By Kris Olsen, from Northwest Fishing Holes magazine, October/November 2001

This piece is for all you trout hounds out there who think Washington’s Yakima River is God’s gift to fly-fishing. If catching rainbows, cutthroat, browns and brookies on a dry fly is your reason for living, you might want to pay close attention here, because my good friend Steve Swain and I recently enjoyed a wonderful journey to a place that makes the Yakima look nothing less than sterile.

An hour’s drive north of Idaho Falls, Idaho, nestled in the foothills south of Yellowstone National Park, is Three Rivers Ranch. It is a fabulous destination voted by Orvis as the 2000 “Lodge of the Year”. After meeting and spending a few days with ranch owner/manager Lonnie Allen, that strikes me as no surprise whatsoever.

Lonnie is a delightful and wonderful hostess, and most of her clientele has been coming there for many, many years. Licensed to guide on more than 200 miles of fishable water in the area, the possibilities are endless. Her staff of experienced guides has been with her for as long as she has owned the place. Her association with Three Rivers Ranch however, goes way beyond her current status.

The ranch is located at the confluence of the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River, Warm River, and Robinson Creek. Hence the name Three Rivers Ranch. It’s location borders the Targhee National Forest. Lonnie’s grandparents homesteaded the ranch in the early 1900’s. The place grew into Warm River Resort, and it sits near what used to be a main road to Yellowstone National Park. There was a café, dance hall, cabins, and even a train stop for tourists heading to the park. It eventually grew to 900 acres.

When Highway 20 was built, Yellowstone traffic no longer came by the resort, and times got tougher. In 1974, the name changed to Three Rivers Ranch, and they began catering to fly fishing enthusiasts from all over the country.
A number of people managed the place over the years, including Lonnie’s parents, and also her sister and brother-in-law. It was one of the first lodges ever endorsed by Orvis.

In 1987, Lonnie bought the place outright, and has turned it into one of the premier fly-fishing destinations, recently being voted among the top ten in the entire nation. The original lodge itself is built of old hand milled logs, and decorated with many wonderful western antiques. The dining area, bar, and reading sofas are located here. There are a few guest rooms located on the upper floor.

Most of the guests stay in one of the many beautiful cabins located on the ranch. Some are new, built of pine logs, with beautiful tongue and groove knotty pine throughout the insides. Others are restored originals, but all are first class accommodations. There is also the secluded Robinson Lodge, a sizeable log structure that houses 6-8 guests, perfect for a family get together!

The places they fish read like a who’s who of American trout streams. Among them is the Henry’s Fork of the Snake, the South Fork Snake, and the Teton River. They also fish Yellowstone Park Rivers such as the Madison, Fire Hole, and Gibbon Rivers.

When you add tributaries like Fall River, Warm River, Buffalo River, Bitch Creek, and Robinson Creek, you have way more water to fish than you have vacation time! The season at Three Rivers Ranch runs from May thru September, so you will always have productive water in one watershed or another.

Steve and I arrived in Idaho Falls via Horizon Air from Seattle on Friday, June 8th, 2001. We were met at the airport by Lonnie’s son Chad, who drove us out to the ranch. After getting settled in our cabin, and having a great lunch in the lodge, we could not resist a short afternoon hike up Robinson Creek, which runs right in front of the cabins. Robinson Creek is a beautiful little stream, very easily wade-able with the perfect flow rate for easy fishing.

Armed with my three weight, and some large stoneflies (suggested by one of the guides), I managed quite a few rises and hook-ups in no time at all. Steve too was having a blast with these small creek rainbows! The trail up the creek runs for about a half mile, but you can wade miles farther up the creek without difficulty.

On our hike back to the ranch, I noticed my heart was racing pretty hard. I’m not in the greatest of shape, but geez, this was easy hiking. I thought maybe it was just me, until Steve mentioned he too was sucking wind. We finally realized that us sea level boys were hiking around in our waders at an elevation over five thousand feet! Not to worry though, by the next day, our bodies had adjusted, and we were fine from then on.

