Guide Cassandra Osborn tries her hand at a section of the Beaverhead where big trout would use moss along the far shore to escape. Photo by Ray Rychnovsky

The big fish on my line was in the fast current running downriver and I was troubled. My fly line was gone and my backing was coming off my reel far too fast. I took a few steps downstream but it was only a gesture. With a rock-strewn river in front of me and a steep bank with no shore on which to sprint behind me, I had no hope of stopping the fleeing fish. Nothing stood between the fish and its use of the current to assist its escape. Suddenly it turned and swam upriver. WHEE! Now I had a chance. I cranked the single-action reel as fast as I could. The fish was moving faster than I was reeling but the force of the swift current kept tension in the line.

The fish passed in front of me as I backed to the water's edge. Things were looking up. If I could keep the fish in the slower water at the edge of the river I could land this Beaverhead River trout.

"This one's a big rainbow," guide Cassandra Osborn announced. I had just landed a 19-inch brown trout from this same spot that had fought the same way, sprinting downriver; then, on its own volition, turning upriver where we could net, photograph and release it. I couldn't believe I was that lucky on two successive fish.

Osborn got the net in position downriver from the fish then signaled me to ease up on my line and let the current sweep the fish into the net, the same strategy we'd used on the brown. The fish sensed the net and spurted ahead. Two times the fish avoided the net but the third time Osborn scooped up the rainbow, my size 20 PMD nymph hanging from its lip. She measured the fat fish and we both beamed -- 23 inches! What a great wild trout. We took a few quick photos and let it swim out of the net.

HISTORIC AREA
The Beaverhead River is in the heart of Southwest Montana, surrounded by about a half-dozen blue ribbon trout rivers and streams. The great fishing section of the Beaverhead runs from Clark Canyon Dam, where we were fishing, past the town of Dillon. The river continues to Twin Bridges, where it joins the Big Hole and the Ruby rivers to become the Jefferson River.

The Beaverhead is a small river noted for big trout. Big browns live throughout the river but big rainbows are an equal attraction below Clark Canyon Dam.