3 Northern Rockies Trophy-Trout Rivers You can drop a line in the North Platte, South Fork Boise and Beaverhead rivers, or you can fish them like a pro. Here are tips to get you on the water and catching plump rainbows quickly. ... [+] Full Article
This is an historic sight, as well. Lewis and Clark camped at Beaverhead Rock on the bank of this river across the road from Five Rivers Lodge where I stayed. Part of their party made a trip with their famous lady Indian guide, Sacagawea to meet her Shoshone people on land that is now submerged under Clark Canyon Reservoir. They traded for horses and supplies for their trip west while others in the exploration party recuperated at Beaverhead Rock.
LOWER RIVER
We started fishing the lower Beaverhead River below Dillon. My guide had access to private waters so we were fishing a sparsely fished area in the morning. We hooked brown trout here but moss in the river gave the big ones an escape routine that they had learned well -- as soon as they were hooked, they dove down under the moss, getting the leader tangled in the heavy vegetation and pulling free.
We were getting lots of takes and almost as many hookups but our landing ratio was low. I still landed a couple large browns and a whitefish. Osborn, who fished so that I could take photos, landed a very nice 19-inch brown. She managed to pull that one on top of the moss and I scooped up as much moss as fish when I netted it. We had hooked even larger fish that used the moss to escape.
"Two weeks ago when I fished here it was like popcorn popping as fish were coming up to take flies off the surface," Osborn said. "Insects were hatching, the river flow was higher and the moss was washed away. We were casting size 16 or 18 pale morning duns and small stimulator dry flies and catching fish on almost every cast."
BIG BROWNS, BIG RAINBOWS
The Beaverhead is a great fly-fishing river. Present a natural-looking imitation of an insect the fish are eating and it is an almost sure take. Large fish here eat small nymphs, leading to the success of size 18 to 20 flies.
I used a 9-foot, 5 weight G Loomis fly rod with a reel made by the same manufacturer. Whether you are using surface or subsurface flies, a floating fly line is all you need.
An indicator, a split shot and two flies make up the standard rig for fishing wet flies here. Set the indicator at twice the depth you are fishing. The indicator usually goes under on a take, but set the hook when you see any disturbance of this floating aid. Guide Cassandra Osborn uses two indicators, one white and one red. This lets her see whether what she is watching is the indicator or something else floating on the river's surface.
A 4X Fluorocarbon tippet -- nearly invisible underwater -- gives you an edge. These fish see a lot of flies in a season and any advantage helps.
Dry Flies are red hot at times, starting with size 14 to 18 Yellow Stimulator, Yellow Sallies or caddis flies in April and May; reduce by two sizes in June and July. Sometime in July or early August, grasshoppers start hitting the water. Match them with size 8 to 12 hopper patterns through September.
A pale morning dun emerger was the hot fly for the big fish below the dam when I was there, but patterns change. Check with a local fly shop for the best flies when you are going.
Silver or gold Mepps spinners and Panther Marlins, from ¼ to ½-ounce will catch fish. Use a spinning outilt, cast across the current and retrieve slowly as the lure is taken down river. -- Ray Rychnovsky
MOVE UPRIVER
"Let's go upriver to the dam," Osborn said. "It's challenging fishing, but we have a chance to catch a very large brown or rainbow trout there." We drove across the dam of the Clark Canyon Reservoir 19 miles south of the town of Dillon and circled back to the river to a good public river access point. Several anglers were there, including one group starting a trip in a drift boat, but I wouldn't call it crowded. Osborn saw a large fish on the far side of a deep channel and could be approached better from the far shore. We marked its location relative to landmarks, walked downriver to a shallow area and waded to the other side. We couldn't see the fish from that angle but used our markers to find the right spot. I cast my flies to it without success then cast nymphs to the general area for 40 minutes and still had no takes. I was wondering if we had made a good move.
We waded downriver to some faster water and Osborn had me cast into riffles coming off a boulder 15 feet from our position. I cast to the near side of the rock, in front of the rock and downstream from the rock without a take. I continued to cast, working the far side of the boulder then working farther into the river. Finally something solid was on my line, a fish going downriver fast, and I couldn't apply enough force to turn it. This 19-inch brown trout turned and swam back upriver just as my large rainbow would do later. I was a very lucky angler this day. I was sure this was going to be the highlight of my day but 15 minutes later the large 'bow took my fly.
LOW WATER
"This river is very low running less than 200 cubic feet per second," Osborn said. "When farmers need water for irrigation, water releases from the dam may be as high as 1,000 cfs. They are cutting and baling hay (their primary crop) and they don't need water at this time so the water flow is minimal."
With low flow rates, we could wade below Clark Canyon Dam but with higher flows, water would be deep and flowing fast from bank to bank, making this area almost impossible to wade. A raft or drift boat could be used here but the lower section of the river after much of the water was diverted to irrigation would be running at a more normal level and good fishing continues.
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