We got ourselves cleaned up in time for the cocktail hour, then enjoyed a wonderful halibut dinner, giving us a chance to meet the other guests. From the sounds of things around the table, there had been an enormous Green Drake hatch earlier in the week, and even the novices were hooking serious numbers of fish. This got Steve and I pretty excited as we sat and took it all in. We crashed that night looking very forward to our first full day on the water!

You have to love this fly fishing thing. No one is in a hurry, you get to sleep in a bit, have a great breakfast and then start your fishing adventure. No rush, no worries. So after enjoying a quiet morning, breakfast and a few cups of coffee, Cliff Weisse introduced himself to us as our guide for the day. Cliff is originally from New Jersey, but long ago fell in love with the country and the fishing. He has been guiding for Lonnie for thirteen years, and is a really great guy.

We loaded our gear in Cliff’s rig, and off we went to do a float on the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River. The drift boats here are rigged different than our northwest versions. They have a seat in front and one in the rear of the boat, ideal for ease of casting with the fly rods.

Cliff was busy launching the boat, while Steve and I were watching trout rising here and there. Cliff then rigged us both up, Steve with a dry and a dropper, and myself with just a dry fly. We jumped in and off we went! It was not long before Steve was into a nice rainbow. We caught numerous fish on both the dry, and the dropper nymph.

We came to a nice slot with a large underwater boulder that fish were feeding around. We noticed an explosive rise that Cliff said was associated with the way a fish strikes a Green Drake. He immediately put one on my tippet, and I let loose with a finely placed cast if I do say so myself! Almost instantly the big rainbow devoured my offering, and I was fast into a hot fish!

This section of the Henry’s Fork was awesome, with every run holding lots of trout. The amazing thing is that we took many fish from the middle of the river! The long shallow flats hold tons of fish from bank to bank! I would be looking at the bank slot, and Cliff would say to cast the other way towards the middle. He was the expert here not me, so we cast where we were told! We could clearly see lots of bottom vegetation on this stretch of this river, providing the abundant aquatic life that is the basis of the food chain for these ravenous trout!

Before long, a brutal wind kicked up and made casting very difficult. Cliff worked his butt off trying to keep us on top of things, but casting in that stuff was extremely tough. I asked Cliff if the fish would hit the drake sub-surface, or if they liked it on top. He said that they indeed would hit it sub-surface.

With the wind really beginning to howl, I simply started to leave my fly in the water at the end of my swing. As the boat moved downstream over productive water, I just held onto my rod with my fly directly below the boat. I got a serious tug, so I set the hook. Fish on! This method quickly became known as a Ray Charles hook-up, accomplished simply by feel!

Cliff mentioned it was time for lunch, and we agreed. He set us ashore in a quiet little spot, and then proceeded to set up shop! In minutes he had set up a portable table (with tablecloth to boot), portable chairs, and had a lunch of French Dip roast beef sandwiches all laid out for us. There was also fruit, chips, cookies, dessert, iced tea, you name it! All of this on glass plates and drinking glasses mind you.

Steve and I were simply amazed. We enjoyed ourselves immensely, but we really weren’t sure if we wanted our friends back home to know about this either! We are used to peanut butter sandwiches in the boat, and getting out is usually reserved for a pee stop! Never the less, we dined in fine style along that wonderful stretch of river. In the days ahead, we gained a great respect for the lunches prepared by Lonnie’s terrific kitchen staff!

Not long after lunch, the wind became too much of a factor to deal with effectively, so we kind of hurried along down river, making a token cast in between gusts. We finally reached our take-out, where the ranch staff had shuttled Cliff’s rig for us. It was a great day other than the wind. Cliff is an excellent guide, and a fun guy to fish with for sure!

We returned to the ranch fairly early in the afternoon only because of the wind, so Steve and I decide to once again hike up Robinson Creek, where the wind was really not a factor. We had a couple hours to kill before the dinner hour, so we trotted upstream. As we did the previous day, we found great numbers of hungry trout. I found the fish were having a tough time getting their lips around that big stonefly, so I tied on a small caddis with a red body. It turned out to be a very popular choice!

