Super Gel trails scent ~30 min, then quits — invisibly. This is the only way to know.
| If… | Switch to |
|---|---|
| Overcast / pre-storm | · 45–55′ |
| Marking fish, 2 clean passes, no takes | |
| Kokanee limit filled | |
| Not marking anything | Move. Don't grind dead water. |
Enter a date and this recalculates light, moon, season, regulations, and projected ramp access for Buckboard Crossing.
Linear extrapolation from 6012.68′ on 30 Jul 2026 at roughly −0.55 ft/week. Actual drawdown is release-driven and lumpy, not linear. Verify with Reclamation before you tow a boat anywhere. Ramp bottoms are USFS estimates from a 2022 survey.
Wind and weather. No forecast lives in here — it would be stale by the time you needed it, and you'll have no signal at camp. Check NWS before you go, every time.
Launch time is the biggest controllable variable, and it's about wind — not bait.
Wednesday is a travel evening. Saturday is a half-morning. Thursday and Friday are the trip. Losing 38% of one of two days hurts far more than losing it from one of four.
| Launch | Fishable | vs dawn |
|---|---|---|
| 5:45 am | 7h 15m | — |
| 7:30 am | 5h 30m | −24% |
| 8:30 am | 4h 30m | −38% |
Lakers don't need dawn. At 50–100 ft they're below the light gradient — a 9-to-1 fishery, which is the window you actually fish. And WGFD names the Inflow near Buckboard as small-laker habitat, so it's under your ramp.
If the early day paid, go early again. If it didn't, sleep in guilt-free — you'll have the evidence. Late start means stay close. Midday is the heavy laker session.
Optional short session within sight of the ramp. Hard stop 09:00, off by 09:30. Break camp, drain/clean/dry the boat, plugs out. Fresh block ice for a 3½–4 hour August drive.
Red and pink drop out around 40 ft. But fluorescent pigments re-emit longer wavelengths, so fluorescent pink works somewhat deeper than a plain spectrum chart implies. Enough for one reserve cup — not enough to be a primary.
The reg reads "four (4) per day or in possession" and Wyoming counts fish at home or in storage. Those are the same number.
You cannot stack 3 kokanee a day across three days. You drive home with 4 trout per person, max 3 kokanee — the same as if you'd fished one morning. The only legal way to fish more than one limit is to eat them at camp.
Lake trout ≤28″ have no possession limit. That's where the cooler gets filled.
| Rule | Detail |
|---|---|
| Trout / kokanee | 4/day or in possession. Max 3 kokanee. |
| Lake trout | Nongame. Unlimited ≤28″. Max one >28″. |
| Whole fish | Game fish kept whole until off water and done for the day. |
| Smallmouth | Released immediately in WY. |
| Burbot | Unlimited, must be killed immediately. |
| Live baitfish | Prohibited in Area 4. Dead bait only. |
| Gaffs | Prohibited. |
| Kokanee closure | Sept 10 – Nov 30. Your dates are clear. |
Wyoming AIS decal — $30 nonresident motorized / $10 resident. A Utah AIS certification is not valid in Wyoming. Check stations don't sell decals — buy online.
Arrive clean, drained, dry. Clean boat inspects in 3–5 min; high-risk takes 10–30.
Saves as you tick. Red = trip-ending if missed.
Kokanee don't eat corn. They're planktivores — zooplankton and Daphnia. Corn is three other things: a scent carrier, a visual trigger, and an aggression response from a fish that's irritated rather than hungry.
So optimize for amino-acid load, sweetness, and a crustacean profile that reads like the zooplankton they actually eat. That's why krill and shrimp dominate and baitfish oils don't.
Green Giant White Shoepeg. White, firm, slender, uniform — stays on a hook. Limited-production strain, supply runs short. Buy 5–6 cans, mix 3. Unopened cans keep forever; cured corn doesn't.
| Depth | Pink | Orange | Chartreuse | Glow |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0–20′ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| 20–45′ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| 45–60′ | fluor only | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| 60–80′ | gone | gone | ✅ | ✅ |
If you launch at 8:30 you skip the window where pink does its work. That's why No. 0 came off the daily rotation — not because pink is useless, but because you're not there when it matters.
