The results from a recent study surprised even Matt Hahn, a biologist who has been monitoring fish in the North Platte River for nearly two decades.
Almost a quarter of the river’s trout are seriously injured from fishing hooks, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department found after years studying fish in popular sections of the river.
Fish in some sections fared better than others, but Hahn fears catch-and-release fishing, a method generally considered a best practice for conservation, is taking a toll.
The issue is more complicated than simply changing regulations on a river that supports a multi-million dollar guiding industry and thousands of recreational anglers. Any changes would require long, hard conversations among guides and outfitters, state officials, biologists and anglers.
That conversation will start in a Game and Fish conference room at 6 p.m. Wednesday in Casper.
“We’re at the point now where we need to figure out where we’re going to go with this,” said Hahn, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s Casper regional fisheries supervisor. “There are a lot of options available.”
A popular river
The North Platte River isn’t a native trout fishery. Before dams like Seminoe, Pathfinder and Alcova, the river was a wide, free-flowing, flood-prone swath of Rocky Mountain runoff. The dams made tailwaters, and those tailwaters created perfect habitat for trout fishing. So away went the catfish and the sturgeon in the upper stretches and in came stocked rainbow, brown and cutthroat trout. And for many years, few regulations governed the water.
Then in the mid-90s, fisheries officials realized the popularity of filling coolers with fish from the river was becoming unsustainable.
About 43% of the trout from Gray Reef Dam to a section called Lusby were being taken home to eat each year, causing average fish sizes to drop.
In response, in 1998, Game and Fish created a new regulation. Anglers could only keep one fish, and it had to be longer than 20 inches, not an impossibly large fish in the North Platte River, but not the average size, either.
Around the same time, the broader fly-fishing culture started to change. Anglers realized instead of catching and keeping fish, they could catch them and let them go, allowing them to continue living their lives and grow larger and larger.
And it worked. Fish numbers increased in the river, and Game and Fish mostly stopped stocking fish. It turned into a wild fishery — not a native fishery, but a self-sustaining one — and the popularity of sport fishing swelled.
Recreational anglers, those wading or floating on a Saturday or Sunday or occasionally after work during the week, increased. Commercial guiding exploded.
In 1995, Game and Fish recorded 230 boats floating from Gray Reef to Government Bridge on the North Platte. About 22% of them were nonresident anglers and likely few or none of them were commercial outfitters. Between February and December 2022, 4,424 boats floated that same stretch. More than 90% of them were nonresident anglers and 89% were commercial trips, according to data from Hahn.
The Miracle Mile, a section of river above Pathfinder Reservoir, has similar trends. No boats floated that stretch in much of 2001, but by 2022, almost 2,000 boat trips went down the river and 96% were commercially guided.
“We were cognizant of that increase, and so around 2019, we decided to look at fish in the Miracle Mile,” Hahn said. “About half the fish over 12 inches displayed some level of hooking injury.”
An inevitable toll
In 2020, Hahn gathered other fisheries biologists and came up with a plan to see if the scarring on the Miracle Mile was unique to that section or applied to the rest of the river.
For three years, biologists used mild electric current at 15 places between the Miracle Mile and Glenrock to momentarily stun fish but otherwise leave them unharmed. Biologists pulled stunned fish out of the water and checked them for injuries. Each fish got a rating between 0 and 4, the difference between no hooking injury at all and one so severe the fish would likely soon die.
The biologists found that between the Miracle Mile and Government Bridge — the most popular sections of the river — about 20% to 25% of the fish had severe enough injuries to their gills, body cavity or eyes that they may not survive.
At the same time, crews performed similar surveys on other popular Wyoming rivers and found that this rate of injury was particular to the Platte. Hahn guesses it’s in part because the river is fishable year-round, is close to major population centers and has significant commercial fishing pressure. The North Platte near Casper also has a reputation for being a blue-ribbon fishery, drawing anglers from around the world.
What all of this new information means for fishing on the most popular sections of the Platte is the next puzzle.
Regulations versus status quo
For Trent Tatum, co-owner of The Reef Fly Shop and North Platte Lodge, the answer feels pretty simple: Regulate the fishing tackle that’s most likely to create hook injuries.
