Type of Stream
Tailwater
Fly and Gear ordering and delivery: We can get flies to you within two to three business days from the time you place your order via Priority Mail. If you provide a budget for flies, we will select them to match the budget and get them to you on time for your trip. Please see the bottom of this column for ordering options.
We also have custom Perfect Fly selections in 3 different price ranges for this stream that come with or without fly boxes. They make excellent gifts. Click Here To Order or Call us at 800 594 4726 or email us at sales@perfectflystore.com.
Species
Rainbow Trout
Brown Trout
(Wild)
Mountain Whitefish (Native)
Location
Southwestern Montana
Size:
Small – 75 Miles Long
Nearest Towns
Dillon
Season:
3rd Sat May – Nov. 30th (Some
Catch and Release year-round)
Special Regulations
Access:
Good
Non-Resident License
State of Montana
Recommended Tackle & Gear
Fly Line:
5 or 6 weight
Leaders:
Dry fly: 9 & 12 ft., 5 or 6X, Nymphing:
71/2 ft., 3 or 4X, Streamers 0-2X
Tippets:
Dry fly: 5 or 6X, Nymphing: 3 or 4X,
Streamer 0-2X
Best Fly Rods:
Perfect Fly Superb Five or Ultimate Six
Fly Reels:
For 5/6 fly line
Fly Floatants and Misc Items:
Floatants, KISS Strike Indicators
Tools & Accessories:
Nippers, forceps, retractors, etc.
Fly and Gear ordering and delivery:
Email us at (sales@perfectflystore.com) with the dates you will be fishing and we will send you a list of our fly recommendations. We can get flies and gear to you within two to three business days from the time you place your order via Priority Mail. If you provide a budget for flies, we will select them to match the budget and get them to you on time for your trip. Your can also call us at 800-594-4726 and we will help you decide what flies and gear to use. All orders are shipped free in the U.S. If under a $100 order requiring Priority mail is a charge of only $8.10. Orders over a $100 are shipped free via Priority Mail.
Copyright 2013 James Marsh
Beaverhead River Montana Fishing Report, November 19, 2024
We are still getting good reports from customers although the river is flowing well below a normal level. There are good hatches taking place and our pre-rigged in tandem Midge larva and pupa flies are working very good.
Stream Conditions:
Rate: xxx cfs (not working)
Level: .69 ft
Afternoon Water Temperature: 60 degrees
Clarity: clear
USGS Stream level
Weather:
Recommended Trout Flies:
Midges: Cream and Red (Blood) midges sizes 20/22, larva, pupa and adult. Our larva and pupa midge flies, pre-rigged in tandem, are very popular here. You can fish them under a strike indicator keeping the larva fly near the bottom. https://perfectflystore.com/product/pre-rigged-tandem-midge-larva-pupa-tippet
Sculpin and White Belly Sculpin and Articulated streamers, size 6/4
Black Matuka and Olive Matuka Sculpin, size 4/6
Blue-winged Olives: size 16, nymphs, emergers, duns, spinnersOctober
Spotted Sedge Caddis; size 14/16, larva, pupa and adults
October Caddis, size 6, larva, pupa and adults
Perfect Flies are designed and tied to to imitate and behave like the natural foods the trout rely on to survive as much as possible. The more your fly looks like and moves through and on the surface of the water like the real things, the higher your odds of success.
Fly Fishing On The Beaverhead River In Montana: The Beaverhead River Tailwater starts at the Clarke Canyon Dam. It’s considered one of, if not the best brown trout fisheries in Montana. It also holds a good population of rainbow trout. The brown trout average around 16 inches in this relatively small stream. Fly fishing the Beaverhead River can produce some trophy size trout. The Beaverhead River flows for over 50 miles to joins the Big Hole River at Twin Bridges, Montana to form the Jefferson River. Thanks to the bottom release dam, the water stays cool all season long within a few miles of the Clark Canyon Reservoir. There are Special Regulations, so you want to make sure you check on them current regulations prior to fishing the Beaverhead. The river can be broken down into two main sections. The upper part from the Clarke Canyon Dam to Barretts Diversion Dam, a distance of about sixteen miles and the section below Barretts. The upper section stays the coldest during the warmer months of the year. This section has plenty of rainbows along with the big brown trout thanks to the lower water temperatures. The Beaverhead River is small. It is narrow and winds through a series of bends. Getting a large drift boat through it isn’t as easy as navigating most tailwaters. That said, fishing the river from a drift boat is by far the most popular way to fish. Wading is difficult in the upper section due to the depth of the water. Bank fishing is extremely limited. The banks are solidly lined with willow trees and cottonwood trees. Casting without getting hung up occasionally isn’t easy. The same is true of nymph fishing. A heavy growth of aquatic vegetation and weeds makes nymph fishing tough in places. The section below Barretts Dam is different. It is much shallower and can usually be easily waded. The flows are reduced because of the diversion of the river’s water for agricultural use.Springs help the quality of the water of the Beaverhead River. The higher than normal pH of the water, supports lots of aquatic insects. As mentioned above, the water downstream of Barretts Dam can get a little on the warm side. There are more brown trout and less rainbows in The most productive methods of fishing are usually subsurface. Dry fly fishing is good at times but limited. As our Hatches and Fly section of the site will tell you, there are hatches of Blue-winged Olives, Pale Morning Duns, several species of caddisflies, and even a few stoneflies. We found a huge population of midges in the Beaverhead. Imitations of midges work great year-round. Flows from the dam are usually low during the Winter and Spring. They fill the reservoir up so there’s plenty of water.
