Wyoming
Snake River
Latest report: Snake River Angler Fly Fishing Report For August 19th, 2026 — Snake River Angler, 12 days ago
Solunar · next 7 days
About Snake River
The Snake River through Jackson Hole is the home water of the Snake River Finespotted Cutthroat — a subspecies that lives almost nowhere else and that has shaped local fly fishing identity for decades. The fishable run starts at Jackson Lake Dam in Grand Teton National Park and continues roughly 75 miles south through the GTNP corridor, past the town of Jackson, into the Snake River Canyon, and on to Palisades Reservoir at the Idaho line. The signature water is the GTNP and South Park stretches — wide, braided gravel-bottom freestone in a glacial valley with the Tetons looming to the west.
It fishes as a classic float-driven Western trout river. The standard day is a drift-boat trip out of Moose, Deadman's Bar, or Wilson, throwing terrestrial dries and attractors along the cut banks. Finespotted cutthroat are aggressive surface eaters — Chernobyls, hoppers, and big attractor dries take fish from late June through October. Wading is genuinely productive in the slower upper section above Moose and along the levees at Wilson and South Park; downstream, braided channels and high gradient demand a boat. Runoff carries through May into mid-June; the river typically becomes fishable around July 1 and stays in good shape into November.
The corridor town is Jackson, with major fly shops at Jack Dennis on the Town Square, Snake River Anglers at Moose, Westbank Anglers in Wilson, and WorldCast Anglers 27 miles west in Victor, ID. Drive times: 5 hours from Salt Lake City, 5 hours from Bozeman, 8 hours from Denver. Pressure is real on the South Park and Wilson floats in July and August, but it concentrates on a few popular put-ins — earlier starts and lower-traffic options above Pacific Creek or in the canyon above Alpine spread anglers out. The 2026 regulation refresh doubled the daily limit on the Jackson Lake Dam tailwater stretch from three trout to six and removed length restrictions there, but the rest of the WY river retains the standard six-trout limit on cutthroat. The Snake River Canyon below West Table Creek is rafted as Class III whitewater and only fished by guides running whitewater-capable boats.
Species
- Cutthroat Trout
- Brown Trout
- Mountain Whitefish
| Species | Abundance | Best Season | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cutthroat Trout | Abundant | Jul-Oct | 10-18" |
| Brown Trout | Common | Sep-Oct | 12-22" |
| Mountain Whitefish | Common | Year-round | 10-16" |