Fishing

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department will work with the National Park Service to extend invasive boat inspection stations to mirror the longer fishing season.

These include the Madison and Firehole Rivers and their tributaries, and the Gibbon River and tributaries downstream of Norris campground.

Director Angi Bruce breaks down why proposed big changes to landowner licenses are getting so much pushback. Plus, she outlines why the regulations may be coming for commercial angling guides.

One change would establish registration requirements and annual fees for commercially guided fishing boats: $600 for the first and $100 for the next four.

The Madison and Firehole Rivers, and their tributaries, will be closed from 2 p.m. to dawn the next day, as well as the Gibbon River and all its tributaries downstream of Norris Campground.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department finished the bulk of a massive fish conservation project in the Big Sandy water basin. They removed harmful invasive fish that were eating and hybridizing with native species.

Efforts to start to regulate the industry finally floated through the legislative process this year after sinking several times in the past decade, but the rules haven’t been set in stone yet.

While commercial fishing is largely unregulated in the state, the proposed bill would start to change that. But Senate lawmakers amended the bill to remove language that would have given preference to in-state guides.

The amount of money generated by Wyoming’s outdoor recreation economy grew by just over 6% in 2023 to $2.2 billion.

A bill to regulate commercial fishing guides is back in the Legislature after several failed attempts over the last few decades. HB 5 wants to give Wyoming Game and Fish, with guidance from an advisory committee, the authority to require registration for commercial fishing boats.