Saturday, September 26, 2009
On September 26th we launched at Troutfitters on the Big Hole River for a six mile float to Jerry Creek Bridge. There was not a cloud in the sky, the temperature was moderate and the wind was fierce and consistently in our face. Water level and flow is low on the Big Hole and there are many places where we had to drag the raft. All of that said, the fishing was great and the boat recorded the Big Hole grand slam plus a grayling, giving us the “Super Slam”. We landed one nice brookie, one cut, and a lot of nice rainbows and brown trout. Largest fish was slightly less than twenty inches; most were in the fifteen to eighteen inch range. We began the day with dry flies but got no takers and resorted to nymphing through the deep runs. Our nymph rigs were very productive with the old favorite San Juan Worm being the fish favorite. We got a few on small caddis, stone fly nymphs, zebra midges, soft hackles and pheasant tail nymphs but most on the worm….the disco variety seemed to attract the most attention. Every trip on the Big Hole is memorable but the super slam put an exclamation point on this one.
