North Platte River Fishing Guides and Conditions, Wyoming

About the North Platte River

The North Platte enters Wyoming from Colorado as a canyon river and leaves the state a hundred miles later as a wide, willow-lined trout factory. The reaches anglers travel for are the Northgate Canyon above Six Mile Gap, the Bennett Peak to Treasure Island water, and the long valley floats between Saratoga and Fort Steele. Above Seminoe Reservoir the river carries wild brown and rainbow trout in numbers that put it among the better freestone fisheries in the Rockies, and enough fish over eighteen inches to keep guides busy from May through October.

Most guided days here are drift boat days. The Saratoga valley floats are gentle, with long riffle-and-run water and undercut grass banks that fish well from a boat and poorly from shore, since most of the bank is private. The canyon reaches upstream are a different trip: bigger water, real rapids, and outfitters who run rafts rather than hard boats. The Miracle Mile, downstream of this gauge between Kortes Dam and Pathfinder Reservoir, is a separate fishery again and gets its own crowd in the fall.

Flow is the whole conversation on the upper North Platte because irrigation and reservoir operations move it around fast. Guides generally like the Sinclair-area readings somewhere in the 500 to 2,000 cfs range for the valley floats. Very high spring runoff, which can push several times that, blows the river out for weeks; late summer lows concentrate fish and make wade access more productive than rowing. Watch the trend as much as the number, because a river that is dropping fishes very differently from one that is coming up.

Saratoga is the hub, with lodging, a hot spring, fly shops and most of the outfitters. Encampment and Rawlins cover the ends of the run. Wind is the constant here, and afternoons in the valley can be genuinely hard to cast in, so early launches earn their keep.

Access

Six Mile Gap (Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest): top of the Northgate Canyon run, raft launch, primitive camping.
Bennett Peak BLM Campground: canyon takeout and valley put-in, boat ramp and campsites.
Treasure Island Access: BLM access below Bennett Peak, common raft takeout.
Saratoga town access and Pic Pike Road: valley floats through and below town.
Foote Public Access Area: Wyoming Game and Fish walk-in and boat access downstream of Saratoga.
Fort Steele and Sinclair: lower valley ramps near the gauge, above Seminoe Reservoir.
Much of the bank between accesses is private; float through and wade only below the high-water line.

Seasons

April and May: pre-runoff window with good streamer fishing, then rising, off-color water.
June: runoff on the upper river; the tailwater reaches downstream fish better.
July through September: the main guided season, clearing water, hoppers and terrestrials, best mornings before the wind.
October and November: fall browns, cold mornings, very few boats; winter fishing is limited by ice and access.