Hatchet Lake Fishing Guide, Fremont County, Wyoming

• Overview

  Hatchet Lake lies within the bounds of Fremont County, Wyoming. Everything around it is pine and birch. With some 58 acres of water, there is room for a boat but no need of one. The edge runs 1.4 miles or so, easy to work in an afternoon. Compared with other Wyoming water on our list, it sits high. Some 24 miles away sits Fort Washakie, the nearest settlement. The big place round here is Billings, 194 miles distant. No border sits close enough to matter.

• Where to Fish on Hatchet Lake

  No depth figure has reached our records, which makes a plummet useful. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. This is a lake, so the margins and the first drop matter most. County-wide records name brown trout, rainbow trout, white sucker and brook trout. Read it as a county summary, not a water-by-water list. Hatchet Lake responds to conditions more than to tactics.

• Seasonal Patterns

  July runs about 50°F on average, February about 17°F. Expect a real winter and a strong spring after it. Firm cover through the cold months, then open water from early June. Climate figures give an open season running early June to early November. June through September is the settled part of the year, with the shoulders busier for fish. Anyone fishing Hatchet Lake regularly works to that calendar.

• Tackle & Baits

  Whether you may fish here is not something records settle. No dam controls it, and the level follows the season. Nothing in the way of made access shows up nearby: no ramp, no car park, no path. Trout here take small spinners, spoons and, where fly water allows, a nymph or dry. Parking space is the usual limit rather than the bank itself. Where the way in crosses private ground, ask first. For a change of water, Hidden Lake is 0.4 miles distant. Confirm access to Hatchet Lake locally before you travel.