The workhorse. The old "Standard" formula with the color corrected — the shrimp/prawn scent that made it worth having, in a color that survives to the depth you actually fish.
The money bait. Built for the August thermocline where every warmer color has stopped existing. With a late launch this is where you spend most of the day. One full can covers this trip.
The pattern-breaker. Marking fish and getting nothing — two clean passes with no takes means switch, don't persist.
Spoils fastest by a wide margin. Pitch it if it smells wrong — as distinct from smelling bad on purpose. Mushy kernels mean it's done.
One cup — and it just got a guaranteed job. Low light at 45–55 ft shows up three ways on this schedule:
Method: half a can, 2 tsp Korn Dye (pink), 24 hrs, drain, finish with Shrimp/Prawn Oil. One cup. Don't overinvest.
Cure toughens corn and slows spoilage. It does not make it shelf-stable. Warm corn turns to mush, and mush won't stay on a hook. You'll be in 90°F+ heat with minimal shade. This is the most likely way the program fails.
Lakers are obligate piscivores — here that's Utah chub, kokanee, and rainbows. Nothing in their world resembles corn. The real analog is cured cut bait.
Where corn does earn its place: as a tipper (a kernel adds a UV-bright, scent-carrying pin of contrast that converts follows into commits), and incidentally on kokanee gear — small lakers eat kokanee, so the two fisheries physically overlap at 55–70 ft.
Bring one small cup of to the laker rods. Chartreuse is already right for this depth, so it does double duty. That's the whole corn commitment.
Kokanee are governed by a light gradient — that's why dawn matters. Lakers at 50–100 ft are below it entirely. Deep jigging produces mid-morning and mid-day.
WGFD names the Inflow region near Buckboard as small-laker habitat, and reports list Buckboard among the best laker water on the reservoir. The target that matches your schedule is under your launch ramp.
Made from pure Tui chub — an oily western trash fish with intense aroma.
Why it matters here: Utah chub is a primary forage species in Flaming Gorge. This is about as close to a literal forage match as you can buy off a shelf. Most anglers reach for salmon or herring out of habit; this is the one that matches.
Real ground dark tuna meat, powder, and oil, UV enhanced. No laker has ever met a tuna — and it works anyway. Sheer oil intensity is its own trigger.
Heavy garlic base loaded with amino acids, singled out as the standout for trout. Not a forage match — an amino-acid delivery system. Layer over Trophy Trout, don't use alone.
Netting or trapping your own baitfish in Wyoming needs a seining license — even for fish used dead. Commercially preserved bait avoids it. Wyoming permits game fish parts as bait (organs, eggs, eyes, fins, skin), so belly strips off a legally harvested laker are legal tipping material in Wyoming. Utah: eggs only.
Ratio drives texture. More salt = firmer, better for aggressive jigging. More borax = softer, better for finesse. Start 2:1 borax:salt.
| Depth | Jig | Tipping | Scent |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30–50′ | White, shad | Chub Rub / kernel | Trophy Trout |
| 50–70′ | Chartreuse, white | Chub Rub | Trophy Trout |
| 70–90′ | Glow, chartreuse | Chub Rub | Trophy Trout + Garlic |
| 90–100′+ | Glow only | Lights Out | Bloody Tuna |
No creel or possession limit at 28″ and under. One over 28″ in possession. Both states want small lakers removed.
Mercury concentrates with size and age in predators; lakers and burbot are the high end. Wyoming's guidance is species-based: smaller fish are the ones to eat. No cooking or cleaning method reduces it — which lines up exactly with the management goal.
Start a session when you launch. Everything you log rolls up under it.
Change this every time you switch. The clock is the denominator — it's what turns catches into catch-per-hour.
BaitSaves instantly with GPS and rotation. Refine after.
Catch per hour across every session. Effort-weighted — this is the number that means something.
Fish landed per bait destroyed. The metric that decides whether a bioplastic is viable.
On this device only, in IndexedDB. Nothing is uploaded and nothing syncs. That also means clearing browser data destroys it — export after every trip.