On Sunday the 10th, we hooked up with guide Skip Mullen. Skip also has worked for Lonnie for quite some time, as well as doing some guiding in Chile during our winter months. The plan for this day was to float the Teton River, launching our boat right where the Teton Dam had blown out.

In 1975, work was completed on an earth and rock dam across the Teton River. It was 1,690 ft. thick, and 305 ft. high. The top of the dam was 35 ft. wide, and 3,050 ft. long. In 1976, major leaks were detected and dam failure was imminent. On June 5th, 1976, the entire structure crumbled, sending 80 billion gallons of water hurtling toward the towns of Wilford, Sugar City, and Rexburg.

Catastrophes aside, the Teton River once again became a free flowing stream, and today is one of the most enjoyable and productive trout streams in the west. The area where we launched our drift boat was very beautiful yet kind of spooky as well, because much of the debris from the old dam is spread all over the valley floor. You can also see high on the canyon walls the scouring effects of the rushing water as it sped through the breached opening.

For this day’s effort, Steve started with a “hopper and dropper”, a dry grasshopper imitation, with a smaller nymph fished on a dropper tied to the hook of the ‘hopper. Skip had me start with a streamer to see what the fish were after. Steve was on fire right from the get go, so I too was quickly rigged with a “hopper and dropper” setup.

We found that throughout the day, it was about 50/50 on hookups. Half rose to the ‘hopper pattern, and half took the submerged nymph. The Teton is mostly a cutthroat stream, and the rise of a cutthroat is slower and more deliberate than that of a rainbow.
You can usually see them coming, so the trick is to be patient enough to allow them to actually take the fly before setting the hook. That big ‘hopper made a great indicator as well. When it took a deliberate dunking, we would often find a fish had grabbed the submerged nymph.

The rock formations along the river makes great holding water, not to mention fantastic scenery. There is run after beautiful run on this stream, and the scenery is simply breathtaking. The fish tend to hold in different types of water depending on a number of conditions. First and foremost I think is water temperature.

On this day we had our best success in the faster water. Little chutes and runs of about two to four feet depth seemed to draw a great number of strikes. I remember one cast in particular that resulted in a beautiful cutthroat. A fallen tree along the bank left a nice little ribbon of that perfect holding water right along side it.

I made an ideal presentation at the top of the run, and then held my breath, as the boat speed and my drift were perfectly in sync. As my ‘hopper reached the end of the tree near the tail of the run, a big shadow emerged from the depths and devoured my offering, making a large swirl as he engulfed the big terrestrial. This scene played out many times over the course of the day!

Our shore lunch was one of Cornish game hen and all the usual trimmings, but Skip’s choice of places to stop was outstanding. He anchored the boat, and we took our stuff up a short distance to a perfectly flat rock outcropping that overlooked the river and our boat below. This made for a beautiful setting in which to enjoy a break.

We spent the rest of the day as we had the beginning of it, casting to the riffles, and releasing cutthroats. It was a full day on the water, and we returned to the ranch just in time to get cleaned up for cocktails and dinner. It was a fabulous float, and Skip was a real pleasure to fish with. He knew every pocket and riffle like the back of his hand. We enjoyed some wonderful prime rib that evening, not knowing for sure what the next days adventure would be. We knew it would be awesome no matter what it was!

Monday the 11th turned out to be very special indeed. Lonnie had arranged for us to spend the day with 1994 Orvis “Guide of the Year”, Doug Gibson. Doug was fabulous, and at 62 years of age, is still guiding about 90 days a year. Born and raised in the area, Doug has a wealth of knowledge about every river in the region. With his thirty plus years of guiding hovering over us, Steve and I were determined not to become new stories about the “two homers from the coast”!

Lonnie had also arranged for us to spend the day at a wonderful private section or river that Three Rivers Ranch is developing in partnership with one of the senior guides, Royce Klingler, whose family owned a large portion of the land on which the fishery is being developed. The project is called the Old Teton. It basically is a small channel of the Teton River that flows through some pastureland. The private section is about two miles long, and only fishable from shore. A jack fence has been installed along its shoreline to prevent grazing by the Black Angus cattle that use the pasture.

