Winter Of Discontent: Wyoming Had Almost No Ice Fishing Season This Year

With temperatures regularly soaring into the 40s and 50s during the usually prime ice fishing months of January and February, Wyoming’s ice fishing season was brief in some places, and never happened in others.

Flaming Gorge Reservoir is usually a major ice fishing destination. This year, it was never completely frozen and ice fishing derbies were canceled, Tony Valdez, owner of the Buckboard Marina, told Cowboy State Daily.

“We thought we were going to get some ice, then it never formed,” he said.

However, “the boat fishing was good,” and keeps getting better as spring arrives, he added.

Fontenelle Reservoir in southwest Wyoming kept a good covering of ice through most of February, Ryan Hudson, owner of Wyoming Fishing Company Guide Service, told Cowboy State Daily.

Night ice fishing is a favorite among his clients, and he took excursions out onto the ice after dark through February.

By early March, Hudson figured the ice fishing season was about over.

“Here in Pinedale, it’s sunny, in the high 40s,” he said.

During his last outing, Hudson, one of his guides and a client went out and “fished all over that lake” trying to find a trophy-sized burbot.

They weren’t having any luck, and the client gave up about 4 a.m., he said.

“About 20 minutes after he left, my guide caught a 28-inch burbot,” Hudson said.  

‘Ice Was Really Sketchy’

While the main part of Flaming Gorge never froze up solid enough for ice fishing, there was some opportunities along the edges or in secondary waters, like Firehole Canyon, Valdez said.

Even there, “the ice was sketchy,” he said.

On Feb. 7, one of his fishing guides, Shane Dubois, was on the ice with some clients when four anglers “went around them with a snow dog (a small, tracked vehicle for pulling things) and a sled,” he said.

Unfortunately for them, they misjudged the ice and it broke underneath them, he said.

Dubois helped them out of the water, no worse for wear, but they lost much of their gear.

Lake Trout Still Biting Like Crazy

There’s no catch limit on smaller lake trout in Flaming Gorge.

Wildlife agencies on both sides of the Wyoming-Utah state line want the number of lake trout in Flaming Gorge knocked back, to protect the reservoir’s prized kokanee salmon.

Despite ice fishing not being an option, the lake trout fishing from boats has been great all winter.

“There’s still an ongoing contest to see who can catch the most lake trout,” Valdez said.

Park County Woes

There was no ice fishing this winter at Park County’s favorite spot, Buffalo Bill Reservoir, local outdoorsman Dalton Epperson told Cowboy State Daily.

“Usually we can fish Buffalo Bill by the end of January, and it never got any ice this year,” he said.

“That’s the one lake that everybody looks forward to fishing,” because it’s so much fun,” he added.

Usually, ice fishing at Buffalo Bill can yield 20-inch rainbow trout, and some lake trout.

"The only place that held any ice that was even remotely safe in Park County was Lower Sunshine Reservoir, south of Meeteetse,” Epperson said.

It froze up on time, about Jan. 10, but the ice wasn’t safe anymore after about the middle of February, he said.

During a normal winter, there’s ice fishing on Lower Sunshine well into March, he said.

“Usually, there’s still two feet of ice on that lake,” Epperson said.

Lower Sunshine is a hotspot for splake — a hybrid species produced by crossing brook trout and lake trout and stocked in the reservoir by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.