Overlooked But Not Forgotten
The Madison River boasts a population of 2,000 to 3,000 fish per mile compared to the lower Jefferson that produces only 300 to 500 fish per mile. As a result, the Jeff is often overlooked - which is just fine with me. The Jeff starts at the confluence of the Beaverhead and Bighole rivers in a fishing town near Ennis called Twin Bridges. As a lower elevation river, it winds its way through ranch land and cottonwood bottoms, all the way to Three Forks, Montana where it meets up with the Madison and the Gallatin to form the headwaters of the Missouri.
The Jeff isn’t known for an over abundance of stone flies. The same can be said for salmon fly hatches
and yellow sallies. What few hatches it does attract are mostly mud-loving mayflies that hatch in early spring. What the Jeff is recognized for is its abundant supply of Crawdads and as a place to go when you want to “strip some junk.” For this I recommend using big brown yuk bugs, a combination of brown girdle bugs with squirrel tails, rubber legs and a piece of webby grizzly hackle.
Find Guided Fly Fishing Trips on the Jefferson River→
In the dog days of summer, the Jeff usually runs low and suffers from high water temperatures, a fact that may account for the river’s lower fish count. My advice is to stay away once the water’s temp creeps up over 70 degrees. These conditions make for great swimming but poor fishing. For this reason I think of the Jefferson as a shoulder season river; it fishes best spring and fall. Because there can be long hauls between good fishing spots, I find fishing from a boat preferable. Once you do find a sweet spot, it’s worth the effort to drop into the water and wade.
Read More The Fly Shops of Ennis
[Photo] "42220 Twin Bridges Sign" by Spend a Day Touring LLC, used under CC BY / Cropped from original