Fishing above 11,000 Feet In Wyoming

Are you the type of fisherman who likes to get away from everyone and really enjoy nature? Wyoming has plenty of those places, and the farther up you go, the fewer people there are. In the most extreme cases, you might need to go for a long hike and stay overnight.

Wind River Range or the Snowy Range—offers action for hungry trout during the short summer thaw. The Bighorns are another great place.

These lakes are typically ice-free only from July through early September. But be careful of sudden weather changes at those high altitudes.

Those times mean fish feed aggressively during daylight hours to survive the long winter. The fishing has more of a variety than you might imagine, with colorful brook trout, cutthroat, rainbow, splake, and legendary high-country golden trout. Fishing experts say that the fish often cruise shorelines or hold near inlet and outlet streams waiting for wind-blown terrestrials.

So how the heck do those fish get up there?

There are some natural ways. Birds have fish eggs stuck to their legs and feathers. They also poop them out. Most fish in high alpine lakes get there through deliberate fish stocking by state wildlife agencies, rather than by natural migration. By that we mean that the state of Wyoming will literally BOMB a lake with fish. No kidding.

Inside Science YouTube video

Wyomingites love to fish. Even more out-of-staters love coming to Wyoming to fish. That's a lot of fish being taken out of these waters. So, how do we put them back?

Wyoming fish hatcheries raise the little buggers. Once they are old enough, they have to be taken to some rather obscure locations to be released. Some waterways, be it river or lake, are in remote and hard-to-get places.

Time to get creative.

For the easy-to-get-to places, they can load them into a big tanker truck and unload the fish by hose.

But what about those areas that can't be gotten to by a big truck full of fish? Why not just load a plane and FISH BOMB the lake?

Sure, why the heck not?

Can you imagine being a guy in a little fishing boat when a plane flies over and BOMBS the lake? With any luck, it dumps it over the fishing boat. That would be like winning the lottery.

Is there any reason I can't find out where they are unloading from a truck with one of those big hoses? I'd like to just stand there with a fishing net. Would that be wrong?

Either way, I'd like to be there next time they do it.