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Home › Waters › Nevada › Wild Horse Reservoir
Reservoir · Elko County in far northern Nevada, on the Owyhee River north of Elko · Nevada

Wild Horse Reservoir Fishing Guides

A high sagebrush-basin trout reservoir on the Owyhee River north of Elko, sitting above six thousand feet and offering Nevada's most reliable ice fishing.

Desert country running down to open water in the Southwest
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

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About the Wild Horse Reservoir

Wild Horse Reservoir sits at just over six thousand feet in the open sagebrush country of northern Elko County, impounding the Owyhee River about seventy miles north of the town of Elko on the road to Idaho. It covers roughly twenty-eight hundred acres at full pool. The setting is high, cold, treeless and genuinely remote, and the drive in from any direction crosses a great deal of empty ground, which is a large part of the appeal for anglers who want water without company.

Rainbow trout are the mainstay and are stocked to support the fishery, growing quickly on a strong invertebrate and forage base. Brown trout are present and reach good sizes. Yellow perch are abundant and, in practice, are what most winter anglers are catching. Smallmouth and largemouth bass have established themselves along the rockier shoreline and in the shallow arms, providing a warmwater option that surprises visitors who came for trout.

The elevation defines the calendar. Ice normally covers the reservoir from December into April, and Wild Horse is the most dependable ice fishery in Nevada, drawing anglers from Idaho and Utah as well as from across the state. Open water fishing runs from spring thaw through October, with trolling and shore fishing both productive and float tubes common in the shallow bays. Wind across the exposed basin is a daily consideration and cold nights persist well into the summer. A state recreation area on the east shore provides the ramp, camping and the practical base for a trip, and services beyond that are thin enough that anglers should arrive fully supplied. Weather is the other planning variable, since snow can close the highway north of Elko well into spring and again from late autumn, and a trip booked at either shoulder should carry a flexible date.

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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

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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 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.

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Pool right now

6,183.37ft
  • 24 hours-0.05 ft → steady
  • Storage23,430 acre-ft

Reading taken 1h ago at USGS 13174000, WILD HORSE RES NR GOLD CR, NV. Elevation is the surface of the lake above the survey datum, not depth. Source.

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 Wild Horse Reservoir.

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

Wild Horse State Recreation Area - the main east shore access, with a boat ramp, campground and parking.
The dam at the north end - the deepest water and the most consistent summer holding area.
The Owyhee River inlet at the south end - current, shallow water and spring staging fish.
West shore pull-offs along the state highway - walk-in shore fishing and float tube access.
The shallow eastern bays - weed growth and warmwater cover for perch and bass.
Wild Horse Crossing and the upper Owyhee - stream fishing within a short drive for a change of pace.
Elko, about seventy miles south - the nearest full-service town for lodging, tackle and licenses.

Seasons

Spring: ice-out in April brings the strongest trout fishing of the year, with fish shallow and feeding hard.
Summer: trolling and shore fishing for rainbows and browns, with perch and bass in the shallow bays.
Fall: cooling water brings brown trout shallow and the reservoir is at its quietest before freeze-up.
Winter: the most reliable ice fishery in Nevada, principally for yellow perch and rainbow trout from December into April.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Wild Horse Reservoir?

Anglers target Brown Trout, Largemouth Bass, Rainbow Trout, Smallmouth Bass, Yellow Perch on the Wild Horse Reservoir in Nevada.

Where can you access the Wild Horse Reservoir?

Wild Horse State Recreation Area - the main east shore access, with a boat ramp, campground and parking. The dam at the north end - the deepest water and the most consistent summer holding area. The Owyhee River inlet at the south end - current, shallow water and spring staging fish. West shore pull-offs along the state highway - walk-in shore fishing and float tube access. The shallow eastern bays - weed growth and warmwater cover for perch and bass. Wild Horse Crossing and the upper Owyhee - stream fishing within a short drive for a change of pace. Elko, about seventy miles south - the neare...

When is the best time to fish the Wild Horse Reservoir?

Spring: ice-out in April brings the strongest trout fishing of the year, with fish shallow and feeding hard. Summer: trolling and shore fishing for rainbows and browns, with perch and bass in the shallow bays. Fall: cooling water brings brown trout shallow and the reservoir is at its quietest before freeze-up. Winter: the most reliable ice fishery in Nevada, principally for yellow perch and rainbow trout from December into April.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Wild Horse Reservoir?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Nevada agency site: https://www.ndow.org/rules-regulations/