Fishing the Snake River Region of Idaho and Southwest Yellowstone

Pete Drochelman a long-time estimable member of the FATC and I (John Walker) decided to explore the Snake river area of eastern Idaho. We stayed at Three Rivers Ranch (TRR), the first Orvis endorsed lodge. The TRR is located outside of Ashton ID in the shadow of the Grand Tetons where Robinson Creek, the Warm River and the Henry’s Fork of the Snake river come together. The ranch is beautiful with Robinson Creek running through the property providing an extra fishing opportunity. All the meals and drinks were included with the stay, and the guides, service and hospitality were awesome. We also met some very interesting folks, including another group from St. Louis. We stayed 3 nights and 2 days at TRR which gave us an opportunity to take 2 guided floats on famous world class fisheries. We fished the Henry’s Fork and the Teton plus TRR was an excellent location to reach one of my big wish list rivers, the Bechler, located in the extreme SW part of Yellowstone park. The Bechler can only be accessed from Idaho side or via an overnight backpacking trip.

Day 1: The Henry’s Fork. We fished the Henry’s fork starting near the ranch where it meets the Warm river down to the reservoir area just outside Ashton. The river is fairly wide and was running about 1400 CFS. On this stretch, the river runs through a canyon that eventually opens up into a wide valley before running into the reservoir area. As it is late August, we fished hopper-droppers the entire day. Generally, we fished a single dropper but when the fishing was slow a second dropper was added. The droppers used were simple nymph’s-either emergers (size 14) or zebra midges (size 14). In the early part of the day we had the most luck on the hoppers but as the day wore on and got hotter the droppers generally did better though we still got the occasional strike on the hopper. Overall, in terms of numbers we did fairly well, Pete and I each caught ~12-15 fish with most in the 8-12 inch range. Pete bagged the big fish of the day with a ~ 15in rainbow, which he caught late in the day on a hopper. The majority of the fish that were caught were rainbows, but I did manage to catch a couple of browns. Our guide did something interesting with the hoppers. He would take a permanent marker, either pink or purple, and add dots to the underside. I am not sure if it helped or not, but it was certainly something I hadn’t seen before.

Day 2: The Teton River. We fished the lower section of the Teton River, which starts at the failed dam and floated about 10 miles. Speaking for both Pete and I, we enjoyed this float a great deal. This stretch of the Teton was absolutely beautiful, and we caught big fish. We saw plenty of amazing wildlife, including golden eagles, bald eagles, peregrine falcons, osprey, moose, river otters and an albino barn owl. Our guide was excellent sharing with us the history of the dam collapse that shapes this section of the river and putting us on some very nice fish. The river initially moves through a canyon with high rocks walls maybe 50-60 ft tall before it opens up into a several miles of meadow. The Teton flows more slowly (~450 cfs) than the Henry’s Fork with lots of bends and turns. This meant that the guy in the front of the boat had a definitive advantage over the guy in the back. We fished mainly for cutthroats and using almost exclusively hoppers. John was in the front of the boat in the morning and caught 4 all in the 12-14in range while Pete struggled to get his hook sets timed up. In the afternoon Pete took the front and caught three really nice ones including an 18in rainbow and 17in cutthroat. To aid the guy in the back(me), for the last hour or so a dropper was added below the hopper. This meant the guy in the back was giving the fish something different beyond just throwing the exact same bug in the same place the guy had just thrown. This strategy worked as John caught 3 on the dropper including the last fish of the day, a big fat 19in cutthroat.

Day 3: The Bechler River in Yellowstone National Park. Long a desire of mine to see this river in the SW corner of Yellowstone staying in Ashton afforded us the perfect opportunity. We drove to the Bechler ranger station which is 26 miles from Ashton. We were able to purchase fishing licenses and get a map. From there we had two choices. Hike the 5.6 miles to the Meadows sections of the Bechler, which is supposedly the best area for fishing or drive 3 miles down the road to the Cave Falls access area and hike ~2-3 miles and fish the lower section of the Bechler. We chose the former and hiked to the meadows. There are really only a couple of months out of the year where the meadows section is accessible, so it was now or never. The trail is relatively easy and flat and took us ~ 2.5 h to get to the Bechler. Along the way, we crossed Boundry Creek which is also fishable. The last 2 miles of the trail were through an open meadow which is very pretty. On the way back, you can see the Tetons in the distance rising up above the Meadow. The Bechler is a gentle moving river that snakes its way back and forth through the meadow as it heads south to the park boundary where it flows into Fall River. It is somewhat reminiscent of Slough Creek for those that have been there. The fish are very easily spooked! The river was best fished from the high bank keeping as low a profile as possible. Fortunately, there is a trail that runs along the river making fishing from the high bank possible. We started too late in the day to fish for long, maybe only 90 minutes or so. Not a good hiking to fishing time ratio but sometimes you have to take what you can get. Pete nailed two big cutbows 17+in while I spent most of the allotted time trying to get my hopper out of the grass behind me or untangle wind knots. The lower section is reportedly easier to access but the fishing might not be quite as good as in this section. Pete reported the fish didn’t fight too hard, but he might have been trying to be nice to me since I was enjoying the fauna more than fishing. If you do fish this area take bear spray as it is heavy bear country and also rattle snakes too.

All in all, a great trip. If you ever want to try the trout lodge experience or just want to fish the Henry’s Fork, South Fork or Teton rivers I can’t recommend Three Rivers Ranch highly enough. It was a great experience with super friendly and helpful staff. And if you are in Ashton and want to fish in the park definitely check out the Bechler. I know I plan to go again soon.

Submitted by John K. Walker