Rainbow trout in Wyoming

Wyoming waters

Most fished first. A species missing from an agency list does not mean it is absent; this page lists only waters whose list names it (at least 5 are needed for a page).

• North Platte RiverAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• New Fork RiverAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Green RiverAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Salt RiverAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Wind RiverAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Bighorn RiverAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Shoshone RiverAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• North Fork Powder RiverAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Middle Fork Powder RiverAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Clarks Fork Yellowstone RiverAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• North Fork Shoshone RiverAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• South Tongue RiverAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Deer CreekAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Clear CreekAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Paint Rock CreekAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Bates CreekAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Big CreekAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Canyon CreekAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• la Prele CreekAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Tensleep CreekAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Boulder CreekAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Pine CreekAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Medicine Lodge CreekAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Tongue RiverAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Cedar CreekAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Crazy CreekAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Duck CreekAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Grizzly CreekAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Jakeys ForkAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Jones CreekAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• la Bonte CreekAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Little Canyon CreekAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Little Popo Agie RiverAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• North Tongue RiverAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Popo Agie RiverAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Shell CreekAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Silver Tip CreekAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• South Fork Little Canyon CreekAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Medicine Bow RiverAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Big Sandy RiverAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Rock CreekAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• Sweetwater RiverAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• East Fork Smiths ForkAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department
• West Tensleep CreekAgency list: Wyoming Game and Fish Department

Identification

• Rainbow trout vary a lot in colour and shape. Adults are silver with many small black spots, a pink or red band along the side, and spots that often run in lines along the tail rays.[2]
  What the source says

  “Highly variable in color and body shape, especially between resident fish and steelhead. Adults are silver and heavily spotted with small black spots. Iridescent pink or red along the lateral band. Numerous black spots pepper the body and dorsal fin, often radiating in lines along the rays of the tail.”

• The cheeks are pink and the back ranges from iridescent blue to nearly brown, with silver, white or yellow sides and belly. Young fish carry large, dark oval parr marks along the lateral line.[2]
  What the source says

  “Opercula (cheeks) are pink, the back iridescent blue to nearly brown, and the sides and belly silver, white or yellow. Juveniles have oval parr marks along the lateral line that are large and dark.”

• Rainbow trout and steelhead are the same species. Rainbows stay inland, while steelhead are the form that migrates to the ocean or, in Michigan, the Great Lakes.[1]
  What the source says

  “Genetically rainbow trout and steelhead are the same species but lead very different lives. Rainbow trout stays inland, and an anadromous form that migrates to the Great Lakes (or ocean in their native habitat).”

More on identifying rainbow trout

Status, protections and rules

As each agency stated them on the date read; a rule applies only where its agency says so. Check the current regulations for the water before you fish.

• In Great Smoky Mountains National Park, rainbow trout are non-native. The National Park Service says rainbow trout introduced in the early 1900s, together with logging, cost native brook trout 75% of their habitat.[3]
  What the source says

  “In the early 1900s, significant environmental changes occurred in the park due to logging and the introduction of non-native rainbow trout, which destroyed 75% of the native brook trout's habitat. Rainbow trout out-competed brook trout by reproducing at a faster rate as well as growing faster, taking over the streams.”

• Yellowstone National Park rule: in the Lamar River drainage, including parts of Slough and Soda Butte creeks, every rainbow trout caught must be killed. Releasing one alive is illegal there.[4]
  What the source says

  “All rainbow trout, brook trout, and identifiable cutthroat/rainbow hybrids caught in the Lamar River drainage, including portions of Slough and Soda Butte creeks, must be killed—it is illegal to release them alive.”

Water temperature in Wyoming

• Under Wyoming's 65°F lineThat is under the 65°F above which Wyoming Game and Fish suggests keeping trout rather than releasing them. Water warms by afternoon: “Water temperatures are coolest in the morning, giving released trout the best chance of survival.” “Carry a pocket thermometer to monitor the water temperature.”
• Warming: consider keeping what you catchWyoming Game and Fish: “If the water temperature is above 65 degrees, consider keeping what you catch within the regulations.” “Focus your fishing between sunrise and noon.”
• 68°F in Grand Teton National ParkIn Grand Teton National Park the National Park Service recommends that anglers “cease fishing at 2 p.m. when water temperatures are likely to exceed 68°F.”
• 70°F: don't release troutWyoming Game and Fish: “Don’t release trout once water temperatures reach 70 degrees – often about noon on warm summer days.” “When water temperatures exceed 70 degrees, the chance of survival for any trout to be caught and released is greatly reduced.” “Please pause catch-and-release fishing after 12:00 p.m.”
• Over 75°FWyoming Game and Fish: “Trout die after prolonged exposure to water temperatures greater than 75 degrees Fahrenheit, and brief exposure to temperatures over 80 degrees are lethal.”

Sources: Fishing in the heat (Wyoming Game and Fish Department); Game and Fish announces voluntary catch-and-release fishing closures across the state (3 Aug 2026) (Wyoming Game and Fish Department); High water temperatures prompt fishing advisory in Grand Teton National Park (29 July 2022) (National Park Service); Anglers encouraged to adjust fishing practices as temperatures rise (Wyoming Game and Fish Department); Adjust fishing practices for heat (29 July 2024) (Wyoming Game and Fish Department).

Destination hubs

Hubs that list one of these waters, or that a water page is near: each has guides, shops, licences and trip planning for the area.

• Jackson Hole, Wyoming3 rainbow trout waters

Hatch & season charts

• Northern Rockies8 sourced rows

Sources

Every fact on this page is our paraphrase of the page cited beside it, read on the date shown. Rules and seasons change: check the agency's current regulations before you fish.

1. Rainbow trout Michigan Department of Natural Resources, read Oct 24, 2026.
2. Fishing for Coastal Rainbow Trout / Steelhead California Department of Fish and Wildlife, read Oct 24, 2026.
3. Fish - Great Smoky Mountains National Park (U.S. National Park Service) National Park Service, read Oct 24, 2026.
4. Fishing - Yellowstone National Park (U.S. National Park Service) National Park Service, read Oct 24, 2026.