Soda Lake in Teton County: How and When to Fish It

• Overview

  Soda Lake is a Teton County water, in Wyoming. It sits in rolling bush country. At about 60 acres, a day is enough to walk the shoreline properly. With about 1.2 miles of edge, you can try several depths in one session. Start from Jackson, 26 miles down the road. For a city, Billings is 178 miles off. There is no boundary nearby to worry about.

• Where to Fish on Soda Lake

  Without a survey to go on, judge depth from how the bank falls away. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. Survey and observation records for Teton County include mountain whitefish, lake trout and Utah sucker. Those are county-wide records, so not every one of them will be in this water. Soda Lake gives up more to patience than to distance.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The range across the year is 14°F to 54°F. Fishing here follows the temperature more than the calendar. After early May the shallows warm and the fish move up. Ice usually gives way near early May, and forms again about mid November. The open run goes from the thaw to the freeze, and April through October covers most of it. Soda Lake fishes to that pattern most years.

• Tackle & Baits

  Whether the bank is open is not something our records settle. It formed naturally, so levels move with rainfall rather than with a gate. Nothing built is recorded close to the bank here. For the trout, small spinners and a box of nymphs cover both approaches. Local rules can differ across the county line, so check where you stand. Some water is controlled locally without a sign saying so. If the gate is shut, Dallas Lake at 6.8 miles is the nearest alternative. What applies at Soda Lake may have changed since it was mapped.