Most anglers use fishhooks with barbs, the nasty bits at the ends that keep them from slipping back out of a fish’s mouth. Barbs work great at keeping a fish on a line, but can tear portions of a fish’s jaw, face, stomach or even eyeball depending on where the hook lands.
An increasing number of fisheries managers on rivers across the world require anglers to pinch the barbs on their hooks or use barbless hooks. Biologists could also permit fewer flies on fly fishing rigs. Each angler can currently use up to three “hooked devices” such as flies or artificial lures on the North Platte, giving fish plenty of options to slurp, but also creating more opportunities for hooking injuries. Tatum’s guides all pinch their barbs on the river, he said, and he encourages them to use fewer flies when possible. The guide service also prohibits fishing with a hook below a bead. Beads attract fish by looking like an egg, and when the fish strikes to gulp the bead, it slides down the line, hooking the fish in the mouth instead. But it can also lead to hooks snagging fish all over their faces.
Tatum also wonders if there needs to be a change in fishing culture. Anglers surveyed on the Platte catch about 50,000 trout a year between the Gray Reef and Robertson Road, Hahn said. Biologists estimate only about 30,000 trout live in those stretches. That means on any given day, anglers are catching the same fish over and over.
Maybe instead of high-fiving over 20 or 30-fish days and rowing back through a fish-filled run over and over again, Tatum said guides can spend time teaching clients another technique or try a stretch of water that’s a little less productive.
“We’re all out there trying to make a living,” Tatum said. “But you don’t need to backrow a run 15 times and hammer the crap out of them.”
He also says it’s likely time to begin regulating the number of guides on the river, something the Wyoming Legislature has tried in the past with no success.
But first, a conversation. Hahn isn’t ready to draft new regulations, yet. He wants everyone invested in the North Platte fishery — the guides and outfitters and recreational anglers — to come together to hear the study’s findings.
If anglers decide nothing should change, Hahn said the department will likely have to begin stocking the river again to make up for mortalities from fishing, something Tatum said few people who know and love the river would want.
“I would be shocked if any outfitter or guide in our community would agree with that,” Tatum said. “We can fix this. It’s a good time for everybody to self-reflect and say, ‘what can we do?’”
I hired a guide once, to float-fish the Elk in B.C.. It was a nice experience I suppose, but certainly not even among my best days fishing. I was kind of being lazy, I did not have to learn the river, or the regulations, or the access laws and points, I just had to plunk my hundreds down and throw the fly.
We have the same overuse issues here in MT, and I am sure they have them in Fernie B.C. as well. So many people hoping for the thrill of catching a trophy wild trout in an exquisite setting. Then they want a photo too!
The fly fishing industry has become a juggernaut! The marketing, the film festivals, the thousand-dollar rods, and the ten thousand-dollar boats. I mean I am glad that people can do that, but I am sad that it comes at the expense of a fragile ecosystem, and its beautiful wild occupants.
I am torn these days about my role in all of that. I have been a dry fly fisherman since I was little, I would dangle a black ant over a small stream full of cuts. I tie only on barbless, I fish only in the fall when water temps are back down to cold, I walk the bank from run to run, riffle to riffle, I make 3 good presentations and move on if nothing flashes. If I hook a fish, I know it is the most aggressive and biggest fish in that section so I am satisfied to move upstream. I truly love the golden leaves of the willow and cottonwoods reflecting an amber light on the river, the flash of the striking trout, the fast play, the gentle resuscitation and release, moving on to the next run, the next day, the next season. I hope I will always be able to justify that my impact on the fishery will not cause the tipping point that precipitates the collapse of a system that brings such joy.
I will fish with care and with that ethos always in mind.
Trent is spot on about everything he said. I’m 32 I’ve been fishing this river since I was 7 with a fly since I was 18. A barbless hook regulation from gray reef to Robertson road. They could also constitute a party limit on commercial float trips per day since a lot of these anglers are inexperienced and prone to foul hooking. Two fly limit instead of 3. But I think we’ve all heard as regulations grow freedoms die. It is unfortunate what commercial guiding has done to ordinary anglers on this particular river. Money. Money. Money.
