The North Fork of the Shoshone: The Other Side of Yellowstone
The area was the chosen home of William F. Cody, famous scout, buffalo hunter, entrepreneur, showman, and friend of the influential. He founded the town of Cody, Wyoming, in 1896. From that time until the present, the broad streets, world-class Buffalo Bill Historical Center, and unique Western atmosphere has attracted tourists, outdoor enthusiasts, dudes, hunters, and anglers annually.
Direct flights to Cody are served by United and Delta Airlines via United Express and Skywest. The hubs for these flights originate in Denver and Salt Lake City, respectively. Rental-car companies are located at the airport. There are more than 35 hotels and motels available for lodging. The average price of a room in the peak months is $75 per night. Numerous restaurants feature everything from steaks to Chinese, and most are within easy walking distance from lodgings.
Cody is also the hub for a vast amount of other fly-fishing opportunities. Within a driving radius of 100 miles, anglers can choose from more than 1,500 miles of blue-ribbon trout waters. Besides the North Fork of the Shoshone, this area includes eastern Yellowstone National Park, which offers Yellowstone Lake, the Yellowstone River, Lamar River, Slough Creek, and Soda Butte Creek. East of the Park, rivers and streams drain into the Bighorn Basin from the Owl Creek, Absaroka Range, and Beartooth and Bighorn Mountains.
Stillwater anglers can be content with the dozens of alpine lakes and several high-desert reservoirs. All of these waters have excellent trout populations and great hatches, and provide innumerable days of fly-fishing side trips.
North of Cody is the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone. The Clarks Fork is Wyoming’s only Wild and Scenic River and drains the Beartooth Mountain range bordering Montana and Wyoming to the north and the Absaroka Range to the south, eventually winding its way back north to join the Yellowstone River near Billings, Montana.
The Clarks Fork has three distinct sections. The upper, which parallels Chief Joseph Scenic Highway, is classic dry-fly water in the summer months and was a favorite of Ernest Hemingway. The middle, which is accessible by two trails, one named Cardiac, the other Deadman, is in the rugged and steep Clarks Fork Canyon. The lower section spills out of the canyon and enters the Clarks Fork valley, accessible via Park County Road 8VC.
Anglers can catch everything from brook trout in the upper river to big browns and rainbows on the lower Clarks Fork. July to late September is the best time to experience the Clarks Fork, but you can fish the lower section of this river from late March through late November with gratifying results.
The main stem of the Shoshone River bisects the town of Cody. This tailwater river begins at Buffalo Bill Dam and flows east for 50 miles through the Bighorn Basin before joining the Bighorn River near the town of Lovell, Wyoming. Below the dam to Corbett Bridge on State Highway 14 the fishing is excellent year-round, with a healthy population of rainbows, browns, and Snake River cutthroat. Public access is best in the town of Cody and upstream near the dam at Hayden Arch Bridge.
Thirty miles south of Cody, the Greybull River runs through the little cow town of Meeteetse. Access to the Greybull is from inside the Shoshone National Forest, another 25 miles to the west via State Highway 290. You need a four-wheel-drive vehicle for exploring the forest because Highway 290 turns into a dirt road, which leads to Jack Creek campground, the only place to park. Native Yellowstone cutthroat and whitefish inhabit the river. Since the area is virtually roadless, anglers must be willing to walk to fish the Greybull.
Two easily accessible, public stillwater fisheries lie close to Cody as well. East Newton Lake, 5 miles north of Cody, is full of large brown, rainbow, splake, and brook trout. Only 30 acres, this alkaline high-desert pond is managed as a flies-and-lures-only fishery by Wyoming Game and Fish due to special regulation efforts by local FFF and TU chapters in 1987. East Newton is fishable from late February until ice-up sometime in November. The large fish in East Newton feed on midges, scuds, damsels, caddis, Callibaetis, dragonflies, leeches, snails, and baitfish.
The other stillwater is Luce Reservoir, another impoundment filled with hot rainbow trout. This lake has only recently been opened to the public and is managed as catch-and-release, flies and lures only. Luce, or Loosie, as the locals call her, is approximately 25 miles north of Cody on Park County Road 7RP. Luce fishes best from May until ice-up in late October. Food sources aren’t as abundant as those in East Newton, but Woolly Buggers, smaller beadhead nymphs, damsel patterns, Adams, hoppers, and ant patterns do well during the season at Luce.
With miles and miles of top-notch fly fishing available, it isn’t surprising to find more anglers calling North Fork Country their favorite place to spend the summer. Even two decades after my first visit, I still look forward to catching those remarkable trout in the North Fork of the Shoshone. After each spring runoff, the high water redefines the personality of the river providing new challenges and new holding places for trout.
Tim Wade operates Tim Wade’s North Fork Anglers in Cody, Wyoming. He lives in Cody, Wyoming.
Copyright © 2012 Intermedia Outdoors
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