There’s a saying in these parts that rings pretty true. “Fish Wyoming – 300,000 Coloradans can’t all be wrong.” We give our southern neighbors a lot of grief for coming up here to fish, but in truth, they’re a big part of the reason our fishing is so good here.
Coloradans and other nonresidents pay more for their fishing licenses than Wyoming residents do, and that money goes back into raising and stocking fish, fish habitat, and other improvements that help our chances to catch the big one. Sure, you might have to share some bank space with someone else, but there are plenty of fish in the streams.
And there’s no sense complaining about the nonresidents if we don’t get out there ourselves. One of the best things about fishing is that you can take as much or as little time as you can to go. If you only have an hour or two after work, you can find a place close to town to drop a line for a little while. If you have a week off, you can go deep into the backcountry and get far away from any other people. All you have to do is grab your gear and find some water.
There’s also plenty of public water to fish in Wyoming. Even if a stream runs through private property, quite often the landowner will open the access to anyone through the Walk-In Fishing program. Check out the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s website to find a good stretch of Walk-In Fishing water.
And then there are the fish. I joke that I’m the world’s worst fisherman, and that might actually be true. But even I can catch fish in the Cowboy State, so you should be able to limit out or catch and release all day long.
Just go fishing. What’s stopping you?
