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Home › Waters › Wyoming › Gibbon River
River · Northwestern Wyoming, Yellowstone National Park, the meadows and canyon above Madison Junction · Wyoming

Gibbon River Fishing Guides

A small Yellowstone river of meadow pools and canyon pocket water that joins the Firehole to form the Madison.

A clear river pool below pines and broken rock in the Rockies
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Gibbon River

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

About the Gibbon River

The Gibbon River drains a hundred and twenty-five square miles of the Yellowstone plateau before it meets the Firehole at Madison Junction, and the two together become the Madison River. It is a small river by any measure, and it changes character several times over a short distance, which is what makes it interesting to fish. The upper reaches run through Gibbon Meadows and Elk Park as slow, undercut meadow water. Below that it drops through a canyon of broken pocket water and falls, and the last mile before the junction flattens out again.

Each of those reaches fishes differently and holds different fish. The meadows hold brown trout and rainbows that behave like spring creek fish, spooky in the low clear water of late summer and best approached with a long leader from a crouch. The canyon is brook trout and small rainbow water, fished with a short line and an attractor dry, and it is forgiving in a way the meadows are not. Arctic grayling are present in the upper river, one of the few places in the lower forty-eight where they can be caught in moving water.

The autumn run is the reason many anglers know the Gibbon at all. Brown trout and rainbows push up out of Hebgen Lake and the Madison in September and October, and they run well into the lower Gibbon. Those fish are considerably larger than the resident trout, and the lower river gets busy when they arrive.

Access is easy because the Grand Loop Road follows the river for most of its length. That also means the water near the road sees steady pressure through the summer. Walking even a short distance from a pullout changes the fishing noticeably, and the meadow reaches reward anyone willing to work upstream quietly.

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Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

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We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

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Posting to Gibbon River.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Access

Madison Junction - the gauge reach at the confluence with the Firehole, with campground and road access.
Gibbon Falls - the canyon water above and below the falls, reached from the road pullouts.
Gibbon Meadows - slow undercut meadow water with a pullout and an open walk to the bank.
Elk Park - the upper meadow reach, quieter than Gibbon Meadows and reached on foot.
Norris Junction - the top of the fishable river near the Norris Geyser Basin.
Grand Loop Road pullouts - repeated roadside access through the canyon reach.
Terrace Springs - the lowest thermal input above the junction, a short walk from the road.

Seasons

Spring: high and cold from snowmelt, with the meadows fishing first as the water drops.
Summer: good dry fly fishing in the canyon, with the meadows demanding a careful approach.
Fall: the run of brown trout and rainbows out of the Madison makes this the peak season.
Winter: closed to fishing within the park for the season.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Gibbon River?

As of Sep 17, 6:00 am, the USGS gauge Gibbon River at Madison Jct, YNP reads 70 cfs, with water temperature 56.5 F. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Gibbon River?

Anglers target Arctic Grayling, Brook Trout, Brown Trout, Mountain Whitefish, Rainbow Trout on the Gibbon River in Wyoming.

Are there fishing guides on the Gibbon River?

GuidedFloats lists 2 guides and outfitters on the Gibbon River. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the Gibbon River?

Madison Junction - the gauge reach at the confluence with the Firehole, with campground and road access. Gibbon Falls - the canyon water above and below the falls, reached from the road pullouts. Gibbon Meadows - slow undercut meadow water with a pullout and an open walk to the bank. Elk Park - the upper meadow reach, quieter than Gibbon Meadows and reached on foot. Norris Junction - the top of the fishable river near the Norris Geyser Basin. Grand Loop Road pullouts - repeated roadside access through the canyon reach. Terrace Springs - the lowest thermal input above the junction, a short walk...

When is the best time to fish the Gibbon River?

Spring: high and cold from snowmelt, with the meadows fishing first as the water drops. Summer: good dry fly fishing in the canyon, with the meadows demanding a careful approach. Fall: the run of brown trout and rainbows out of the Madison makes this the peak season. Winter: closed to fishing within the park for the season.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Gibbon River?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Wyoming agency site: https://wgfd.wyo.gov/regulations