Wyoming drops fall-spawning rainbows at Twin Buttes after angler study

Wyoming Game and Fish has rewritten the Twin Buttes Reservoir stocking plan near Laramie after a multi-year rainbow trout comparison. A department release dated Oct. 29, 2026, said biologists tested spring-spawning Eagle Lake rainbows against fall-spawning rainbows to see whether the fall strain would create a shore fishery when fish moved toward the boat-ramp rocks.

More than three years of netting, dockside creel interviews and online surveys pointed one way. Eagle Lake rainbows averaged nearly 1.5 pounds heavier and more than 4.5 inches longer than fall spawners. Anglers also caught Eagle Lake fish more often in interviews and online reports, matching the netting trend. The fall strain never delivered the hoped-for fall shore bite.

Managers have dropped fall-spawning rainbows from the Twin Buttes schedule and will keep stocking browns, Eagle Lake rainbows and cutthroat trout. Twin Buttes is part of the Laramie Plains Lakes, where trout grow fast but do not reproduce, so the water depends on hatchery plants. Fisheries biologist Colter Brown said creel surveys show what anglers actually experience on the water and are a key piece of stocking decisions. Hundreds of angler responses helped lock in the change.

This is a The Gillnet news desk summary, not a reprint.

Source: Wyoming Game and Fish Department — Count your rainbows: Twin Buttes Reservoir study (Oct. 29, 2026).