Fly Fishing Insider Podcast
Twin Bridges, Montana sits where the Big Hole, Beaverhead and Ruby meet to form the Jefferson, giving four trout rivers in one town plus an abundance of spring creeks. The Big Hole fishes as a classic freestone with a stonefly progression, while the Beaverhead tailwater and the spring creeks stay cool and mayfly driven.
John Radle works for Bauer Reels and Winston in Twin Bridges, Montana, and came to fly fishing in Austin, Texas before guiding and going to school in Montana.
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What water surrounds Twin Bridges, Montana?
Twin Bridges sits in southwest Montana at the foot of the Tobacco Root Mountains, with four trout streams in immediate reach. The Big Hole, the Beaverhead and the Ruby converge in town to form the Jefferson, which is part of the Missouri River drainage. Alongside those four rivers the area holds an abundance of spring creeks, which is what most of the local fly fishing industry crowd chooses to fish on its own time. The character of the place is open grassland and broad valleys against snow-topped mountains, and the local summer ideal is dry flies in flip-flops after work.
How do the freestone and tailwater rivers there fish differently?
The Big Hole is the freestone and fishes as classic Montana drift boat water: 5- and 6-weights for most of the day with a 7-weight streamer stick aboard, throwing at banks and mid-river structure. Its hatch progression is stonefly-led, beginning with skwalas early, then salmonflies, golden stones and yellow sallies, with mayflies working in behind them. Scaling down to the Beaverhead tailwater and the spring creeks shifts the game to mayflies and smaller bugs, with PMD season through mid to late June and July as the centerpiece and terrestrials taking over later. In a weak snowpack year the Big Hole may need to be left alone early once it warms, while reservoir-fed tailwater and spring creeks keep fishing.
Can you fish Montana spring creeks without paying for private access?
Montana stream access law allows walking anything between the high and low water marks, which is the mechanism that makes public spring creek fishing possible at all. It requires effort: putting miles on boots, or getting creative and floating into water, and doing map research to find lesser-known stretches. Many of the spring creeks themselves are private, and a number of ranches have recognized the economic value of a fishable creek even when the owners do not fish, investing in bank and habitat restoration to improve the fishery. Anglers who want that water without the mileage go through outfitters who hold access to it.
Why do spring creeks stay fishable in a bad snowpack year?
Spring creeks are hardy in a way freestone rivers are not, because most are tapped into groundwater and fed from an aquifer rather than from runoff. That means temperature stays consistent and flows hold up regardless of what the snowpack did over the winter. In a year when the Big Hole warms early and needs to be rested, the spring creeks and the reservoir-fed Beaverhead are the water still worth driving to, and both fish well deep into August.
How do you approach a single feeding fish on a spring creek?
Spring creek fishing is the opposite of covering water. It means walking slowly, treading lightly and staying locked in on what is directly ahead, because these fish tuck into cut banks and overhanging grass and end up much closer than expected. On a single fish holding alone, stay back and make a slightly longer cast rather than closing distance, and never start with the leader or fly anywhere near the fish. Present off to whichever side the fish appears to be feeding toward, giving it room to make a run at the fly. If it does not play, work the casts progressively closer, and only then change to something smaller. In the example described, a brown trout refused a size 16 parachute hopper twice, was rested for about ten minutes, and then ate a small foam ant on a 12 and a half foot 4X leader.
What line and retrieve work for streamers from a drift boat?
The standard streamer rig is a 7-weight with a full 25- or 30-foot sinking head, chosen because the goal is getting the streamer to depth quickly and then holding it at that depth through the retrieve. Deeper rivers where the drift needs slowing down into a channel call for a 15- or 25-foot sink tip on a floating line instead, so the streamer can be mended down to the level wanted. Either way the line does the sinking, which allows a bigger profile on a lighter fly rather than a heavily weighted one. The retrieve is a jerk strip or jig strip: move the fly with the rod tip, then pick up the resulting slack with the line hand. Doing both at once is the mistake, because it leaves slack at exactly the point in the strip where most eats happen.
How do you swing streamers to fall brown trout with a two-hander?
In fall, brown trout staging to spawn, either residents or lake-run fish moving up into a river system, hold the way a steelhead does, in deeper classic runs and in soft water in odd places where they can rest before the next push. That means finding large predatory browns in water they would not normally occupy. A 12-foot 5-weight two-hander with a sink tip, roughly 10 to 12 and a half feet in T-8 through T-11, turns over full-size articulated streamers with heavy cone heads at distance without a back cast over structure. The presentation is not a straight swing: strip with the off hand or pop the rod tip so the fly climbs and then falls, jigging as it comes across the current. Earlier in fall, when fish are hot, moving the rod tip produces a bigger jig of six to eight inches; later, as water cools, the rod tip goes into the water and the line hand does the work for a three or four inch jig. Casts are short, roughly the head plus tip plus five or six strips, and the leader is straight 20 pound, dropping to a two and a half foot section of 16 pound if fish are shy.
Key takeaways
- Montana stream access law allows walking between the high and low water marks, which is what makes public spring creek fishing possible.
- Spring creeks are aquifer-fed, so they hold temperature and flow in a weak snowpack year when a freestone like the Big Hole warms out.
- On a spring creek, rest a refusing fish for about ten minutes and downsize the fly rather than casting closer and closer.
- Let the line, not the fly, do the sinking: a 25 or 30 foot sinking head lets you fish a large profile on a lighter fly.
- Jerk strip in two separate motions, moving the fly with the rod tip and then picking up slack with the line hand, never both at once.
- For fall two-handed streamer work, a 12-foot 5-weight with a T-8 to T-11 tip and straight 20 pound leader is enough rod to swing heavy articulated flies at short range.
