The Wind River is one of the West’s forgotten fly fishing treasures.

The Wind River Doesn't get the attention that the Snake and Bighorn rivers do. Yet it stands with the best Wyoming fly fishing destinations for large numbers of very big trout.

Even though it's a great river running through breathtaking wilderness, a scenic canyon and sage covered high plains, it receives very little fly fishing pressure. The Wind river holds a lot of trout, and some get very big. The Wind river gets fished very little because some of it's best water flows through the Wind River Indian Reservation.

The upper Wind river runs west of the reservation boundary and can be fished with a valid Wyoming fishing licence. Access is very good because much of it flows through Shoshone National Forest. In the National Forest the river is paralleled by a highway. The head waters are small and can be easily waded before and after the run off. The headwaters area can produce lots of rainbows and brooks with an occasional cutthroat or brown trout.

The Wind Rivers best water flows below Boysen reservoir for 15 miles through the Wind River canyon. This prime stretch of water offers excellent fishing. The canyon is one of the best places in the west to catch a five pound brown or rainbow or even an occasional monster cutthroat. Fish in this stretch of river often reach 20 plus inches and a few will pass 30 inches.

Fishing the Canyon requires a reservation permit which can be purchased in Riverton, Shoshone or Thermopolis. A non resident permit will run about twenty dollars for a day.

The Wind river gets very little fly fishing pressure through the canyon and yet can produce some of the biggest trout in the west. Huge trout and no competition! Anyway you look at it, the Wind River is a Wyoming fly fishing blue ribbon stream.

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