Combat Fisherman; Twin Bridges and Hamilton, MT

Submitted by Tim Graham and Jim Craig

Cabin fever in February 2022 spawned the idea of another western Tim and Jim adventure for the upcoming fly-fishing season.  In 2021 we fished our way through parts of Montana, Idaho, and Utah.  After consulting friends, calling multiple fly shops, and doing lots of Internet and YouTube research, we put together a trip that maximized our fishing options while minimizing our lodging locations.  Our plan was to spend eight nights in Twin Bridges MT and three nights in Hamilton MT.  Still, we would cover 2,500 miles.

While staying in Twin Bridges, we would be able to fish the Ruby, Beaverhead, Big Hole, Jefferson, and Poindexter Slough section of the Beaverhead Rivers and perhaps a lake or two.  From Hamilton, we could fish the Bitterroot and Blackfoot Rivers and Rock Creek.

And so, the trip began on Sept 12, 2022.  Tim left his home in Windsor, CO and picked Jim up at the Bozeman airport early afternoon the next day.  It took us less than 2 hours to reach our VRBO in Twin Bridges.  It was great!   The owner called it the “Combat Cabin”.  It could comfortably sleep five and had 2 ½ bathrooms.  It was customized for anglers with great trout pictures, including underwater shots.  It was more than we needed for just the two of us, but it was very affordable.  It really was one of the best accommodations we’ve have had for fishing.

Because we stated in a VRBO, we were able to prepare and enjoy wonderful home-cooked meals due to the pre-trip grocery shopping Tim had done.  We made eggs, bacon, bagels, biscuits and gravy, etc. for breakfast.  For dinners we made ribeye and T-bone steaks, pork steaks, lasagna, burgers, and shrimp with a variety of side dishes.  We ate well on this trip.

Now for the fishing.  We soon learned that despite all our planning, we arrived at a time when the local rivers were reaching critically low levels.  Flows were being diverted to meet the seasonal irrigation needs of local ranchers.  The mountain ranges surrounding this large valley received little snow this past winter, which meant the reservoirs on the tail water rivers in the valley floor were not fully recharged at the beginning of the season.  Drought conditions were also prevalent because the tailwater rivers flow into the freestone rivers which, in-turn were dewatered for irrigating the large hay fields. That meant the Jefferson was closed, most of the Big Hole and Beaverhead were closed, and the Ruby was running very low.

We booked a float trip for our first full day, Sept 14^th.  Due to low flows in the area, our guide and co-owner of Four Rivers Fishing Company, Chris Knott, took us out of the area to fish the Madison River.  Unfortunately, that was what everyone else was also doing.  We were far from alone on this float and the fishing reflected the pressure.  We put in at Varney and floated to Ennis.  We each caught a nice brown trout along with a handful of small rainbows, browns, and white fish.  Pat’s rubber legs with a BWO dropper (green flash-back perdigon) were the favorite flies of the day.

Our next guided trip was Sept 16^th with the same fly shop.  However, Tim and I were resolute that we did not want to fish the Madison again and were prepared to cancel the trip if that was our only choice.  The previous trip was fun, but we didn’t think it was worth doing again.  When we conveyed this at the fly shop that morning, the fly shop made some guide changes and offered to take us on one of the open parts of the Beaverhead.  However, we (the guide) would have to drag the boat the first mile.  We agreed.  We were paired up with a young guide, Joseph Lema.  Joseph was a great kid.  He was a recent graduate of Western Montana University in Dillon MT, a kicker on the university’s football team, and only in his second year of guiding.  But, the Beaverhead was his home water, and it showed.  The first mile wasn’t very fishable, but when the flow of Poindexter Slough joined the Beaverhead, we were in business.  Low flows in the prior weeks had left this stretch of the river untouched by other fishers.  We found big browns stacked up at the beginning of deep river bends.  Dead drifting midges and especially the BWO green perdigon with a flash back was the key.  We each caught three browns 17-20 inches not to mention other big ones that got away.  Some smaller fish also made it to the net that day.  We also had a thrill when anchored on the inside bend of a very slow-moving section of the river when our guide shouted to Tim in front of the boat to maintain his drift because a huge wake had formed and was heading straight toward his fly…Tim, who had the benefit of polarized glasses (guide forgot his) and a standing position soon saw one of the largest beavers he had ever seen, bearing down on his point fly several feet below the surface.  Fortunately, the beaver did not take the fly.  If he had, that would have been one wild ride.

The rest of our time in Twin Bridges was spent fishing and exploring other rivers as well as Lake Agnes. 

