Snake River, Wyoming

Jackson Lake Dam to Pacific Creek

The fishing water starts where the Snake leaves Jackson Lake Dam inside Grand Teton National Park. This upper float to the Pacific Creek landing is cold tailwater with dependable cutthroat, and the gravel bars just below the dam are the best wade fishing in the park. Everyone floating inside the park needs a park boat permit on top of a Wyoming license, and felt soles are banned in the park.

Deadman's Bar to Moose

Deadman's Bar to Moose Landing is the signature Jackson Hole float: about ten miles of braided channels, sweepers and logjams with the Cathedral Group over your shoulder. It is also the most crowded water on the river in July and August. Schwabacher's Landing and Moose give wade anglers a way onto the side channels without a boat.

Wilson to South Park and the canyon

Below the park the river runs past Wilson Bridge to the South Park landing in fewer, easier channels, with brown trout and whitefish mixing in with the cutthroat. Below Hoback Junction the Snake enters its whitewater canyon toward Alpine; it holds big browns in the pools between rapids but it is raft water first and fishing water second.

Snake River fine-spotted cutthroat

The fine-spotted cutthroat, covered in pepper-sized spots, is native to the Snake drainage of western Wyoming and eastern Idaho and is the fish that makes this river. It takes dry flies willingly once the river clears in July: PMDs first, then hoppers and attractors along the grass banks through August and September, and golden stones and salmonflies in late June and early July on the reaches that have cleared.

Brown trout

Browns are a minor part of the catch in the park and become more common from Wilson downstream, with the largest fish in the canyon below Hoback Junction. October streamer fishing before their spawn is the only time they are a real target.

Season and regulations

The Snake is unfishable in runoff, which peaks from late May into late June above 15,000 cfs at Moose. Local guides call 1,500 to 3,000 cfs the prime float range and wading opens up below about 1,500 cfs in September and October; this page compares the Moose gauge to 1,000 to 3,000 cfs, the range fishflywater and RiverReports give for comfortable wading. The park section from the dam to Moose is open April 1 to October 31 and the river below Moose is open all year.

Inside Grand Teton National Park the stream limit is 3 trout, only 1 over 16 inches and only 1 cutthroat over 12 inches; all cutthroat must be released November 1 to March 31, and the water from 1,000 feet below Jackson Lake Dam to the Wilson Bridge is artificial flies and lures only. A winter access closure runs from the Buffalo Fork to Moose December 15 to March 31. Below the park, check the current Wyoming Game and Fish Department regulations for Area 1 before you keep anything.