Yellowstone National Park closes fishing on additional rivers, streams due to high heat

It has been twelve days since Yellowstone National Park initially began to close fishing access to some of its most pristine rivers. On July 12th, the park restricted fishing on each of the Gibbon and Firehole Rivers, as well as the famed Madison River – a Blue Ribbon fishery – citing the spike in temperatures and the impact the heat would have on both water levels and fish health.

While the park managed to make it through the mid-90s heatwave that came in the days following that closure, the continued warmth has prompted the park to make additional closures. Effective immediately, the Yellowstone River from Tower Junction to the north boundary of the park will be closed to all fishing from 2 PM until sunrise the following day, while fellow northern park waters like the Gibbon River, Gardner River, Slough Creek, Lamar River, and Soda Butte Creek will be on similar restrictions in sections.

While it’s easy to have your eyes focus solely on the complex closure schedules facing the western and northeastern portions of the park, take note of the periodic closures on the Snake River at the southern boundary, too. It’ll be closed from 2PM until sunrise the following day on a section just past the confluence of Forest Creek, just a few miles west of its headwaters off the Two Ocean Plateau east of Heart Lake.

The National Park Service’s press release doesn’t get into detail about the closure of that particular section of the Snake, but I’ll take a gander that it’s due to its accessibility right next to the southern entrance of the park and the high amount of fishing traffic that comes with it.

While this news will surely throw a few wrinkles into existing fishing plans, it’s worth emphasizing that fishing is still open on the non Gibbon/Firehole/Madison waters mentioned here from sunrise until 2PM. If you’re planning to enter the park and fish, allow me to direct you to the 2024 Yellowstone National Park fishing guide, which provides intricate details of which fish are in the region, which species should not be in the region, and how to navigate catching both native and non-native fish.

(You’ll also need a specific Yellowstone National Park fishing permit, which you can aquire here through Recreation.gov.)