Trail Creek is already moving fast, pouring through the historic Trail Creek Ranch to its terminus in West Newton Lake northeast of Cody. It’s early March and the water is alarmingly high and still rising in the lake. Trees that used to offer some shade on shore now are as much as 80 yards from the banks.

The conditions have fishermen and officials concerned. Access to the popular recreation area is slowly washing away. The parking lot and picnic tables are submerged, as well as the road leading to the adjacent East Newton Lake. The infrastructure was built for normal water tables. But the last three years have been anything but normal.

West Newton is a well-stocked put-and-take lake where fishermen can catch up to six Yellowstone cutthroat trout a day to take home for dinner. East Newton is a trophy catch and release fishery featuring tiger, rainbow and brown trout.

“They couldn’t be more different,” Sam Hochhalter, Wyoming Game and Fish Department Cody Region fisheries supervisor, said of the management of the lakes.

All involved want to keep it that way: separate and productive. Unfortunately, the high water threatens not only access, infrastructure and the commingling of trout species, but also movement of invasive goldfish, which were dumped in West Newton illegally by a “bucket biologist.” There was an opportunity to remove the goldfish soon after their discovery, but state fisheries biologists hesitated. Now the opportunity to draw down the lake and kill the goldfish with chemicals has to wait until a solution to the high water can be found. Hochhalter regrets not making the situation a priority.

“Unfortunately, hindsight isn’t 20/20,” Hochhalter said. “We had plans underway the following winter, but in 2015 the water started to rise and we weren’t confident efforts would be 100% successful. And we had no idea what subsequent winters would bring.”

The following years brought too much water. Prior to the goldfish being introduced, there were record snows in 2011. Then, after missing the chance to rid the lake of the invasive species in 2015, the snowfall in 2017 and 2018 both broke the record. Now, drawing down the lake will have to wait until the water recedes, Hochhalter said. Steps have been taken to build a fish barrier between the two bodies of water, but it did little to ease the friction between area fishermen and the Game and Fish.

Anglers share their views

Park County has three fishing-related organizations: Trout Unlimited, Adiposse and the Cody Anglers Group. The Cody Anglers are the most vocal of the three, often speaking up about issues related to their passion for fishing, said Tim Wade, owner of North Fork Anglers and a member of the East Yellowstone Chapter of Trout Unlimited and the Cody Anglers.

“Something has to be done and concerned anglers are usually why policies change over time,” Wade said.

Hochhalter is well acquainted with members of the local fishing community, and especially with the vocal members. They call and make office visits regularly.

“They’re passionate and very opinionated — and have been for decades,” he said.

Robert Crooks, longtime member of the Cody Anglers Group, considers it more than being passionate. For him, it’s a responsibility.

“To me, it just gets back to government being responsive to the people,” Crooks said. “A government is supposed to serve the people, but so often government determines what the people want without asking. There’s a real reluctance on the part of Game and Fish to adjust their agenda to fit anglers demands.”

Members of the anglers group feel they should be more involved in the process of deciding priorities. “If it doesn’t work, guess what, the public feels fully invested and they accept the loss,” Crooks said.

Many from around the region consider the twin lakes to be one of the top resources in the area. Fishermen from around the country have made East Newton a destination fishery since the early ’80s, Wade said.

“They come from all over,” he said. “But not as frequently now because of poor water quality.”

While Trail Creek drains into West Newton, carrying nutrients to the lake, East Newton gets its water from the nearby Heart Mountain Irrigation canal. The water doesn’t have the nutrients needed to propagate fast growth of trophy fish. The current flooding, with nutrient-rich water flowing from west to east, is good news that both the Game and Fish and the anglers can agree on.

“We’re excited by the nutrient load in the lake due to this act of nature,” Wade said.

Finding common ground is important to Hochhalter.

“We need to spend more time on positive aspects, rather than concentrating on gloom and doom,” he said.

Both sides of the debate are looking for longterm solutions. Anglers have been looking into ways to divert some of the water flowing into West Newton from Trail Creek. The project could be complicated by the multiple entities involved and the need to follow water rights law plus National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) considerations. The Bureau of Reclamation owns the lakes; the Bureau of Land Management and the private Trail Creek Ranch owns the land surrounding the lakes; the Heart Mountain Irrigation District has concerns as the drainage moves under their canal on the way to the Shoshone River; and the Game and Fish manages the lakes under an agreement with Reclamation.

Yet, the anglers are ready to back up their ideas with resources, including equipment, money and labor. They’ve often helped finance Game and Fish projects across the Big Horn Basin and large groups of volunteers from all three organizations have spent countless hours providing manpower for projects.

Making Newton a priority

Hochhalter said he has been looking into ways to pump water from West Newton to East Newton, alleviating both high water problems and low water quality issues. But it’s an expensive proposition. The cost to rent equipment to accomplish the project could cost many thousands of dollars.

“It’s not an insignificant amount,” Hochhalter said. “There are things we can invest in, but we need to be really smart.”

Fisheries in the entire Cody Region — from the Montana border south to the Wind River Reservation and east from Yellowstone National Park to the hydrographic divide of the Bighorn Mountains — are numerous and the Game and Fish has three full-time employees and a slim budget to manage it.

“When you reflect on the task, it’s intimidating,” Hochhalter said.

Yet, the anglers hope to impress on the managers that the Newton Lakes are a priority that shouldn’t be ignored.

“We feel like they think we’re the little boys who cry wolf all the time,” Wade said. “This used to be a regional showcase until it became less of a priority.”

Crooks added that, “On a per acre basis, [the lakes] are probably fished as hard as any place in the whole Cody region.”

In a show of cooperation, the Game and Fish purchased materials and Trout Unlimited volunteers brought in a front-end loader and labor to build a berm between the two lakes. It’s 8-feet above the water level at this point.

Cooperation has kept the goldfish at bay, at least for the time being. But Mother Nature is in control of what happens next.

“Everyone is watching what March and April weather brings,” Hochhalter said.

The Cody Anglers Group will meet with the Trout Unlimited board Tuesday to float the idea of creating a working group to address issues at the Newton Lakes.

“We want to address these issues in a timely manner,” Crooks said.