Top Ten Fishing Destinations...

[Al Agnew]

I started to post this on the "bucket list" thread, because it's what got me thinking about it, but I figured it would be hijacking the thread...

I was thinking of what people would consider the top ten North American freshwater fishing destinations, including time of year and situation...not just fly fishing the Yellowstone, but fly fishing it during hopper season, for instance. Just places you've either been to so you KNOW they are great, or places you've heard about and think they'd be tops. And I'm limiting it to North American freshwater because, well, it's my thread, and I really don't care much for saltwater fishing.

Here are mine, though really in no particular order:

1. Yellowstone River, Montana, 30 miles upstream to 30 miles downstream of Livingston, during the perfect Mother's Day caddis hatch. It happens right around the first of May, it doesn't happen every year, but when all the stars align it's simply incredible dry fly action. (The hopper season is great but the fish are getting well-educated by then. The salmon fly hatch, if you're lucky enough to hit it because it REALLY doesn't happen often, is seldom even all it's cracked up to be when it does happen. But the Mother's Day caddis hatch is the first big hatch of the year after a hard winter, the fish are hungry and as dumb as they'll be all year.)

2.The Big Hole River, Montana streamer fishing in early May. Hey, if you're going to miss the caddis hatch on the Yellowstone at that time of year, or even if you aren't, you should partake of the best streamer fishing for big brown trout I've ever seen. And there's always the chance of an insect hatch that brings a chance at a fluvial grayling to add to your lifetime fish species list.

3. John Day River, Oregon, mid-July, stretch from Butte Creek to Cottonwood Canyon. Easy one hundred smallmouth days, 60 some odd miles of river with no intermediate access, wilderness desert canyon landscape, a river that's about the size of the Meramec with mostly class 2 rapids.

4. Any one of the Penobscot, Androscoggin, or Kennebec rivers, Maine, in late September. Spectacular fall colors and wall to wall 17-21 inch smallmouth.

5. Any of the rivers in Southwest Alaska around the Lake Illiamna area, in early September. Forget the salmon fishing, just go for those 27-32 inch rainbows that are the strongest, wildest trout you'll ever see. Oh, if you happen to hit the silver salmon run when they are up in the backwaters attacking big popping bugs like sharks, it will be fun for a day or so, but those rainbows are something else.

6. Lake Fork, Texas, if you hit it just right in early March when the big bass are just moving up into the shallows. Especially if the lake has been down a couple of feet long enough to get some weeds and brush growing along the banks, and then rises into the weeds. Put on a big soft jerkbait and catch a bunch of big largemouth. You probably won't get one of the ten pound plus fish that Lake Fork is famous for, but 4-7 pound fish all day long ain't too shabby.

7. Horseback pack trip into the Yellowstone headwaters in Yellowstone Park, up above (south) of Yellowstone Lake. The most remote country in the lower 48. Native Yellowstone cutthroats galore. Do it in mid-July, and plan on catching cutthroats on dry flies until your arms get tired. But watch out for the grizzlies!

8. Devils River, Texas. A unique stream, remote, mostly private, heavily spring fed clear blueish colored desert river full of big smallmouth. One of the tougher trips to arrange, but worth it from what I've heard.

9. Float the entire free-flowing floatable section of the Salmon River, Idaho. Takes more than two weeks. You start out in native cutthroat country, and end up in smallmouth water. Big rapids, wilderness, spectacular country.

10. Any of the smaller Ozark streams in mid-July, in sections that most people think are too low to float. You'll have to work at it, but you'll probably find smallie fishing as good as you'll see in many of the famous places.

Obviously my list is weighted toward what I love most, river fishing for smallmouth and trout. Others will have different loves.

[jdmidwest]

Sorry Al, I don't want to be in the top 10 destinations. When I go out, I don't want to see other people on a great day.

[ozark trout fisher]

Here's my top 5 (10 would take too long) based on what I've fished. I've not fished nearly as many places as Al Agnew, but these were some of the best. I do not claim that these are anything like the best fishing destinations in the country, they are just my favorite from personal experience.

5.. Bighorn Mountains, North central Wyoming

I fished this area in June a few years back, and I was just absolutely blown away. This isn't big fish country, but the plentiful native cutthroat combined with the scenery and wildlife puts this right at the top of my list. I primarily fished the North Tongue River, but also quite some smaller tributaries. There were lots of mid-sized cutthroat and some brookies that were easy to catch, and the country is beautiful. There are more wildflowers than I have seen anywhere else up there, and the mountain country is probably the prettiest I have ever seen. But what really got me was all the moose I saw. The first evening that I was fishing, I heard a huge crash on the opposite bank of the river and saw a cow and her calf barreling through the brush. That got my heart beating pretty fast! Another time a moose walked right into the campground, which was a little unnerving, although very cool too.

