Gibbon River, Wyoming

Gibbon Falls to Madison Junction

The lower Gibbon drops over Gibbon Falls and runs a few miles of canyon and then meadow beside the Grand Loop Road to Madison Junction, where it meets the Firehole to form the Madison. This lower water holds the river's browns and rainbows, and the Junction meadow fish are big, spooky and hard. It is fly fishing only below the falls, and bison and elk are usually in the meadows.

Gibbon Meadows, Elk Park and Norris

Above the falls the river winds through Gibbon Meadows and Elk Park, two large meadows along the road between Madison Junction and Norris, then past the Norris Geyser Basin and the Norris Meadow picnic area. The meadows hold the largest fish above the falls, mostly browns with brook trout and rainbows, and they are technical, undercut-bank water; the short canyon stretches between them fish easier with stoneflies early and caddis all season.

Above Virginia Cascade

From Virginia Cascade up to Grebe and Wolf lakes the park has been rebuilding a native fish refuge since 2017: nonnative rainbows, browns and brook trout were removed from the upper river and its lakes and the water was restocked with westslope cutthroat and fluvial Arctic grayling. Parks Fly Shop reports that the water above Little Gibbon Falls now offers cutthroat and grayling and stays cool when the lower two thirds of the river close for heat in summer. Every grayling and cutthroat must be released.

Brown, rainbow and brook trout

Browns are the river's biggest fish and the reason anglers stalk the meadows; rainbows share the lower river and brook trout are the numerous, easy fish of the middle reaches above the falls. Spring and fall bring the best hatches, blue-winged olives and PMDs, with caddis through the season and brown and gray drakes in the meadows.

Season and regulations

The Gibbon runs small; FlyGuysNLies puts the wading window at Madison Junction at 80 to 200 cfs and this page uses that band as in range. Like the Firehole, the geyser basins warm it and the lower river often closes to fishing from late June into August when temperatures climb.

From the Norris Campground bridge down to Madison Junction the season is May 1 through October 31; above that bridge it is the standard park season, the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend through October 31. Below Gibbon Falls it is fly fishing only, and catch and release for browns and rainbows with up to five brook trout allowed; all cutthroat and grayling must be released everywhere. Barbless hooks, lead-free weight and no felt soles apply park-wide, and a Yellowstone fishing permit is required. Check the park's current fishing regulations and closures.