Wyoming fishing rules
License, gear, and the statewide limits WGFD publishes for major species. Water-specific rules replace these numbers. Last checked October 2026.
License
- Who needs one
- A fishing license is required for resident and nonresident anglers 14 or older, except on waters where a fishing-preserve permit, a special limited permit, or a landowner rule applies. Each person licensed to hunt or fish must also buy one conservation stamp, valid for 12 consecutive months, unless the license they are using is on the exemption list. Daily licenses, the nonresident five-day fishing license, pioneer licenses, and the disabled and military licenses named in the brochure are among the stamp exemptions. The license or stamp that runs 12 months is valid for 12 consecutive months from purchase.
- Residents
- A resident is a U.S. citizen or legal alien domiciled in Wyoming for at least one full year immediately before applying, who has not claimed residency anywhere else during that year, and who meets Wyoming Statutes 23-1-102, 23-1-107, and 23-2-101(a). The 2026 brochure lists a resident 12-month fishing license at $27, a resident daily license at $6, and a resident youth 12-month license at $3 for anglers between their 14th and 18th birthdays. The 12-month conservation stamp is $21.50. Resident youth under 14 do not need a license, and their creel limit is the same as for licensed anglers. A lifetime pioneer fishing license is free at age 65 with 30 total years of residency.
- Nonresidents
- The brochure lists a nonresident 12-month fishing license at $102, a daily license at $14, a five consecutive day license at $56, and a nonresident youth 12-month license at $15 before the 18th birthday. The conservation stamp is $21.50 unless an exemption applies. A nonresident youth under 14 does not need a license if accompanied by an adult with a valid Wyoming fishing license, but that youth's creel is counted against the adult's license. A nonresident youth under 14 who holds a daily or youth annual license may keep a full creel.
- Free fishing days
- Free Fishing Day is June 6, 2026, the first Saturday of National Fishing and Boating Week. Anyone may fish without a fishing license or conservation stamp, except inside the Wind River Reservation and Yellowstone National Park. All creel and size limits, gear restrictions, and stream closures remain in effect.
Seasons and closures
Statewide hours
Fishing is allowed year-round, 24 hours a day, except where a Commission regulation closes a specific area, stream, lake, or portion of one. Those closures are listed with each drainage. Specified waters may also be closed in an emergency. Yellowstone National Park requires a park fishing permit and does not require a state license. The Wind River Reservation is outside the state free-fishing-day privilege.
Examples of area closures
Area rules, not the statewide default, set seasonal closures. Examples in the 2026 brochure include Gray Reef spawning closures from April 1 through May 15 on two marked sections, a November 1 through February 15 closure at Springer Reservoir, and December 1 through July 31 closures on some Grand Teton streams. Artificial-fly-and-lure-only sections and live-baitfish areas are also drainage rules. The brochure's how-to-find section is the way to read a single water.
Legal gear
Hooks and barbless rules
There is no statewide barbless-hook rule. No line may have more than three single-hooked devices. A pegged attractor fixed within two inches of the eye of a bare hook or artificial fly counts as an artificial lure. A pegged attractor more than two inches from the eye is snagging and is prohibited. There is no restriction on a floating strike indicator. Single-point barbless hooks are required on named sections of the North Platte River, including the Miracle Mile, the Alcova afterbay, and Gray Reef, and those sections are area rules, not a statewide rule.
Rods per angler
Except where a water says otherwise, fish may be taken with a maximum of two rods or poles, with lines and hooks attached, and the angler in attendance. Hand lines, set lines, poles, and tip-ups are legal through the ice when the angler is in attendance. The area regulations can close a method or require artificial flies and lures only.
Nets
The statewide methods section does not describe a recreational landing-net rule. A license to seine or trap fish is $21 and is for taking baitfish. Where that license may be used, and whether the baitfish must be killed immediately, is set by drainage area. A license to deal in live bait is $69. Underwater spear-gun fishing has its own gear limits and is not a net fishery.
Snagging
It is unlawful to snag fish. Snagging means attempting to take a fish in a manner so the fish does not take the hook voluntarily in its mouth. Fishing with a pegged attractor more than two inches from the eye of a bare hook or artificial fly is treated as snagging. Internal organs, eggs, eyes, fins, and skin are the only parts of a game fish that may be used as bait, which is a separate rule from snagging.
Spearing and bow
It is legal to take nongame fish with archery equipment without a license or permit. It is always unlawful to take game fish with archery equipment. An underwater spear gun may be used for game fish only in lakes, and only with a fishing license. The angler must be completely submerged. Spears must be attached to the gun by a line no longer than 20 feet. Artificial light may not be used to take game fish with a spear gun. Spearfishing is not allowed within 100 yards of a designated swimming or water-ski area, boat dock, ramp, or spillway, and a diver flag must be displayed. The walleye limit by spear gun is 2 a day or in possession, except where walleye are designated nongame or where Alcova Reservoir sets a different rule. Other creel and length limits still apply. Firearms, poison, electricity, chemicals, and explosives may not be used to take fish.
Bait and live transport
Any part of a nongame fish may be used as bait. Only internal organs, eggs, eyes, fins, and skin of game fish may be used. Corn may be used wherever bait is allowed. Bait may not be used or possessed where fishing is limited to artificial flies and lures. Live baitfish are prohibited in some drainage areas and allowed only in named waters in others, and wild-caught live baitfish may not be moved outside the designated possession area. Area 1, including Grand Teton National Park, prohibits live baitfish. A fish that is reduced to possession must be killed before it is transported from the water of origin, and it may not be released alive without written Department approval. Fish in transit must remain identifiable to species and number, and the body must stay intact where a length limit applies.
Bag and size limits
These are the statewide or default limits. A named lake, river, or marine area can replace every figure below.
Trout, statewide default
The brochure prints a statewide default and then says many waters replace it. Trout in this category means brown, cutthroat, grayling, golden, rainbow, salmon, tiger trout, and other trout hybrids. It excludes brook trout, lake trout, and splake. Unless a water says otherwise, lakes are 6 a day and streams are 3 a day, no more than one trout over 16 inches, and the combined total from streams and lakes is 6 a day or in possession. Brook trout are a separate limit of 16. Lake trout and splake together are 6, with no more than one over 24 inches. Area and water exceptions on pages 8 through 18 of the brochure replace these numbers.
Bass, walleye, and other game fish
Unless a drainage exception applies, largemouth and smallmouth bass together are 6, channel catfish are 6, walleye are 6, whitefish are 6, sauger are 2, and shovelnose sturgeon are 2. Burbot are 3, with drainage exceptions. Tiger muskie is 1, and every tiger muskie under 36 inches must be released immediately. Northern pike limits are only in the drainage-area exceptions, not as one statewide number. Yellow perch, black bullhead, stonecat, crappie, rock bass, bluegill, pumpkinseed, green sunfish, the green sunfish-bluegill hybrid, and freshwater drum together are 50.
Nongame fish
There is no creel or possession limit for nongame fish, except as Area 4 provides for Flaming Gorge Reservoir. Nongame fish may be taken by legal methods during any season open for game fish. Nongame fish means fish that are not game fish and are not aquatic invasive species, and the category includes baitfish.
Possession and area exceptions
The possession limit is the most game fish that may be held at any time, in any form, including at home. It applies no matter how many days were fished. Fish taken under another state's license do not count against Wyoming possession limits, except as specified for Flaming Gorge. The area creel table applies to the whole drainage unless a named water has its own limit. The statewide trout, bass, and walleye numbers above are only the default.