4. William C. Whitney Wilderness, Adirondack Park New York

You don't think of wild country in New York, but in this wilderness area, our party paddled for three days without seeing any other human beings. It is absolutely stunning northwoods country not far from the Canadian border, and it is completely just left alone. We went on a three day paddling trip through the park, and it was more to see the country than to fish. But the fishing was about as good as you would expect in a bunch of north woods lakes that rarely get fished. We hooked into everything from smallmouth and largemouth bass, to rock bass and native brook trout. One of the bigger smallmouth bass that I have ever caught came on that trip, fishing a Rooster tail spinner in the deep water of a lake that probably only gets fished 5-10 times a year. Just a few casts before that I had hooked and lost what may have been the biggest brook trout I have ever seen. Enough said.

3. Bitterroot Valley, Montana

Great small stream fishing for cutthroats on the tribs. I once hiked miles up a little tributary of the East Branch until it became not much more than a trickle, and caught good sized cutthroats all the way up. You have big brown, rainbows, and cuttbows on the main river. Some of the most beautiful country in the lower 48. What else could you ask for?

2. Big Hole Valley, Montana

I spent five days renting a Forest service cabin on a little brook trout feeder of the Big Hole, and that was some of the most enjoyable time of my life. The little stream roared out of the Pioneer Mountains, and was mostly a very fast pocket water stream with some small brookies scattered in. But we found one beautiful stretch of meadow water that is my mental picture of what a western trout creek should look like. And of course the brookies were bigger and more numerous there.

Oh yeah, and there's the Big Hole itself. One of the most famous rivers in the country, and I never fished it once. I don't really regret it either since I had so much fun on that little creek, but I would like to try for the grayling.

1. Current River

You've got the slicks where the water boils during the hatches, the riffles where you can just about always pick them up on nymphs or eggs, and the deep pools with the 5 pound brown trout. Further down you have some of the region's best smallmouth bass fishing. But more importantly, you have arguably the best scenery in the state, and the bluest, prettiest, biggest springs. It may well be my favorite trout stream.

[flytyer57]

1) Wisconsin River below the dam at Merrill, WI

2) Menomonee River between Amberg and Wausaukee, WI

3) Milwaukee River near Fredonia, WI

4) Crooked Creek, between Pyatt, AR and the White River

5) Buffalo National River

6) Anywhere else where the smallmouth are plentyful and large

[Ham]

Sabine River ; Logansport, La - White Bass - around the middle of Feburary - World Class run. Lots of them and lots of BIG Sows. Some years are better than others, of course, but on the good years- I can't believe it gets any better anywhere than there.

Toledo Bend - May - Crappie move out on the flats post spawn. Drift along in 10-18 FOW. LOTS of em. Big too. Nice thump on that jig.

New River- Pembroke VA - I fished it two days and each day I caught a smallie > 20 inches. Nuff said.

Venice, Louisiana. October/November. LSU football/hunting season thins out the crowd a bit. Fish brackish water for tons of species. Flipping canes with soft plastics is big fun. Or spinnerbaits along the edges. Bring lots of spinerbaits, Redfish destroy them.

Ontario, Canada pick a lake. Walleye, Smallies, Panfish like nobody's business. Pike and Musky too. Go as soon as bass season opens.

Guntersville Lake for frog fishing on the matted surface vegetation.

crap I could list stuff forever.

[Gavin]

I've been very blessed...but I could come up with 20-30 places if I really wanted to...In no particular order..

1. Tarpon on a fly...I've tried 3-4 times...come close..but no cigar so far.

2. Yellowstone River-Park to the end of Paradise valley for gullible cutts....Paradise Valley to Pelican for big browns & rainbows

3. Madison River below Ennis Lake-Really want to float through Bear Trap Canyon and probably one of the best wild brown trout fisheries in the lower 48.

4. Grayling, MI-Fish the Au Sable & Manistee from an Au Sable Boat at night during the hex hatch...

5. Devil's River

6. John Day River

7. New River

8. Argentina & Chile

9. Permit on the Fly

10. Alaska...would really like to hit the Kenai around Cooper Landing and wade fish the Russian again, then head someplace else for a wilderness float.

11. A certain little stream in the U.P. Saw a timber wolf on my last visit..brookies run to 3-4lbs...but they are really hard to get to...bring deet, gps, and a sqare sterned canoe with a motor to find em...

[Wayne SW/MO]

There are a couple of fantastic day trips on the John Day also that can produce 50 to 100 smallies. Service Creek to Twickenham which has a few class ll is worthy up until July. Twickenham to Clarno is another. It has a sometimes class lll and is more remote than the first. Both of these have guides working them and are one day floats at around 13 miles or so.

If you like smallies, wild rainbows and steelhead, a trip to central Oregon is worth the trip.

The Deschutes river also offers short to long remote floats with rapids to class lV. Rainbows are always available and the steelhead in late summer. The lower 32 miles is a no access float through canyons with wild bighorns on the sides.