The Stanley Basin is home to renowned high quality fishing running the full range of species and approaches from fly casting to trolling to spin casting to spey casting.

The Middle Fork and Upper Main Salmon Rivers are within easy striking distance and offer endless opportunities for wade, bank and float fishing. You will find rainbow, westslope cutthroat, hybrid rainbow-cutthroat, brook, and bull trout as well as mountain whitefish and Chinook salmon in its waters. In the spring, fisherman congregate to the Salmon River for its steelhead run, the longest steelhead run (over 900 miles from the Pacific Ocean) in North America.

Combined with the region’s high mountain lake fishing and boat/bank fishing on its lower elevation lakes minutes from town, you will yourself in a fisherman’s paradise.

As an outfitter destination, several guide services are based out of Stanley which put clients on the best water with intimate knowledge of conditions day after day all season long. Some high mountain lakes and near-in lakes as well as rivers are stocked by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game complimenting the robust native fishery for which the area is known.