March Madness on the Poindexter Slough

The Poindexter Slough of the Beaverhead River

The Poindexter Slough in Southwest Montana flows through one of the finest pieces of public land in the entire country.  The Slough is America's spring creek and although it is on public land, the skill and physical fitness level required to fish it keeps the crowds very much at bay.  In fact, I fished just about the entire reach and I saw nobody else all day long.  The only people I did see were two bait fishermen fishing frog water while I was limping back to the truck in the dark.  I was too tired to tell them that fishing bait is still illegal for two more months which turned out okay because they were really nice and told me they hadn't caught a thing.

I, on the other hand, had a 40+ fish day and one of the most fun days bushwhacking and catching large browns and rainbows so far this year!

Brown on the line

The Slough is not the place to bring a beginner.  Your roll cast needs to be in top shape here as the banks are lined with thick willows.  You're also going to want to leave lollygaggers and the timid behind.  If your not getting your ass kicked by the willows and your skin and clothes ripped by the roses and currants, your not getting in deep enough.  Effectively getting to where the big fish are is as close to going guerrilla in a jungle as you can get in MT.

Underwater Brown

  


























The Slough is chock full of very large, very wary brown trout and some big-ass rainbows too.

Brown Trout sucking on the Meat Whistle

I fished streamers downstream all the way down to where the Slough hits the Beaverhead and was absolutely blown away by the number and size of the browns in that small piece of water.  The MeasureNet works on a number line centered on 0.  To get a measurement, you add the value at the head and the tail of the fish.  As you can see here, this guy was pushing 20in. (51cm.)  John Barr's Meat Whistle in green was the ticked to getting some vicious hits from the browns.

Another brown sucking on the Meat Whistle

Once I reached the mouth, I set up a nymph rig and headed back upstream.  I put on the Soft Hackle "Sow Bug" and all of a sudden, started to catch huge pre-spawn rainbows.  Surprise!

Soft Hackle Sow Bug in a big rainbow's kype jaw

I'm talking BIG rainbows!  Check out the kype on this big guy.  He was pissed about getting caught.

Female rainbow release

This large female was never lifted out of the water and released faster than a toupee in a hurricane.

Underwater rainbow

It's getting to be the time of year where you have to start looking out for redds.  More on that soon.  Once irrigation starts in the Beaverhead Valley, half of the water going into the Beaverhead and also the Slough ends up going down ditches.  The weeds grow long in the Slough and the fish become almost un-catchably spooky.  I'll see these guys again in the fall...