In the afternoon, we hit Poindexter Slough. OH! What a lovely setting!! It's located at a typical Montana ranch/wilderness, nothing different from Paradise Valley spring creeks. But one huge different is 6 MILE WATER in STATE MANAGED LAND!! As for character of the water, in my observation for the first time visit, it's also a mix of my favorite waters. Meadow sections remind me of Firehole and Gibbon Rivers in Yellowstone Park; several other spots/sections resemble three Paradise Valley spring creeks.
We expected, and for what we heard, there would be some insect hatches and rising trout. There were some caddis and sporadic mayflies in the air but I really didn't see rising trout. No visual indication of trout at the very first water to fish. My first approach was to observe, assess, read the water, and search. Since there was no strong insect hatch and rising trout, my choice was a Dry-Nymph dropper tactics. If Poindexter really resembles waters mentioned above, I should be able to read water well and I must be able to deduce trout habitat from experience and observation. I selected attractor patterns to get searching started.
My dry-fly selection was Royal Wulff Cripple,
trailed with Bead, Hare, Copper (from Parks Fly Shop)
or BHC Peacock version (Copper Matt!). All in size 14.
First trout for the first visit is always memorable. But you can see where my BHC is...... Anyway,
Second was caught legally and it became non-stop!!
This size of brown, as the very first one, was larger side of catches.
Definitely brown seemed dominant in population. Matt and I were wondering "is there any rainbows?"...... Right after I said that, I caught a nice rainbow and it turned out to be ONE & ONLY rainbow of the day........Am I revealing my "honey-spot"?? Hey, it's public water anyway! Come & fish, everybody!
Indeed it resembles Firehole or Gibbon in Yellowstone National Park.......
This was the best brown!
I caught all of them on ONLY BHC!! Royal Wulff Cripple served only as an indicator. This proves the effectiveness of BHC but at the same time, it was weird for me that no trout came up to RWC. On the contrary, Matt caught all of his trout on his dry-flies....... Here he was working on a few sporadic risers.
It was such a beautiful day to spend with my friends (& without Livingston gusts!!). That was more than happy enough but experience at Poindexter was beyond description. All trout are wild and never pushovers. I admit fly selection was not a problem (maybe because we didn't encounter serious hatches) but trout did require perfect presentations and I had to do my best of water-reading to locate them.
If planning to visit Dillon, most of visitors, even me from Livingston, MT, would think of famous Beaverhead and Big Hole Rivers for right reasons (in that case, I suggest you to hire my guide friend Graham!!). But Poindexter deserves to be spent a whole day. Yesterday was only my first visit but considering my experience & knowledge for alike waters mentioned above, Poindexter is now in my list! 6 miles of public water in State managed land and for some reasons it's not crowded at all......can't be better than that (if this post were to be in a fly-fishing magazine, it could be crowded???). From now on whenever I head to Dillon or any other Western MT destinations, I will always try to visit Poindexter as much as I can. So should you!
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