Fly Fishing Guide For The Beaverhead River: The Beaverhead River has several points that it can be accessed and fished from the bank or waded, but most anglers prefer to drift the river by boat. As we have said, in the upper part of the stream above Barrett’s Dam, the river is fairly deep with little wading opportunities. Fishing it from a drift boat is most always preferred to wading. The part below Barrett’s Dam down to Dillion, a distance of about 16 miles, can be waded or fished from a drift boat. It can get rather low during the summer and early fall season, so you must check the water levels. The section below Dillion probably has fewer fish but those that are there are usually very large. The stream can usually be easily waded in this section. Everything depends on the streams flows and water levels, so be certain you check them anytime you fish the Beaverhead River. The stream is not the easiest stream you can find to fish. Its large brown trout, large amount of fishing pressure at certain times of the year, changing water conditions, small flies that are often required and precise presentations, make it difficult at times to catch trout. When you do, you are usually well rewarded with some large trout. Most anglers prefer to use nymphs or streamers. Trout can be taken at times on dry flies but most often, nymphs and streamers will work much better. Streamers are particularly important during the fall when the brown trout spawn and water is available for irrigating the crops during the Summer. During the Summer months, large amounts of water are diverted by Barretts Dam for irrigation. By large amounts, we mean as much as half of the water in the lower section of the Beaverhead River. The ideal stream flow rates for floating the Beaverhead River are between 500 and a 1000 cfs. This makes it difficult to wade the upper part. The ideal flows for wading are 300 cfs or less. These rates of flow are common during the winter months. Fall flow rates can be very low. The highest flows are usually during May and June. August flows are usually much better. Of course, much of this is subject to the amount of precipitation and the snowpack. They become very aggressive and will hit most streamers if they get near them.In the upper section, most anglers try to drift a nymph tight against the banks underneath the overhanging willow and cottonwood trees. Hangups are common. Getting the fly caught in the trees is a common problem. Each time this occurs on a drift boat trip, lots of time is wasted, however, if you don’t get the fly to where the fish are holding, you will be wasting a lot of time.If you do fish dry flies, the best time to do it is during a hatch, of course. That will increase your odds of success considerably. Fishing early and late in the day will also help improve your odds of catching them on attractor flies. If the sun is bright, the rainbows will sometimes respond to dry flies in the faster moving current, but usually the brown are holding deep and will not take a fly on the surface. Your odds will increase if you fish the dry fly on cloudy, overcast days.
Beaverhead River Hatches and Trout Flies: Our information on aquatic insects is based on our stream samples of larvae and nymphs, not guess work. We base fly suggestions on imitating the most plentiful and most available insects and other foods at the particular time you are fishing. Unlike the generic fly shop trout flies, we have specific imitations of all the insects in the Big Hole River and in all stages of life that are applicable to fishing. If you want to fish better, more realistic trout flies, have a much higher degree of success, give us a call. We not only will help you with selections, you will learn why, after trying Perfect Flies, 92% of the thousands of our customers will use nothing else. 1-800-594-4726. The Beaverhead River has spring influence which lowers the pH of the stream and helps account for the huge aquatic insect population the stream has. Midges are not fished that much by the locals, but work just as well on the Beaverhead as any other tailwater. They can be very important during the times nothing else is hatching. Imitations of the larvae, pupae and of the adults should be in your fly box.As with most any other trout stream, Blue-winged Olives are one of, if not the most important mayfly on the Beaverhead River. The can start hatching in March and last through June. They will hatch again from about the first of September into November. PMDs, or Pale Morning Duns, hatch from about the middle of June until the middle of July. They represent one of the better hatches on the river. Trico mayflies can hatch from about the middle of July all the way through the month of September. Craneflies are considered very important on the Beaverhead River. They are around for much of the year but most available during the late summer. Skwala Stoneflies start hatching in the middle of March and on into the month of April. LIttle Brown Stoneflies also hatch in March and on into April. Golden Stoneflies hatch in June, but not in large quantities. Little Yellow Stoneflies, called Yellow Sallies, are probably the most plentiful stoneflies. They hatch from about the first of June and on into the first of August. Grannom, or Brachycentrus Caddisflies hatch during the month of May. This hatch, normally called the Mother’s Day hatch, can produce some good fish. Glossoma Caddisflies, or LIttle Short-horned Sedges, hatch in June and July. Spotted Sedges is probably the most important caddisfly hatch. It starts about the first of June and can last through the month of August. Green Sedges start hatching about the first of July and last through the month of September. The larva stage of life of this caddisfly is called the Green Rock Worm. They can be effective most anytime of the year. October Caddis hatch in September and October, but the hatch is not considered a major event.The terrestrial are important, especially the ants and beetles. Imitations of grass hopper will also catch fish, but we think the ants and beetles are eaten more by the trout. Anytime from around the first of July through the month of September, you should consider fishing them. Streamers are very important flies. The large browns just don’t rise to dry flies very often. Streamers work great to take the big ones. The river has a lot of baitfish, sculpin and plenty of crayfish in it. You should use streamers that imitate them. As always, we recommend our “Perfect Flies”. They are not only the most realistic flies you can purchase, they are the most effective flies you can use. We have imitations of everything that live in the Beaverhead River, so if you haven’t already done so, please give them a try.