Jackson Lake

Overview

Jackson Lake is the big water of Grand Teton National Park, a natural glacial lake that the Bureau of Reclamation raised with Jackson Lake Dam, built as a concrete structure in 1911 and raised 17 feet in 1916, so the upper layer of the lake now stores irrigation water for Idaho farms. It sits at 6,772 feet, runs about 15 miles long and 438 feet deep, and the Snake River enters at the north end near the Yellowstone boundary and leaves through the dam at Moran on the southeast shore. Mount Moran stands over the west side. The fishery is lake trout first. They were introduced early in the last century and became so established that the decades-old October closure created to protect their spawn was finally dropped; as of January 1, 2026 the lake is open year-round. Snake River fine-spotted cutthroat, brown trout, brook trout and whitefish share the water, and the park's creel limit on lakes allows six trout with no more than three cutthroat and only one cutthroat over 12 inches. For a fly rod the cutthroat are the practical target: they work the shallows near the Snake inlet, the willow flats and the rocky points after ice-off in May and into early summer, and lake trout come within reach of a sinking line in spring and fall on the drop-offs off the points. Colter Bay and Signal Mountain have the marinas and ramps. A Wyoming fishing license is what you need, not a park fishing permit, and the afternoon wind on a lake this size is the thing to respect.