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Home › Waters › Wyoming › Lamar River
River · Northeastern Wyoming, Yellowstone National Park, the Lamar Valley between Soda Butte and Tower · Wyoming

Lamar River Fishing Guides

The Lamar Valley's big meadow river, the best-known native Yellowstone cutthroat dry fly water in the park.

A river running below a distant mountain range in the Rockies
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Lamar 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 Lamar River

The Lamar River drains six hundred and sixty-eight square miles of the northeastern corner of Yellowstone National Park and runs the length of the Lamar Valley before turning into a canyon above Tower. For a great many anglers it is the single reason to come to the park. The valley reach is wide open meadow water, braided in places, with long flats, deep outside bends and cutbanks, and it holds Yellowstone cutthroat trout that rise willingly to a dry fly when conditions are right.

Those conditions are the whole story on the Lamar. The river drains erodible ground and it dirties quickly, so a summer thunderstorm can put it out of shape for a day or more while the rest of the park fishes fine. When it is clear, the fishing is as good as dry fly fishing gets in the West. Terrestrials carry the summer, with hoppers, ants and beetles drifted tight to the banks, and the cutthroat take them slowly enough that most first-time visitors pull the fly away before the fish has it.

The fish themselves are native Yellowstone cutthroat, thickly spotted toward the tail and heavier than the small mountain cutthroat most anglers picture. Rainbows and cuttbow hybrids are present in the lower river toward the confluence with the Yellowstone, and mountain whitefish fill the deeper runs. Catch and release with barbless hooks is the norm and the regulations reflect it.

Anyone fishing the Lamar should understand that the valley is also the most reliable bison and wolf country in the park. Herds cross the river regularly, roadside traffic stops without warning, and giving animals a wide berth is part of a day here. Most of the good water requires a walk of a mile or more from the pullouts, which is also what keeps it pleasant.

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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 Lamar 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

Tower Ranger Station - the gauge reach at the lower end, near the confluence with the Yellowstone.
Lamar Canyon - fast broken water between the valley and Tower, reached from the northeast road.
Lamar Valley pullouts - the classic meadow water, with several miles of walk-in bank.
Confluence with Soda Butte Creek - the upper end of the valley reach and a common starting point.
Slough Creek confluence - a short walk from the Slough Creek campground road.
Cache Creek - the largest backcountry tributary, reached by trail from the valley.
Silver Gate and Cooke City - the nearest towns for lodging, guides and supplies.

Seasons

Spring: high, cold and usually off-color with snowmelt well into June.
Summer: the peak season once the river clears, with hoppers and other terrestrials on the banks.
Fall: excellent while it lasts, with cool stable flows and cutthroat feeding hard before winter.
Winter: closed to fishing within the park for the season.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Lamar River?

As of Sep 17, 5:15 am, the USGS gauge Lamar River nr Tower Ranger Station YNP reads 153 cfs, with water temperature 53.4 F. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Lamar River?

Anglers target Cuttbow, Mountain Whitefish, Rainbow Trout, Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout on the Lamar River in Wyoming.

Are there fishing guides on the Lamar River?

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

Where can you access the Lamar River?

Tower Ranger Station - the gauge reach at the lower end, near the confluence with the Yellowstone. Lamar Canyon - fast broken water between the valley and Tower, reached from the northeast road. Lamar Valley pullouts - the classic meadow water, with several miles of walk-in bank. Confluence with Soda Butte Creek - the upper end of the valley reach and a common starting point. Slough Creek confluence - a short walk from the Slough Creek campground road. Cache Creek - the largest backcountry tributary, reached by trail from the valley. Silver Gate and Cooke City - the nearest towns for lodging,...

When is the best time to fish the Lamar River?

Spring: high, cold and usually off-color with snowmelt well into June. Summer: the peak season once the river clears, with hoppers and other terrestrials on the banks. Fall: excellent while it lasts, with cool stable flows and cutthroat feeding hard before winter. Winter: closed to fishing within the park for the season.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Lamar River?

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