

[Dan-06]

Sounds like a good time. Catch cutthroat and lakers should be easy enough. Not sure about the grayling.

 

[texwest44]

6lb test line. Kastmaster or kastmaster-like flat spoons. Silver, gold, and brown trout patterns. Slow retrieve with little jerks worked in here and there. Catches all the trout.

This particular spoon is a trout slayer. Slow retrieve, just enough to flutter back and forth, with little jerks worked in here and there. Give it a little extra speed when it gets within 30 feet or so of the shoreline.

Spinners and jigs work too.

Edit: If you don't already, crimp your barbs down if you're catch and release fishing. It's a lot easier on the fish.

 

[sigpros]

Sounds like a good time. Catch cutthroat and lakers should be easy enough. Not sure about the grayling.

I just want to catch a fish and turn it back loose. Will be staying up in lander for a few days going to chase some sage grouse and fish. Then head to Yellowstone for a couple days. I know it isn’t enough but it might be the last chance I have both my kids able to go somewhere with me

 

[sigpros]

6lb test line. Kastmaster or kastmaster-like flat spoons. Silver, gold, and brown trout patterns. Slow retrieve with little jerks worked in here and there. Catches all the trout.

This particular spoon is a trout slayer. Slow retrieve, just enough to flutter back and forth, with little jerks worked in here and there. Give it a little extra speed when it gets within 30 feet or so of the shoreline.

Spinners and jigs work too.

Edit: If you don't already, crimp your barbs down if you're catch and release fishing. It's a lot easier on the fish.

Thank you. Can’t wait to try it out
Really looking forward to this trip I’ve caught a handful of rainbow trout but don’t really know anything about trout fishing thank you for the tips

 

[texwest44]

Thank you. Can’t wait to try it out
Really looking forward to this trip I’ve caught a handful of rainbow trout but don’t really know anything about trout fishing thank you for the tips

All of these fish except the bottom one was caught on that spoon that was in the Walmart link in my last comment (Pot o' Gold). The bottom one (bull trout) was caught on a brown pattern kastmaster knock off, also from Walmart. You can do a hell of a lot of good trout fishing on like $12 worth of spoons. They're great for kids because they don't need any particular skill or presentation to work. Let it sink for about 5 seconds, and then reel kinda slow. Knocks 'em out.

 

[johnnybow]

Cant wait to read the story and see the Pics. Good luck!

 

[SAJ-99]

Looking at spending a couple days in Yellowstone and my son would love to do a little fishing. He would love to catch a grayling. I just would like to be able to say we fished in Yellowstone. That being said we would be using spinning rods so looking for tips or ticks to catch a couple fish. Hopefully we will have some great pictures

We will be going the third week of September also

Grayling will be tough. The best chance used to be Grayling Creek on the west side, but I think they did a fish kill a few years back to start over. Honestly I haven't kept up on the progress of that. Upper Gibbon was another spot that you might try. You might want to call the park and see if you can find someone that knows where to find some. The densities are pretty low at baseline and the warming temps aren't helping them any.

Know the regs. The park is barbless and no-lead. I have seen them write tickets for the barbs so make sure you test them.
Have fun.

https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/upload/2025-Fishing-Regulations.pdf

 

[brymoore]

I’ll DM you a spot.

 

[sigpros]

Grayling will be tough. The best chance used to be Grayling Creek on the west side, but I think they did a fish kill a few years back to start over. Honestly I haven't kept up on the progress of that. Upper Gibbon was another spot that you might try. You might want to call the park and see if you can find someone that knows where to find some. The densities are pretty low at baseline and the warming temps aren't helping them any.

Know the regs. The park is barbless and no-lead. I have seen them write tickets for the barbs so make sure you test them.
Have fun.

https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/upload/2025-Fishing-Regulations.pdf

Thank you very much. I will call and see if I can get a paper copy of those regs I like having those with me. Guess if we are lucky enough to catch some fish we will be cleaning them if we want too or not. I still can't wait to go I think it is going to be an awesome trip

 

[sigpros]

I’ll DM you a spot.

