Big Sandy Reservoir Fishing Guides
A Bureau of Reclamation irrigation reservoir near Farson managed as a put-grow-take trout fishery, with severe late-summer drawdowns that decide whether a trip is worth making.
Guides on the Big Sandy Reservoir
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About the Big Sandy Reservoir
Big Sandy Reservoir sits in open sagebrush country near Farson, in the Green River basin of southwest Wyoming, and it exists to store irrigation water. The Bureau of Reclamation built it in the 1950s as part of the Eden Project, and its job is to hold spring runoff from the Big Sandy and release it through the summer to farms downstream. Everything about the fishing follows from that job.
In a good year the reservoir fills with cold snowmelt, and the trout in it grow quickly on an abundant forage base. Wyoming Game and Fish manages it as a put-grow-take fishery, stocking trout that put on weight fast in productive water. When the reservoir is full, it can produce genuinely heavy rainbows, and local anglers time their trips accordingly. Brown trout and cutthroat are also present, and Utah chub are abundant enough to be both the forage base and a management headache.
The other side of the story is the drawdown, and it is severe. As irrigation demand builds through July and August the pool drops, sometimes dramatically, concentrating fish, exposing long stretches of mudflat and leaving ramps stranded well above the waterline. In dry years the reservoir can be pulled low enough that fishing effectively ends and overwinter survival becomes a real question. This is not a failure of management, it is what the reservoir was built to do.
That makes the gauge unusually valuable here. It reports reservoir elevation on a fifteen-minute interval, and elevation is precisely the number that decides whether the drive is worthwhile. The storage series at this site currently returns no values, so elevation is the one to read. There is no water-temperature record, so seasonal timing has to come from air temperature and local report.
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The photo at the top of this page is not Big Sandy Reservoir.
It is a regional stand-in, honestly captioned but generic — we will not put a name to a river we cannot prove. Send us a photograph you took here and it replaces the stand-in, with your credit on it.
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Pool right now
- 24 hours+0.26 ft ↑ rising
Reading taken 1h ago at USGS 09213700, BIG SANDY RESERVOIR NEAR FARSON, WY. Elevation is the surface of the lake above the survey datum, not depth. Source.
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Access
Big Sandy Recreation Area - the developed state-managed access on the reservoir with a ramp and camping.
Farson - the small settlement at the junction just south, with fuel, a store and the nearest services.
Big Sandy River - the inflow above the reservoir, small trout water worth walking in early summer.
Eden - the farming community the reservoir irrigates, on the road in from the south.
Green River - the major river to the west, with a far more reliable trout fishery when the reservoir is low.
Fontenelle Reservoir - the larger impoundment downstream on the Green, the usual alternative in a drawdown year.
Pinedale - the nearest town with full services, tackle and guides, north toward the Wind River Range.
Seasons
Spring: ice-off through June is the prime window, with the pool filling, water cold and trout feeding hard in the shallows.
Summer: early summer fishes well, then the irrigation drawdown begins and conditions deteriorate through August.
Fall: fishing can recover once releases stop and the pool stabilises, though the water left is often shallow and warm.
Winter: frozen over, with a modest ice fishery that depends entirely on how much water was left at the end of the season.
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Questions
What species can you catch on the Big Sandy Reservoir?
Anglers target Brown Trout, Cutthroat Trout, Rainbow Trout, Utah Chub on the Big Sandy Reservoir in Wyoming.
Where can you access the Big Sandy Reservoir?
Big Sandy Recreation Area - the developed state-managed access on the reservoir with a ramp and camping. Farson - the small settlement at the junction just south, with fuel, a store and the nearest services. Big Sandy River - the inflow above the reservoir, small trout water worth walking in early summer. Eden - the farming community the reservoir irrigates, on the road in from the south. Green River - the major river to the west, with a far more reliable trout fishery when the reservoir is low. Fontenelle Reservoir - the larger impoundment downstream on the Green, the usual alternative in a d...
When is the best time to fish the Big Sandy Reservoir?
Spring: ice-off through June is the prime window, with the pool filling, water cold and trout feeding hard in the shallows. Summer: early summer fishes well, then the irrigation drawdown begins and conditions deteriorate through August. Fall: fishing can recover once releases stop and the pool stabilises, though the water left is often shallow and warm. Winter: frozen over, with a modest ice fishery that depends entirely on how much water was left at the end of the season.
Where are the fishing regulations for the Big Sandy Reservoir?
Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Wyoming agency site: https://wgfd.wyo.gov/regulations