

The lodge’s bar boasts perhaps the best selection of quality whiskey in the West. From traditional southern dinner dishes like fried chicken to a biscuits-and-gravy breakfast, the table fare is a revelation. And the iconic bar might be the lodge’s crown jewel.įOOD/DRINK: The lodge’s chef-prepared appetizers and meals are simply wonderful - the food is unmatched anywhere in the region. The dining area is equally homey, sporting the same view and large, sturdy dining tables and comfortable chairs. Cozy furniture is lined up perfectly around a natural gas fire pit.
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The large great room is a great place to gather, and it boasts floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the river. The lodge itself is everything you might hope to have in a fishing lodge, and more than you’d ever reasonably expect. Large rooms with postcard views of the river boast sturdy, posh beds with down comforters, big bathrooms with walk-in showers and oversized living spaces. LODGING: Anglers aren’t necessarily luxury mongers, but at South Fork Lodge, they won’t have much of a choice. If nymphing the river’s riffle-and-run stretches is your game, the South Fork can be an astounding “numbers” river for surprisingly big trout and whitefish. Don’t turn up your nose at these homely relatives of the Arctic grayling - over the years, they’ve saved many a fishing trip. The river also boasts acrobatic rainbows, a growing population of rainbow-cutthroat hybrids and a very healthy population of native mountain whitefish. The bigger browns have earned something of a cult following on the South Fork - they’ll chase streamers in low light or on overcast days when anglers can put big bugs tight to structure.

The river’s ninja brown trout will often feed right alongside its cutties during a big hatch-nothing raises your blood pressure like the sight of a head the size of your fist coming out of the water to grab a hapless dry fly stuck in the foam. The fall and spring Blue-winged Olive hatches are legendary, and they’re supplemented by a robust March Brown hatch that can show up on blustery days and bring fish to the top.Īnd the fishing on the South Fork most certainly isn't all about cutthroats. A hopper-dropper rig is standard on this river when the big bugs are out, but anglers should be ready to switch gears quickly - an epic PMD hatch lasts all summer long, and there are other important bugs that emerge as well, like big Green Drakes after a summer squall. The South Fork's cutthroats are notorious big-bug eaters, starting in late June with one of the most prolific salmonfly hatches in the West, through fall, when big terrestrials stay on the water through the first frost of the season. It’s the perfect launching pad for a day on the river, and anglers likely won’t experience the level of service they’ll find at the lodge at any other American destination. The lodge, operated by renowned angler and entrepreneur Oliver White, delivers unmatched service and no small amount of luxury to its clients. From the convenient and exclusive environs of South Fork Lodge, anglers can fish the entire river over the course of a week - from the upper reaches below the dam, down through a maze of braids and channels and then through the notorious canyon reach, the South Fork offers diverse habitat, dependable and prolific hatches and some of the best trout fishing anywhere. Rainbow trout, brown trout and rainbow-cutthroat hybrids also call the river home. One of two species of fish native to the river (the other is the mountain whitefish), the cutthroats are the fish that made the river famous. Yellowstone cutthroat trout are the dry-fly warriors of the South Fork. And it’s fishy all season long, from the lip of the dam at Palisades Reservoir until it joins the Henry’s Fork near the little town of Menan some 40 miles downstream. It’s big and sweeping and, especially for a tailwater, it remains wild and wonderful. But the South Fork of the Snake River is different. From the Green to the San Juan, trophy trout rivers beckon anglers every season.
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The American West is full of big tailwaters.
