A fortnight of cooler weather has undone most of the emergency angling restrictions the interior West put in place at the end of July - though not all of them, and not for the same reasons everywhere.
Yellowstone National Park went first. On Wednesday it lifted the parkwide rules imposed on 29 July, which had closed all rivers and streams from 2 p.m. to sunrise every day. Most park water is now open sunrise to sunset under the standard 2026 regulations.
"Cooling weather and water temperatures in the forecast allow for these restrictions to be lifted," the park said.
Three rivers stayed shut. The Madison, the Firehole and the Gibbon below Norris Campground have been fully closed since mid-July and remain so, because geothermal influence keeps them warm no matter what the air does. Park staff are still taking temperatures and have said openly that the restrictions can come back.
"Your cooperation will protect the park's fisheries and may prevent the need to prohibit fishing at all times of the day on some rivers and streams if conditions worsen," the park's statement read.
Wyoming followed on Friday, lifting the voluntary afternoon closures on the Snake River and Flat Creek with immediate effect.
"Thanks to recent cooler weather, afternoon stream temperatures have dropped back down to levels safer for trout and catch and release fishing," said Darren Rhea, Jackson Region Fisheries Supervisor for Wyoming Game and Fish. "We deeply appreciate the angling community's cooperation in protecting these natural resources during the summer heat."
The gauge record shows how far things swung. USGS data cited by the Jackson Hole News and Guide has the Snake below Flat Creek regularly above 68 degrees Fahrenheit through July, with the Snake at Moose exceeding that mark on fifteen days. Last Thursday the same sites read 62.8, 62.6 and - on Flat Creek - 62.2.
Game and Fish still wants anglers carrying a thermometer. The guidance is to stop catch-and-release as water nears 70 degrees, and from 65 degrees up, to consider keeping a fish rather than releasing one that may not recover.
Montana is where the picture gets complicated. On 13 August, Fish, Wildlife and Parks lifted hoot-owl restrictions and river-mouth closures on ten stretches: the Bitterroot above Hamilton and its East and West Forks, the Blackfoot below Cedar Meadow, the Clark Fork from the Blackfoot to the Flathead, Rock Creek, Lolo Creek, Monture Creek, and the Yellowstone from Springdale to Laurel.
The same notice closed two sections of the Big Hole River to all angling - Section 1 from Saginaw Bridge to the North Fork confluence, and Section 5 from Tony Schoonen access down to the Beaverhead.
For anglers planning a late-August trip, that is the useful distinction. A cold front reopens a river that got too hot. It does not reopen one that is simply running out of water.