Scuds and midges provide a nonstop food supply for the majority of fish to get fat, fatter, and even more fat. Throughout the spring and early summer, insect hatches can be not just prolific, but literally blinding. Although not given the amount of attention that you might expect after witnessing it, Yellow Sally hatches on the Beaverhead are as impressive as you'll find anywhere. These Sallies often overlap with PMD and Caddis activity that will have fish feeding subsurface, on the surface, and on rare occasions leaping for fluttering insects 6 inches above the surface. Feeding lanes are typically dominated by the longest, heaviest, and meanest trout greedily feeding at the head of the run, although plenty of respectable followers are usually right behind. As fall approaches and the salmo trutta somehow get even more territorial than they already are, Craneflies the size of your thumb start moving around and ultimately hatching. It's no surprise that the big boys key in on this high calorie meal, whether it be on the larvae near the river bottom or on the adults skating across the surface.
Anyone who has fished here knows that this is a special place. It's an unique river unlike the rest where the "fish of a lifetime" saying takes on a whole new meaning. In 1805 the Beaverhead River helped guide Lewis and Clark on their journey West to their oceanic destination. This river now guides obsessed anglers directly to their big trout destination.