Silly Sportsman! Call a place paradise, Kiss it goodbye! No sooner than the Bighorn through Thermopolis was named Blue ribbon, We now have MANY more out of state guides than local! Simply put the name Blue Ribbon is an eventual death sentence for a river. 😖
There are too many guide boats. The outfitters with the most longevity do a great job. A consideration of the guides with the most user days should get priority. But that would shift guides to Thermopolis. It is discouraging to see so many guide boats. I grew up in Douglas. I have fished the Platte for a lifetime. I’m glad this topic is being brought forward. The fish deserve better
I am a non resident Angler been coming there from Minnesota for 14 years one thing I see on YouTube video s is Anglers fishing the Reds when fish are spawning this has to STOP ✋️ using beads there foul hooking fish 🐟 just my observations Thanks
Thanks for writing this piece and getting people talking about it. It is always a bummer to get a fish into the net and find that you’ve grievously injured it. But it is also unavoidable from time to time.
I feel like it’s obvious that the only real way to reduce the rate of injury and mortality is to reduce the number of hooks in the water, whether by limiting the number each angler can use at one time or by limiting the number of anglers somehow. I think both should be mandated on waters with the highest pressure. The San Juan, Upper Madison, Missouri at Holter, the Box on Henrys.
I’ve just posted a piece with a bit more on the topic at travelingwithtools.com
Ban all droppers…single hook only. It’s done other places and the sky didn’t fall in, so no excuses really.
I never fish a pool after catching my second fish. The numbers-guys need to chill.
I’ve fished barbless for years and I don’t think I lose any fish because of it. Limiting boat traffic is likely to be a necessary evil especially during peak periods. Seems like a lot of the Western rivers are being loved to death.
Not to sound negative but, having been a fishing guide in the Ozarks, and growing up on wind river in Dubois. I now live in Thermopolis . The number of fisherman will not be decreasing , especially when rivers are declared as Blue Ribbon ! Sorry but even barbless hooks do damage and people handling fish wrong or at all can cause mortality. Exhaustion from a good fight kills many fish as well. Stocking will be necessary or limited Access, Take your pick!
As a lifelong guide it is clear we are damaging the resource we love so dearly. Last spring I returned to Bristol Bay Alaska for the first time in 25 years as a guide. In three weeks of guiding my clients only caught one adult fish without hook injuries. I was shocked. Talking to other guides I learned that times have definitely changed. Back in the early 1990’s when we would fly to storied rivers such as the Moraine, Little Ku, Battle and others none of us used beads. We had simple egg patterns and streamers. The day was a success if each angler would land 4-6 trophy trout. Now days with the perfection of painted beads many anglers expect to land 20 plus trout in a day. With a limited number of fish each one is most likely caught daily. Some of my friends who have guided for 30 years in Bristol Bay tell me that the really large trout simply don’t exist in many systems as they don’t survive long enough. I think many of the injured fish are hurt while fighting and not by bad handling of the angler. The lead biologist for 30 years for Rainbow trout on the Kenai River believes each trout in that system is caught between 8-10 times each season. And there are less and smaller trout each year. That river has over 300 registered guides.
In 2005 at my programs on the Kamchatka Peninsula, which I ran for over 20 years, I implemented hook size restrictions. It was not popular at first but the days of me seeing dead rainbows belly up floating downstream ended. It was a success. We also went to strict net usage.
The problem with the Reef and Mile is simply they are being loved to death. I used to float the Reef back in the early 90’s and we would not see another angler. The fish were big and none of them had injuries. The question of what to do is going to make some people unhappy. A good friend and famous steelhead guide I know in Oregon limits his anglers to landing 6 steelhead per day. When and if 6 are landed that is the end of the trip. Perhaps something like this. Also limiting rigs to 1 fly. No beads. And keeping the fish in the water as much as possible. Also using heavier tippet so they can be landed quickly. This is a discussion that needs to be had openly and honestly amongst the guides outfitters and clients.
Wow. That second photo of the cutt where it’s being squeezed to death is not cool. This is like all the truck commercials where they’re gunning them through high mountain creeks and driving them in sensitive backcountry areas. That just promotes land degradation, and ‘hero shots’ like both these photos where the fish is completely or nearly that – out of the water. A fish is designed to be under water where the pressure supports the body as designed by ol’ Ma Nature. You pick that fish completely out of the water and it is in immediate distress.
