Located on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation, which straddles the Nevada/Idaho border almost due south of Mountain Home, this rainbow trout reservoir offers excellent prospects for large fish, some exceeding 10 pounds. Managed by the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes, Sheep Creek is open to all methods of angling but has long been a popular destination for southern-Idaho fly anglers. Sheep Creek abounds in aquatic trout foods with scuds providing the impetus for explosive growth for fat, healthy rainbows. All the other usual suspects complete the menu, including damsels, midges, Callibaetis mayflies, dragonflies, water beetles, snails and leeches.See the specialty flies.

Sheep Creek reservoir produces fat rainbows, some of which reach truly impressive proportions.

Covering about 1,000 acres, Sheep Creek is nonetheless shallow throughout, it's deepest recesses covered by only about 20 feet of water. Extensive shallows provide ample habitat for dense weed growth and abundant trout food. During the early morning hours, try scud patterns on a slow-sinking or intermediate line. Later, switch to leech patterns, damsel nymphs or large attractor patterns. One of my favorite tactics, here and on other desert reservoirs, is to fish a two-fly rig using a leech pattern or Woolly Bugger in the lead and a scud pattern or Zugbug as the trailer.

Tribal fishing and camping permits are required and are available for $5 per night from various vendors in western Idaho and from the tribal officer who daily patrols the reservoirs. Area fly shops sell the permits (including The Idaho Angler in downtown Boise) or call the tribal fish & game office at 202-759-3246.

Sunset, northern Nevada.

To reach the reservation, follow State Route 51 south out of Mountain Home and keep going until you reach the reservation boundary just south of Riddle. Mountain View Reservoir sits on your right before you cross into Nevada and Sheep Creek Reservoir is located a short distance across the border. You will need a boat, float tube or pontoon. Mountain View Reservoir, incidentally, also provides good prospects for fat rainbows. Ice-off occurs during late March, but most anglers wait until the fishing picks up during late April.

Wildhorse Reservoir. Only within the past decade have fly anglers become a common sight on this huge reservoir in northern Nevada's Elko County. Long popular with the gear-fishing community, Wildhorse is a mixed-bag affair, offering largemouth and smallmouth bass and white crappie alongside some huge rainbow, brown and rainbow-cutthroat hybrid trout ("cut-bows"). Stack together several good water years and Wildhorse produces lots of 14- to 20-inch trout. They grow fast and fat on a diet rich in all the typical reservoir trout foods.

Sunset near Wildhorse Reservoir, northern Nevada.

Covering more than 2,000 acres, Wildhorse often proves an intimidating sight to the newcomer. However, most fly anglers float-tube or boat the shallows along the reservoir's west and north shorelines. At full pool, two arms reach east up Penrod Creek and Hendrick's Creek, respectively, offering productive shoal areas. Most anglers fish leech, scud or damsel patterns on intermediate lines. Heavy weed growth assures dense populations of trout foods.

To find Wildhorse Reservoir from the north (Mountain Home, Idaho), continue south through the Duck Valley Indian Reservation on Highway 225 . From the south, follow Hwy. 225 north from Elko about 65 miles to the reservoir. Wildhorse State Park offers a decent campground and additional camping is available near the dam at the BLM campground (on the north end of the reservoir). The highway wraps around the east and north shoreline, providing several access points, some of which take you through tribal lands where a daily fee is required. Across the highway from Archie's Resort, a gravel road leads to the west shoreline and some excellent shallow shoal areas perfect for float tubers.

Big Springs Reservoir. Nevada's common border with Oregon delineates one of the West's most remote desert regions, home to lots of jackrabbits, pronghorns and reptiles but very few trees, people nor sources of water. Best known of a few widely scattered reservoirs in this region is Big Springs, whose 120 acres averages only about nine feet deep. High winds and shallow water combine to create turbid conditions whenever the reservoir is drawn down, but this super-fertile fishery grows 16- to 20-inch rainbows shaped like footballs.

Given several consecutive years of good water supply, Big Springs Reservoir can produce rainbows like this one, taken on a damsel nymph during May.

The entire reservoir supports extensive weedbeds and thus dense populations of scuds, Chironomids, water beetles, damsels, Callibaetis mayflies, dragonflies, snails and leeches. (See the specialty flies.) The reservoir opens mid-May, when heavy Chironomid hatches occur daily. Amongst them are the big "bloodworm" midges whose reddish-colored larvae and pupae require imitations tied on No. 12 hooks. Soon thereafter, the damsel emergence begins and the reservoir's fat trout gorge on the bright green nymphs. Leech and scud patterns prove equally effective during the late spring.

Eventually the heat of summer sends Big Springs into a quiet period. During years of good water supply, the reservoir reaches its zenith during the fall, from mid- or late September into November. During autumn, the rainbows are at their best-fat, bright, aggressive and full of fight.

To reach Big Springs Reservoir, follow State Route 140 east and south from Lakeview, Oregon or west from Denio, Nevada. The reservoir sits a half mile north of the highway via a signed gravel/dirt road located about 24 miles west of Denio Junction or 10 miles east of the Oregon border if you're arriving from Lakeview.

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