Our guide Joseph Lema highly recommended we fish Lake Agnes for trout and grayling.  So, on Sept 17^th, using Google Maps we found our way to the trailhead into Lake Agnes.  Note to self:  Never trust Google Maps when navigating remote areas.  We found the road to the trailhead very perilous.  It was a long, rough, rocky, dirt road.  At one point it required we navigate a long, one-lane stretch that dropped precipitously along the edge hundreds of feet down to Brown Lake.  We just hoped not to meet another car coming the other way as there was no place for cars to pass.  The drive was just the beginning of the adventure.  From the trailhead we hiked 1.7 miles that felt like we were climbing straight up.  Well, we almost were.  We gained more than 1,000 feet on the steep, rocky trail.  After 1½ hours we arrived.  It was a beautiful and very large lake.  Since we didn’t reach it until early afternoon, it seemed like the best thing to do first was to eat lunch.  We watched several other fishers in the distance.  No one was catching.  We only had a couple hours to fish.   We wanted to leave plenty of time to make it back to the car before evening here in the middle of bear country.  We tried lots of presentations.  In the end it was the dry fly, a royal wolf parachute, that tricked a few graylings. 

On another day, Tim and I fully explored the upper Ruby River.  We started fishing at Sweetwater Creek bridge.  Nearly all the upper Ruby runs through private land, so access is at bridge crossings.  You must go directly to the river and stay below the highwater mark.  Again, the low flows were a challenge.  Yet, we hooked up with browns, rainbows and whitefish before we had to exit the water as a major thunderstorm was moving in on us.  During the rain, we drove as far up the river as possible to check out fishing spots for future trips.

One day we decided to explore Poindexter Slough.  We found Euro nymphing was productive despite the heavy pressure it had experienced from all the other rivers being closed or low.   It is a small river/creek with very clear water and it was full of fishy bends and runs.  It was a fun place to hunt fish.

The next couple days we fished an open section of the Big Hole River above Maiden Rock.  I have to say, that was probably our favorite.  Once again, we had to follow a long, rugged, dirt road that led to the river and the pull outs.  The best water seemed to be at the end of long riffles where the water was highly oxygenated and full of bugs that got knocked loose in the fast water.  Both days we caught fish and the preferred fly combination seemed to be a green hopper with a red lightening bug dropper or a green quill perdigon dropper.  The best part was that there was lots of good water and few people.

On Sept 21^st we drove to Hamilton, MT.  Our VRBO was an awesome house in the woods.  It was very comfortable.  We stopped at the Freestone Fly Shop on the way into town.  They were very friendly.  We learned from them and later from our guide that they considered this area to be the “dry fly capital” of Montana.   We heeded their advice that evening and the next day as we wade fished the Bitterroot River.  (Guess what, not so much.)  While Tim and I had a few rises to our dries, most of our fish came on dead drifted nymphs–the psycho prince, BWO quill perdigon and BWO green flash-back perdigon. 

For our last day, we floated the Bitterroot River with guide Sean O’Brien, owner of Osprey Outfitters.  The previous day’s thunderstorm north of us blew out the Blackfoot River so everyone came south to the Bitterroot River.  Yep, it was crowded.  Sean found us a launch site with few boats and we saw only one other party on the river that day.  The day started great as Jim’s first fish was a big cut-bow that grabbed his hopper.  But then things started to slow down.  Tim later landed a fat rainbow and a couple other fish, but I have to say the fishing was pretty slow the rest of the day.  Sean worked hard.  He continuously told us where to make each cast as he positioned the raft so we could make those casts.  He tied on countless fly combinations.  The fish just weren’t playing along that day.  Nevertheless, we enjoyed a beautiful day floating one of the prettiest rivers we’ve ever seen.  There will be a next time!

That evening we began our drive to Tim’s house.  We decided to make the 13+ hour, 875-mile trip in two days.  That meant we could spend only two of our planned 3 nights in Hamilton.  We spent that night in Livingston, MT and made the rest of the trip the next day.  We arrived back in Windsor, CO after 13 days on the road and 2,300 miles of driving.  It was another great adventure.   Jim’s daughter, Dianna, lives in Denver, and she made the trip north to Windsor to pick up her Dad and enjoy a few days with him before he returned home.

Despite the challenges posed by low water, we found good water to fish, friendly people willing to share information, and we brought nice fish to the net.  Best of all, we made lots of great memories on beautiful water.  Twin Bridges and Hamilton have lots of great fishing options.  Now that we know low water conditions are typical for this area in September, we are taking our guides’ advice and are planning a return trip next July.