The Kootenai below Libby Dam is big, cold tailwater — huge volume, steady release-driven flow, and rainbows that grow heavy on the year-round chill. It fishes on the dam's terms: watch the release out of Libby, not the clouds. Long drifts of nymphs and midges do the day-to-day work, with good Caddis and Baetis when the season turns. The scale takes getting used to — this is one of the largest trout rivers in Montana, and the current means business.
The Kootenai below Libby Dam is a big, cold, powerful tailwater — one of the largest-volume trout rivers in Montana, running broad and green-grey over a gravel and boulder bed through timbered northwest mountains. Libby Dam, backing up the long reservoir of Lake Koocanusa, decides the flow, so the river runs on a release schedule rather than the weather. Below the dam it pushes through even glides and long riffles toward the thunder of Kootenai Falls, the fish growing fat on the steady cold flow. This is heavy water: the wadeable margins are good, but the main current is strong and the river is bigger than almost anything else in the region.
Wading: Very high volume; strong main current below the dam
- Mixed
- Partly confined
- Pool riffle