YNP Imposes Fishing Restrictions

Yellowstone National Park has announced it is implementing some temporary fishing closures due to the inordinately warm weather and overly warm waters in the fisheries.  Spokesman Al Nash says beginning today, the Gibbon River below Gibbon Falls, the Firehole River below Keppler Cascades and the Madison River will be closed to fishing.  Nash says the weather has been hot with limited rainfall, and there are some streams in the Park with below-normal stream-flow while some of them also have run-off from thermal features.  Consequently, he says a number of rivers and streams are experiencing some “pretty high water temperatures.”  He points out that such warm water temperatures can be stressful and even fatal for trout.  He adds that park biologists will be monitoring the situation and may be forced to close even more areas to fishing in the coming days.  Nash says the last time the Park implemented such closures was in 2007.