Yellowstone River
at Corwin Springs, Montana · USGS gauge 06191500
For October 18, flow and water temperature are about usual.
Montana FWP lists no emergency closure or hoot-owl restriction on the Yellowstone River, on its restrictions page as read at 07:17 UTC.
These readings do not say whether fish are biting, whether there is parking, or whether the season is open. The shop reports below cover what is biting.
Yellowstone River reports from local shops
Each shop writes its own report. Listed here: the date on each one and the hatches and flies it names. Their words stay on their sites; follow the link to read them.
Two local shops have posted a report on the Yellowstone River in the last two weeks. All two mention blue-winged olives and terrestrials; one mentions hoppers and mahogany duns. Perdigon, Pheasant Tail and Prince Nymph are on every one of their fly lists.
Before you drive
| Overnight | 36°F, wind 12 to 15 mph Partly Cloudy |
|---|---|
| Sunday | 61°F, wind 6 to 10 mph Mostly Sunny |
| Sunday Night | 33°F, wind 6 to 14 mph Mostly Clear |
| Monday | 62°F, wind 12 mph Sunny |
How this water changes through the year
Over 22 years of record, flow on Yellowstone River peaks in June, when the median runs about 10,600 ft³/s, and falls to its lowest in January at around 784 ft³/s. Today's 1,210 sits between the two. The band on the chart is where the middle 60% of years fall, so a reading inside it is ordinary for the date and one outside it is not.
Nearby monitored waters
No water here is recommended over another. Same measurements, three closest waters.
Species
Listed by Montana FWP for Yellowstone River: Bigmouth Buffalo, Black Bullhead, Black Crappie, Blue Sucker, Bluegill, Brassy Minnow, Brook Stickleback, Brook Trout, Brown Trout, Burbot, Channel Catfish, Cisco, Common Carp, Creek Chub, Emerald Shiner, Fathead Minnow, Flathead Chub, Freshwater Drum, Golden Shiner, Goldeye, Green Sunfish, Lake Chub, Largemouth Bass, Longnose Dace, Longnose Sucker, Mottled Sculpin, Mountain Sucker, Mountain Whitefish, Northern Pike, Northern Redbelly Dace, Paddlefish, Pallid Sturgeon, Plains Killifish, Plains Minnow, Pumpkinseed, Rainbow Smelt, Rainbow Trout, River Carpsucker, Rock Bass, Sailfin Molly, Sand Shiner, Sauger, Shorthead Redhorse, Shortnose Gar, Shovelnose Sturgeon, Sicklefin Chub, Smallmouth Bass, Smallmouth Buffalo, Spottail Shiner, Stonecat, Sturgeon Chub, Walleye, Western Silvery Minnow, White Bass, White Crappie, White Sucker, Yellow Bullhead, Yellow Perch, Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout.
The agency's list covers FWP's whole waterbody, river mile 0 to 570; FishMT publishes no reach-level list. USGS 06191500 at Corwin Springs is FWP's own listed gauging station at river mile 550. The list is for all 570 Montana miles; the paddlefish, sturgeon, gar and drum rows are lower-river prairie species and FWP's own description places them far below Corwin Springs. The agency prints no date on the list; read 2026-09-08.
Access points
| Coordinates | To gauge |
|---|---|
| 45.1121, -110.7937 · at Corwin Springs USGS gauge location. Not a listed public access point; check access before you travel. | 0.0 mi |
Sources and method
- Live
- USGS gauge 06191500, Yellowstone River at Corwin Springs MT, 0.0 mi from the listed access point. Fetched 2026-10-18 07:19 UTC.
- History
- USGS daily values: flow 2005–2026, 7,940 daily values; water temperature 2016–2026, 3,607 daily values. Percentile is the share of readings within 7 days of this calendar date, across all years, below the current one (flow n=315 over 21 years, water temperature n=149 over 10 years).
- Rules
- Seasons, limits and licences are not on this site and are not copied from the agency that publishes them: Montana FWP.
- Species
- Montana FWP, Yellowstone River, undated, read 2026-09-08.
- Heat
- Montana FWP: hoot-owl restrictions, no fishing from 2 p.m. to midnight, once a water reaches 73 °F on three consecutive days (published 2025-06-11, checked 2026-09-08). The water temperature card compares today's reading with that figure and says nothing about whether a restriction applies. Whether one is in force today is on Montana FWP's restrictions page.
- Restrictions
- Montana FWP, current waterbody restrictions, read 2026-10-18 07:17 UTC. Seasonal closures are in the regulations, not on that page.
- Shop reports
- Chosen from the organic search results for “yellowstone river fishing report” (Ahrefs, read 2026-10-01), keeping shops and guides and dropping social media, forums and other aggregators. Linked, not quoted, and not endorsed. Report dates, hatches and fly names read from each page 2026-10-18, by matching a fixed list of insects and patterns: a name not on the list is not shown, and a report older than 30 days shows its date only.
- Forecast
- NOAA National Weather Service, api.weather.gov, for the coordinates of the nearest access point.
Independent presentation of public data. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or approved by the USGS, NOAA or Montana FWP.