Hey if you figure this one out let us know in Montana, as we have the same problem. A generation of anglers who think it is ok to catch 20-30 fish a day under the misguided thought that C&R fishing is the answer and savior. We need to go back to low limit harvest and anglers need to stop fishing when they reach the limit. Studies have shown that mortality with catch and release fishing hits close to 30% by the time the fish is caught 3 or 4 times. Hook scar surveys don’t take into account the fish that are not alive anymore. The eagles, pelicans, hawks and racoons benefit from weakened fish trying to recover after being caught multiple times. Nature takes the weak first. Limiting the number of fisherman or trips available to outfitters will make them millionaires ( same number chasing fewer goods… simple economics says the price goes up). The allotted trips per outfitter becomes sellable as a commodity. Do the math … if I’m catching 30 fish a day and mortality reaches 30% after being caught 3 times. I’m either killing 3- 4 fish or injuring them from my hooks to the point they won’t survive! What a waste of a resource! Catch 2 and go home! The resource won’t be wasted and will benefit in the long run.. Also the stress of being caught multiple times has shown in studies that fish are showing signs of stunted growth rates. I’m confident that if you talk to old time fisherman that they will tell you there just aren’t as many big fish as there used to be. Anyway no easy solution, let me know if you solve this one?!
Everytime there is commercial exploitation of Wildlife in this country the resource is ultimately destroyed. Same thing in this situation, the commercial guiding and outfitting business on public waters throughout the West is dramatically degrading and diminishing both the fish populations/health and experience for the overall public. The Fish and Wildlife in Wyoming are “owned” by State (meaning the people of Wyoming) and are supposed to be managed for the use and enjoyment of the people of Wyoming. NOT for commercial exploitation and profit! Apparently, the Wyoming Game and Fish and Legislature has forgotten the overall mission. Guides and Outfitters whine that any regulation and limitations will cost people “jobs” and “revenue”. As we read in Christine’s article, the explosion of use and guides and outfitters on the rivers has just recently occurred. This isn’t a longstanding, entrenched, industry. Guiding and Outfitting on public lands and waters should be eliminated in Wyoming and the Game and Fish should go back to managing Fish and Wildlife for all the people of Wyoming, not just commerical interests.
Simple solution. Ban fishing on river for 5 years. Catch an Release is cruel sport
Regulate the number of guide trips by decreasing them by half. No back rowing or anchoring.
Fly fish only with one single barbless hook. No hooks over a sz 10. No treble hooks and no bait. All catch & release. No kill zones. No commerical guides on miracle mile.
Recently I have seen a different attitude among fishermen in both fighting and releasing their catch. Using super light rods and fighting fish too long, the exhausted trout is hoisted up like it was a Superbowl trophy for the camera. I have seen more released fish go belly up because of this. In Argentina, our guides will not remove netted trout from the water, how many pictures does one need?
As a professional fisheries biologist for 34 years, and a member of the Trout Committee of the Southern Division American Fisheries Society, I once had the opportunity to review the available literature on the differences in hooking mortality between barbed and barbless hooks. No significant differences were found. WHERE the fish was hooked was far more important than what kind of hook was used. Fish hooked in the gills, gut or roof of the mouth had high mortalities regardless of the type of hook used. Barbless hooks do make it easier to unhook fish, and make the angler feel good but they are not magic. Their use will not significantly reduce hooking mortality. Reducing the total number of hooks in the water, or limiting the catch per angler will reduce mortality. Not popular options, but that is what is needed
Enact the following regulations:
Barbless hooks only.
Catch and release except for 1 “slot fish”.
Catch and release fish must not be taken out of the water even for photographs.
It’s the year 2024 and shouldn’t we be past the commercialism of wildlife? The pressure on our big game and fish is immense, with most of it coming from outfitters. There’s something quite wrong with a select few leveraging our Game and Fish department for profit
The elephant in the room is too much fishing pressure. I grew up in Casper and my friend and I fished the Platte often. There was very little fishing pressure in the 70’s and 80’s. The number of fisherman on this river is staggering. I stay away from it. Barbless hooks should be the rule, and reducing fishing pressure should be a no brainer.