Part of it is natural, and part is man-made, yet native trees, grasses and shrubs have been planted to give the section more natural cover. The project is in its infancy, yet is off to a great start judging from the success Steve and I enjoyed there. The Old Teton has natural barriers to prevent fish from moving in and out of the channel, and was originally stocked with wild trout who have since began the spawning cycle. Make no mistake, this is a trophy fishery, and most of the fish here are 18 to 24 inches and larger.

Doug started us out with big grasshopper imitations. He made a cast, showing me how he wanted me to move the thing on the water, then handed the rod to me. I no sooner got it in my hand than a huge swirl appeared and my ‘hopper was gone. Fish On! It turned out to be a fat 22-inch hybrid.

The hybrids are a cross between a rainbow and a cutthroat. They have the beautiful coloring and leaping abilities of a rainbow, yet have the small red slashes of a cutthroat under their gill plates. It apparently is a naturally occurring event that doesn’t raise many eyebrows. My eyebrows were certainly raised, but only because of their size and strength!

The water at Old Teton is very still, and you can only see the flow in a few places. Most of the time, it’s like casting on a pond. Steve and I worked different sections of this small river moving every few minutes, with Doug dividing his time between the two of us. We got lots of rises to our big ‘hoppers, and it was a thrill in every instance.

Finally around early afternoon the fish kind of went off the dry fly, so we tossed some streamers. We hooked numerous fish on those as well, both of us eventually breaking off our flies to big fish! I hooked a number of fish on a large yellow rabbit fur streamer that Doug was very confident in. Most of the shoreline is tall grass so you have to be able to cast over it, but it’s really not a problem.

Our lunch was in the truck, which by now was quite a ways away. We were having too much fun to quit for lunch, so we just kept on casting! Finally around 4:00 pm or so, we were close enough to take a break. I think by then we were all ready for something to drink, and a bit of fuel in the tank! Shortly after that, it was back to the big ‘hoppers again, with almost instant action!

At one point I had a good rise, watching the fish come up only to miss the fly. I placed it in his face once more, and again he rose only to miss it. I made a third presentation, and this time the big hybrid found the hook! Steve was watching from a few feet away and could only laugh. I have to admit, I was rather astonished myself at this aggressive behavior. All told I think we hooked around 30 fish or so at Old Teton, all between 18 and 24 inches.

Three Rivers Ranch is currently selling 60 memberships to this private fishery. For more information on fees and dues, contact Three Rivers Ranch. The only stipulation is that you fish it with a guide. Three Rivers Ranch also reserves the right to a limited number of rod days per week for their guests. As the restoration work blooms to fruition, this will remain a quality fishery for many years to come! Many thanks to Lonnie for allowing us the pleasure to cast a fly at Old Teton, as it was unquestionably a very special treat!

Another fine gourmet meal awaited us back at the ranch, but Doug insisted we make a few casts at the Fall River on our return. At our only stop we hooked four rainbows in about 5 minutes. I think Steve and I were both pretty spent by then, but Doug was enjoying himself. I think we proved ourselves worthy in his eyes, and that meant more to us than just about anything! To say Doug was a pleasure to fish with is an understatement. He is a gentleman, a true professional, and very deserving of the honor Orvis bestowed upon him!

We had just enough time before departing the next afternoon for one final adventure. We were again teamed up with Skip for an assault on the Henry’s Fork. This time we were going to put in just below Lower Mesa Falls. Steve and I noticed a pontoon boat behind a truck after breakfast, but had no idea it was going to be our chariot for the day.

Things got really interesting when it came time to launch the thing. Skip pulled off the road, drove in a bit, and then announced we had arrived at our launch. We get out of Skip’s truck only to discover we were eight hundred vertical feet above the river! We could not see the river, and could barely hear it! All we could see was a trail about as wide as the pontoon boat making a steep decent into the wooded hillside.