Thank you. I will check it out

 

[Goodfish]

Yellowstone National Park's efforts to restore native grayling continue

Efforts to restore native Arctic grayling to the Missouri River headwaters within Yellowstone National Park are moving forward, but progress is slow and being accomplished in increments, according to Dr. Todd Koel, the lead fisheries biologist at Yellowstone National Park. “The park has...

www.hatchmag.com

 

[RealMuddyboots]

So few years ago off West Yellowstone entrance on the Madison fly fishing and having a ball. Tossing generic March brown and it was getting whacked during a nice hatch. Cow elk and calf working edge of river maybe 50yds, they booked out and here comes Smokie, there goes me out of river hustled back towards truck. Wife watching from maybe 500yds with binos. Told me she kept saying turn around you dumass! I asked why would the bear turn around? Got another dumass to that!

 

[Stone_Ice_1]

Looks like you already have some info but I can send you a spot to go.

 

[sigpros]

Well just got back from our trip. We had a blast in the park. We got to see lots of wildlife and take tons of pictures. My daughter who isn't an outdoors type had a ball. We fished Yellowstone lake a little on Wednesday. We didn't have any luck fishing but had a great time in the park. We went to the Irma for dinner that night and enjoyed the history of the hotel. Thursday we hiked back into a lake that another HT'r told us about and we had a great day of fishing we all caught fish with me catching the smallest ones. My wife caught a really nice Cutthroat trout and both my kids caught a nice one. We are always competitive when fishing, biggest fish, most fish, how many species etc. Well my wife one the size and most fish she had 3 I caught 2 and the kids each caught one. It was a great day being all alone in the middle of Yellowstone listening to elk bugle and loons call. It was an amazing family time. We went back to Cody and ate dinner at a German place that was very good. Friday we went in the NE entrance toured the top part of the park my son glassed up a mountain goat and we went to Mammoth hot springs. We stopped and fished Gibbon river and I was the lucky one that day. I caught 3 trout my son said they were brown trout. We did some more wildlife watching and then went back to Cody for dinner. Saturday the girls shopped in Cody and the boy and I went and jumped from spot to spot on the North Fork of the Shoshone river and my son caught 2 nice rainbow trout. We are already planning a trip back and my wife and son are wanting to get into fly fishing so I will be asking all kinds of questions about that. My son wants to do the Cutthroat slam so we might try and catch the other 3 next summer. And I am also looking at getting a travel trailer. All in all we had a great time especially after the rough start sage grouse hunting.

 

[sigpros]

Here are a few pics. I couldn’t get them to load at work.

 

[MS 9x56]

Looks like everyone had a great time. Wonderfull family vacation.

 

[Salmonchaser]

Outstanding, well done.

 

[2ski]

Guess if we are lucky enough to catch some fish we will be cleaning them if we want too or not.

Where are you getting this from? I just skimmed the regs and didn’t see anything about keeping all fish. Only non-native if you want. I have heard on lake trout you have to keep them all, but thats only on them. And just to clarify thats not a trout from a lake, thats an actually species called lake trout. Mackinaw. Since it didnt sound like you had fished much for trout I wanted to make sure you understood. Hopefully not taking that as an insult so hopefully you dont take it that way.

Congrats. The fall is my absolute favorite time in the park for the reasons you experienced.

 

[sigpros]

Where are you getting this from? I just skimmed the regs and didn’t see anything about keeping all fish. Only non-native if you want. I have heard on lake trout you have to keep them all, but thats only on them. And just to clarify thats not a trout from a lake, thats an actually species called lake trout. Mackinaw. Since it didnt sound like you had fished much for trout I wanted to make sure you understood. Hopefully not taking that as an insult so hopefully you dont take it that way.

Congrats. The fall is my absolute favorite time in the park for the reasons you experienced.

I got it from the regulation book and the park rangers. also there is places where you have to keep small mouth bass too. We were told on the lake trout it couldn't go back in the lake alive we didn't "have" to keep them but we had to kill them. Luckily we caught stuff we could release. We also pinched the barbs down on the hooks per the regs and I am not a fan of treble hooks even barbless so I cut a hook off each spoon so it was easier to get the hook out so we could release the fish faster. We also purchased one of the rubber nets since they say it was easier on the trout. I will say man they take off like a rocket when you put them back in the lake. We tried to get pics as fast as we could and release them.