Fishing Report - 5/7/26

Winter has returned to southern Wyoming. About 6" of heavy, wet snow has blanketed Laramie, Albany, and Carbon counties and provided a much-needed late season boost to our low snowpack. The Snowy Range is still at a meager 41% of average snowpack for the year, so this certainly doesn't make up for the poor winter, but it does provide a much-needed boost.

Temperatures are forecasted to rise throughout the week so expect runoff conditions to start pretty quickly going into the weekend. This will be a good weekend to seek out higher elevation tributaries (as much as you can access them) where anglers should find smaller streams not yet affected by snowmelt and runoff.

Watch for stabilizing or dropping trends on the main branches of the Platte and Laramie Rivers. Both of these stretches are likely to be rising consistently over the weekend, but keeping an eye on flows and finding a day where flows start to level off or even drop can provide for some great fishing this time of year.

Upper North Platte

Flows: ~ 150 cfs (Northgate)

Conditions: The Platte provided some of the best action of the year at around 100 cfs ahead of this week's winter storm moving in. We had solid fish aggressively chasing streamers and taking stonefly patterns. We continued to have good fishing the following morning until water temperatures started to drop considerably. The Platte will be on the rise this week which will make for tough fishing conditions, but focusing on the lower flows of the early morning can still provide some action this time of year.

Flies: Nymphs; Pat's Rubber Legs, Tim's Stone, Flexy Stone, 20 Incher, Smethurst's Stone Bomb, San Juan Worm, Get Down Worm

Streamers; Galloup's Nancy P, Mini Dungeon, Circus Peanut, Mini Bangtail, Heisenberg, Zoo Cougar, Sculpzilla, GB Crystal Bugger, Thin Mint, Slumpbuster, Platte Spider

Laramie River

Flows: ~ 70 cfs (Woods Landing, WY)

Conditions: Flows on the Laramie started to jump quite a bit yesterday with snow melting off throughout the valley. Expect flows to continue to rise with difficult fishing conditions.

Flies: Nymphs; 20 Incher, Pat's Rubber Legs, Tim's Stone, San Juan Worm, Get Down Worm

Streamers; Mini Dungeon, Circus Peanut, Mini Bangtail, Sculpzilla, Silvey's Sculpin, Platte Spider, Stacked Blonde, Zoo Cougar

Tributary Streams

Flows: ~ 40- 300 cfs

Conditions: Tributaries to the Platte and Laramie Rivers are likely to be the best option moving into next week with rising flows. Tributaries offer the opportunity to explore flows at different elevations, and typically anglers who search higher in the drainages can find fishable flows and clear water. With temperatures starting to climb this week, now is probably the time to make the transition to a hopper-dropper rig as we are finally starting to see eats on top.

Flies: Nymphs; 20 Incher, Rubber Legs, Hare's Ear, Copper John, San Juan Worm

Streamers; Thin Mint, Wolly Bugger, Platte River Spider, Tequeely, Slumpbuster, Pine Squirrel, Dirty Hippie, Baby Gonga

Vedauwoo/Pole Mountain

Conditions: No reports from Veduawoo/Pole Mountain this season.

Flies: N/A

Alpine Lakes and Streams

Conditions: N/A

Flies: N/A