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Home › Waters › Montana › Gallatin River
River · Southwest Montana · Montana

Gallatin River Fishing Guides

A wade-only freestone running out of Yellowstone through the Gallatin Canyon past Big Sky to Bozeman, pocket water the whole way and no boats allowed.

A river running below a distant mountain range in the Rockies

Map of the Gallatin River

6 numbered points: 5 access points, 1 USGS gauge. Tap a marker for details. Reviewed Sep 7, 2026.

Printable version →
  • Access / boat ramp (5)
  • USGS gauge (1)
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Points are curated from OpenStreetMap and state agency sources; confirm access and hours before you go.

Print it. Bag it. Bring it.Phones die, screens crack, and most of this water has no signal. Print this map, fold it into a zip-top bag or dry bag with your license, and you have a backup your electronics can’t give you. Every marker is numbered so you can say exactly where you are.

Open the printable map
All 6 points on this map
#PointTypeLat, LonNotes
1USGS gauge 06043500 — Gallatin River near Gallatin Gateway
Real-time flow and stage		USGS gauge45.49730, -111.27071Check it before you launch. Station is in the lower canyon above Gallatin Gateway.
2Kirk Wildlife Refuge Fishing Access Site
Montana FWP · walk-in		Access / boat ramp45.51036, -111.261065 miles south of Gallatin Gateway on Hwy 191, just north of the Spanish Creek Road turnoff. A riverfront strip, fishing access only.
3Axtell Bridge Fishing Access Site
Montana FWP · hand launch		Access / boat ramp45.62339, -111.204864.3 miles south of Four Corners on Hwy 191 to Axtell Bridge Road.
4Shed's Bridge Fishing Access Site
Montana FWP		Access / boat ramp45.67378, -111.209197 miles west of Bozeman on Hwy 84.
5Cameron Bridge Fishing Access Site
Montana FWP		Access / boat ramp45.73773, -111.220122 miles south of Belgrade on Hwy 85 at mile marker 5, then 2 miles west on West Cameron Bridge Road.
6Erwin Bridge Fishing Access Site
Montana FWP · walk-in		Access / boat ramp45.76922, -111.239044 miles west of Belgrade on Amsterdam Road (Route 347). Toilet, no ramp.

Guides on the Gallatin 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 Gallatin River

The Gallatin starts in Yellowstone National Park, runs north through the Gallatin Canyon past Big Sky, and opens into the valley above Bozeman before joining the Madison and Jefferson at Three Forks to form the Missouri. It is the odd river out among Montana’s famous trout streams because fishing from a boat is prohibited on most of it, which means every fish in the Gallatin is caught by somebody standing in it.

That restriction is the river’s gift. Highway 191 follows the canyon for forty miles with pullouts every few hundred yards, and an angler can fish a hundred different pieces of pocket water in a day without seeing another person in the water. Rainbows, browns and cutthroat hold in the seams behind boulders, the fish are not large by Montana standards, and they are willing. The salmonfly hatch in early July and the fall streamer fishing are the two events worth planning around, and the meadow water inside the park is a quieter, smaller-stream experience.

The Gallatin Gateway gauge reads the river as it leaves the canyon. Roughly 300 to 900 cfs is comfortable wading; runoff in late May and June can push it past 2,000, when the canyon runs brown and the whitewater rafts take over. Late summer drops it low and clear, which makes for easy wading and spooky fish, and irrigation diversion affects the valley reaches below the canyon.

Bozeman and Big Sky bracket the river, and the drive between them is the access. Fly shops in both towns, easy roadside parking and no boat required make this the most approachable of the three rivers around Bozeman.

This water needs a real photo

The photo at the top of this page is not Gallatin River.

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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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.

Fished this water? Add a photo

Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Gallatin 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.

Flow alert

Tell me when the Gallatin River cfs

Now: 360 cfs, read 6:00 pm CDT, Sun Oct 18, 2026 (USGS 06043500, Gallatin River near Gallatin Gateway, MT).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Yellowstone National Park: the headwaters and the meadow reaches, park regulations apply.
Taylor Fork and Sage Creek: upper canyon access along Highway 191.
Big Sky and the Storm Castle area: mid-canyon pullouts and popular water.
House Rock and the Mad Mile: canyon whitewater reaches with good pocket fishing.
Gallatin Gateway: access near the gauge where the canyon opens.
Axtell Bridge and Cameron Bridge: valley access below the canyon.
Fishing from a boat is prohibited on most of the river; plan to wade.

Seasons

Year-round on the lower river; the park section follows park season dates.
April and May: pre-runoff fishing, then high, off-color water.
Late June and July: salmonflies as the river drops, the best weeks of the season.
August through October: terrestrials, low clear water, then brown trout on streamers in the fall.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Gallatin River?

As of Oct 18, 6:00 pm, the USGS gauge Gallatin River near Gallatin Gateway, MT reads 360 cfs, the 19th percentile for this date. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Gallatin River?

Anglers target Brook Trout, Brown Trout, Cutthroat Trout, Mountain Whitefish, Rainbow Trout on the Gallatin River in Montana.

Are there fishing guides on the Gallatin River?

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

Where can you access the Gallatin River?

Yellowstone National Park: the headwaters and the meadow reaches, park regulations apply. Taylor Fork and Sage Creek: upper canyon access along Highway 191. Big Sky and the Storm Castle area: mid-canyon pullouts and popular water. House Rock and the Mad Mile: canyon whitewater reaches with good pocket fishing. Gallatin Gateway: access near the gauge where the canyon opens. Axtell Bridge and Cameron Bridge: valley access below the canyon. Fishing from a boat is prohibited on most of the river; plan to wade.

When is the best time to fish the Gallatin River?

Year-round on the lower river; the park section follows park season dates. April and May: pre-runoff fishing, then high, off-color water. Late June and July: salmonflies as the river drops, the best weeks of the season. August through October: terrestrials, low clear water, then brown trout on streamers in the fall.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Gallatin River?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Montana agency site: https://fwp.mt.gov/fish/regulations