Yellowstone Fishing Regulations

Yellowstone fishing regulations state that you can't use leaded split shots, jigs, etc. Does anyone know if it is OK to non leaded split shot and dumbbell eyes on flies when fly fishing there?

Yes you can. I used Tungsten and nickel last time I was there.

You can use any weight but lead except in Lake Yellowstone where lead is legal within the parameters set out.

I used Tungston Putty. No problems using that. Dumbell eyes may / usually contain lead...so that can be a problem. I don't use weighted flies in Yellowstone. You can use tin shot, most bead heads, nickle eyes and tungsten without a problem.

On the lakes I used an intermediate sink tip and a small piece of tungsten putty a few inches above the fly. Worked like a charm.

For rivers I used a hopper dropper approach.

We were in the park yesterday on the way to the Montana Fish-In...saw a lot of folks fishing, however rivers are still very high it looks like early spring instead of mid-summer. The good news is we've never seen the park so green! I mean spectacular and the wild flowers are just unbelievable. Went in the north gate to West Yellowstone so did not see the Yellowstone River in the park. Madison below the dam seemed to be fishing well, saw a lot of folks fishing there but still high and very fast. Followed the Gallatin back to Bozeman on the way back, again the river is down and the rafters were out by the hundreds. River very cloudy but saw a few anglers on it as well.

We had a ranger stop us and check our rigs once on Soda Butte. He checked for how many flies we were using, were the hooks de-barbed, lead free shot was being used and ......don't forget this one.....cautioned us about wooly buggers or flies that may have lead wire underneath of the body that you may forget about. He was pretty thorough, even checked our fly patches to see what we were using. He had been watching several of us for quite a while and the called us up out of the water to cross the creek, and it took a little while, to do this checking. I was not happy about coming up out of my spot to go through that, but all was good.