Fly Fishing Smiths Fork

Fly fishing Smiths Fork – Cokeville takes you to the far southwest corner of Wyoming, where the west slope of the Wyoming Range sheds its snowmelt toward the Bear River. The section runs from headwater country inside Bridger-Teton National Forest down through the open ranch meadows of the Cokeville valley to the Bear River confluence, with the river sitting near 6,700 feet. It is quiet, lightly traveled water that carries a distinction worth stating plainly: this drainage is the premier Wyoming stronghold of the native Bonneville cutthroat trout.

Everything about the fishing follows from that elevation and from the fact that this is pure freestone water — no dam, no tailwater regime, just snowmelt, springs, and shade. The reach falls about thirty feet per mile overall, enough grade to keep the upper river tumbling through pocket water and short riffle-and-pool sequences, not enough to make the lower river hurry. Through the meadows the character turns pool-dominant: long, deep bends, undercut banks, willow edges, and foam lines you can work end to end. Cold water and altitude keep it in shape long after lower-valley streams have gone soft.

Native fish in native water is the reason to make the drive. Bonneville cutthroat evolved in this basin, and the Smiths Fork is where Wyoming's share of them has held on best — wild, brightly colored trout that reward careful handling. Twelve to sixteen inches is the honest average, and the heavier fish hold deep: the belly of a meadow pool, the shadow under a cut bank. Brown trout share the river and grow stouter in the slower water down near the Bear River confluence, and mountain whitefish are common throughout. Cutthroat thin and browns thicken as you drop in elevation.

At heart this is a terrestrial and attractor stream. Once the bank grass dries out and the wind comes up, hoppers, ants, and beetles land in the water and the trout expect them — and that lasts until the first hard freezes. The mayflies and stoneflies fill in around it: golden stones and an early-summer green drake emergence bring the heaviest cutthroat to the top, caddis work the afternoon and evening light, and pale morning duns and little yellow stones cover the middle of the day. On the cold end of the year, midges hold down the slow water and blue-winged olives bookend the season on gray, overcast afternoons.

Snowmelt dictates the calendar. Spring runoff pushes the river high and off-color as the Wyoming Range lets go of its snowpack, and there is no fighting it — the fishing begins when the water drops and clears. From there the Smiths Fork holds in the range of seventy to two hundred cfs, where it both wades and fishes at its best, and it stays there deep into autumn. The USGS gage near Border sits inside this section and gives a straight read on conditions before you commit to the drive. Wading is moderate, and the river is not floatable, so plan on boots.

Be realistic about access. Most of the best meadow water below the national forest crosses private working ranches, and much of it is fishable only through the outfits holding leases on those stretches — this is not a river you can simply pull over and walk. What is open is the upper end, where the Smiths Fork runs through Bridger-Teton National Forest and BLM ground reached by forest roads and two-tracks. That water is small, intimate, walk-and-wade fishing, and it also happens to hold the highest concentration of native cutthroat. Cokeville, a ranching community on US 30, is the closest town, and Salt Lake City is the nearest commercial airport, roughly two and a half hours south.