Idaho's Lake Billy Shaw

May 19, 2007 By: Marshall Cutchin

If the notion of stocked fish doesn’t rub you the wrong way, Lake Billy Shaw in southwestern Idaho is probably the hottest place going for fly fishing for rainbow trout in this otherwise arid region. “Shoshone and Northern Paiute Indians whose ancestors were exiled to this 450-square-mile reservation amid 19th century hostilities with the U.S. Cavalry have raised Angus and Hereford cattle on the Idaho-Nevada border for more than a 100 years. The descendants of those 1878 Bannock War survivors now have turned to a new breed to help boost their economy: 5-pound trophy rainbow trout in an artificial lake on a flooded lava rock-and-sage plain that’s also a migrating-bird haven.” John Miller of the Associated Press.