The Beaverhead River - Day 1

Jon and I arrived at High Bridge on the Beaverhead about 4:00, after we had checked into our hotel and talked with the guides at Frontier Anglers. Since there was still three hours of daylight to burn we headed downstream hoping to fish as far down as the castle and then turn around and fish our way back. We crossed the river in the riffles and started nymphing along the deeper, opposite bank.

The rocky shoreline we were walking along was still wet, indicating that the river had just recently dropped its flow rate. The guys at the shop stated that the flow rate would be just less than 250 cubic feet per second. They also mentioned that the water was stopped for a couple of hours the day before for construction on the dam. Or should I say Dam construction? This surely would put the fish down for a couple of days.

The first stretch only produced one small brown. The river looked good with clear water although there was quite a bit of plant growth and moss. Further downstream we finally came to a hole that gave us success. On the other side of the fast current along the seam I hooked a nice rainbow, then a brown. I pointed out to Jon where they were hitting and he caught some too. The flies they were hitting? Pink Ray Charles. We wanted to fish downstream two more bends in the river to get to the castle but it was already 6:00 and figured we had better start heading back so we could get to the truck before dark.

 

We stopped by Sparky’s Garage Restaurant for dinner with some sweet potato fries on our way back to the Guesthouse Inn & Suites hotel. At the hotel I quickly put on my swimming suit and hopped in the Jacuzzi. I let the jets hit my back soothing the muscles.