Lonnie’s son Chad had come along to help with the launch, and now we knew why! Skip slid the boat off the trailer onto some material he uses for skids. He then secured the skids to the pontoons to protect them from being damaged. Skip and Chad then started to slide the boat on down the hillside, while Steve and I carried everything not tied down in the boat.

It seemed like forever before the river even came into view and when it did, it was still a long ways down. I’ve seen some unimproved boat launches in my time, but this one is in a league of it’s own! Skip told us this launch was a cakewalk, that they have one at another location that is twelve hundred vertical feet, where the boat hangs totally perpendicular at three different points during the launch. Now that’s going the extra mile!

After getting things ready to go, we rigged again with the usual dry and dropper setup. Fishing was steady as some rose to the dry, while others grabbed the ‘bugger underneath. This section was totally different than the one we had done with Cliff earlier in our stay. This had much more vertical drop, with many boulders and much whitewater to avoid. Skip is an expert oarsman however, easily up to the challenge! You are much more in a canyon, but the bottom structure is loaded with boulders for those pesky rainbows to hide behind.

At one point I was using a large salmon-fly on top. Steve hooked a fish, so I started to strip my line in. As the salmon-fly skated across the surface, a big brown trout exploded out of the water and inhaled the thing, giving us a nice double-hitter! There was nothing subtle about my presentation or the strike, just pure aggression on the part of that big brown!

Fishing from the front of that pontoon boat was a blast too. It was almost like standing on the water. I could cast with ease in a 180-degree arc from my seat. Again, we took fish from all parts of the river, from the fast boulder slots, to the flat slow tail-outs. We just cast were Skip told us and hung on! The other nice thing about the float was that we never saw another person. Then again, given the launch criteria, that really did not surprise me!

All things considered, it was a magnificent trip. We fought the wind a bit during our stay, and never did seem to hit any of the incredible hatches everyone (including the guests) kept telling us about. Regardless, we managed one hell of a lot of nice trout on dry flies, and a great number on the nymphs as well! I can only imagine being there in the middle of a monster hatch of one sort or another!

For anyone considering a great vacation, I highly recommend Three Rivers Ranch. Not only is the fly-fishing some of the best in the country, but there are many other activities to keep the non-anglers happy too! Sightseeing trips to Yellowstone Park can be easily arranged. The accommodations are first class, and the staff is anxious to cater to your every whim. The gourmet meals are out of this world, prepared by a well-trained chef and a fabulous kitchen staff.

The guides are in a class all their own, with the personalities and patience to cater to everyone’s experience level. Whether you are a female novice beginning fly angler, or an aging fly-fishing veteran, these guys will show you an experience to meet your expectations, and challenge your skills. With the myriad of rivers, lakes, and tributaries in the area, you could fish for months and never see the same place twice!

Three Rivers Ranch owner Lonnie Allen is without question the driving force behind it all. An attractive, well-spoken and gracious hostess, it is because of her that the attention to detail is second to none. She is up early each morning, scheduling her guides to match the needs of her guests. Throughout the day she might be found in her office, the kitchen, or anywhere else she needs to be to make sure there are no squeaky wheels!

Lonnie also hosts a special ladies week in early August every year. It is designed for the gals to have their own agenda for the week. Male companions are certainly welcome, but they will be fishing apart from the ladies, who will have their own guides and friendly competitions! Leave it to Lonnie to come up with such a great idea.

Three Rivers Ranch left a lasting impression on both Steve and I. Everything you might ask for in a great fishing adventure can be found here. If you can’t find it, just ask Lonnie and I’m sure she’ll find it for you!

For more information on Three Rivers Ranch, you can reach them by phone at 208-652-3750. They also have a great web site at www.threeriversranch.com. I can’t begin to thank Lonnie, her guides, and her wonderful staff enough for the fabulous time we had. You and your family will enjoy your visit immensely!

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©2001 This article is reprinted here with the permission of the author. No other reprint or reproduction is authorized. The article first appeared in Northwest Fishing Holes magazine, October/November 2001 issue.