Fishing Report
YFS Visits the Beaverhead River
Apr
It was a moderately chilly last weekend in March when head guide Kerry Almond along with his dad Dale Almond, guide Beau Davis, and friends Garth Pellett and Emily Klinell Blankenship all descended upon Dillon, Montana for a few days of fly-fishing the Beaverhead River.
As many anglers know, sometimes the only results you’ll receive from driving dozens if not hundreds of miles to wet your line is no fish landed, the oft-stated sentiment: “At least it’s beautiful here,” and maybe a cold
beer to wash down your troubles. However, that wasn’t the case this time, at least for the first part.
During one day of our trip to Montana’s Beaverhead County we all together brought 70-80 Brown Trout to net with some ranging into the 18” to 20” range, a prolific day by any measure. The deadliest arsenal and technique involved nymphing the deep and slow runs and riffles with size 18-16 red, brown and black zebra midges, size 16-18 gray Ray Charles sow bugs and the occasional Rainbow Warrior size 16.
That being said, during a period of cloudy weather later in the afternoon we found ourselves in the midst of a prolific Blue Winged Olive and midge hatch that the fish couldn’t get enough of. You could even see the difference in the feeding behavior with some of the fish slurping the midges while others more aggressively munched on the large BWO’s.
For these hatches we found size 18 Griffith’s Gnats, size 18 CDC mating midges and size 16-14 Blue Winged Olives to be the best.
While summer Caddis, Salmonfly and terrestrial hatches do provide for some of the best aggressive and eye-popping dry fly fishing, these early season offerings still offer something special and they can be found on almost all of our local waterways this time of year.
So as the snow continues to melt and the rivers begin their runoff cycle, we here at Yellowstone Fly Shop wish you all tight lines and hope you get out and find those fish.