It’s the exploding population of people. Close your eyes and imagine 10 years from now or 50 years from now. Currently they are building a monster Reservoir west of Loveland Colorado and diverting water from the Colorado River on the Western Slope. They will be building another Denver up there around Loveland and Fort Collins and on up into Cheyenne. We can stick our finger in the dam to stop the water but if another 5 million people move here then what.
The same thing has to be happening on the Henry’s Fork in Idaho where I fished growing up. Catch and release too often is catch, release, and die.
I agree with Tim Anderson that tackle regulation must be stricter. A discussion also should begin on regulating pressure. It’s time to limit the number of boats floating each hour below Gray Reef and above Casper.
The fish aren’t looking much better in the Bighorn River from Wedding of the Waters through Thermpop. Flotilla after flotilla of rafts, many of them outfitters with a high % out of state guides are just pounding the water and leaving the fish with missing mandibles and eyes poked out. The commercial pressure is out of control and yes, time to cut down or even better outlaw commercialism of our fish and wildlife and I’m including big game outfitters monopolizing our animals
Single barbless hook. Two fly maximum per rig.
want to see beat up trout? go the the north tongue river where just about every cutthroat has a mangled jaw, missing on eye or a gill plate ripped off. Barbless hooks should be mandatory
I think it’s time to do something. On that section of the Platte, fishing is mostly about aesthetics. The beauty of the trout, river, sky, and distant mountains all add to the experience. If the fish have injured jaws and torn lips, it detracts from that experience. It seems to me that going barbless is an obvious first step. Maybe single barbless hooks as well. As far as limiting the number of outfitters, that should have been done a decade ago. And nonresident outfitters should be outlawed.
I will agree with you on barbless hooks, and that something needs to be done. Limiting guides will be extremely difficult. There are probably around 100 guides earning a living in and around Casper. Most of them are working out of one of the four fly shops in the area. So the first question is what would you call a non resident outfitter. The fly shop holds the outfitters license, and they are local. All of the fly shops offer fully outfitted trips lodging, food and guides. They also draw in tourism to the area, for people who can’t afford a guided trip or just like the diy approach.
I believe the correct approach would be to look at the tackle first. Go to barbless hooks and limit the rigs to two flies. Foul hooking fish is kind of unavoidable. Most of the time the fish takes the top fly and is snagged by one of the bottom flies. I don’t believe it is anything that is being done intentionally. It is something that has happened to everyone.
If you limit the number of people who can fish on any given day, it will become a money game. Making fishing the North Platte a rich person fishery. Not only that it would be impossible to regulate. There are plenty of campsites along the river where people come from far away just to fish for a few days.
I don’t know what the answer is. I do know that there are a lot of people who depend on the river for their livelihoods.
Make barbless hooks mandatory, only allow 2 flies (lures) per line, ban floating the Miracle Mile and PUT A HALT ON COMMERCIAL OUTFITTERS/GUIDES. Not only for fishing, but the Wyoming Outfitters & Guides Assoc WYOGA has had a monopoly on our wildlife for years. It’s high time for the Citizens of Wyoming to take back their Game and Fish and put the curbs on those who’ve leveraged our wildlife for their own monetary gain.
I agree with every little item from Mr. Scott. Another river probably suffering the same insults is the upper Green River fish. I fished the upper GR through the 1990’s-2016. It was pretty good (excellent) fishing to start with but then the guides out of Pinedale started coming up there with trailers full of kayaks and canoes and a flotilla would soon take over. Trout became scarce and size diminished. I dare say every river or creek in Wyoming is suffering from these same issues. Limit guide use of these rivers and go barbless. We have to use barbless on the Columbia and Snake rivers for 20-30 lb salmon/steelhead and you do lose a bunch but overall is much better on the fishery as a whole.
My experience in the West is centered more on the Colorado River, where rainbow trout etc were introduced after the opening of the Glen Canyon Dam— Trout are a cold water species, while the Colorado squawfish, chubs, and other native fishes are a warm water species— All of the native species have suffered immeasurable damage to placate the trout fishing industry. Fly fishing has become very popular worldwide– I thought barbless hooks were a standard these days in Western Rivers?? Here in the midwest, I’ve researched, and studied delayed mortality in catch and release bass, and walleye tournaments—- Most people see a fish swim away thinking it will survive, but research shows a 10-35% death rate depending on variables such as water temps, handling of the fish, and time out of the water—–