Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Jim took this fish on a size 16 parachute adams in about one foot of water.
It is dry fly time on the Big Hole! The past three days have really brought this river to life, and it has fished well from cover to cover with dries. Purple haze, adams, humpy’s, caddis, royal trudes, and golden stones have been working very well, and the big fish have been coming more active as the days pass. Some of the fish have started to move out toward the middle of the river as the water flows drop, and will eagerly take a dry floated on the edge of a shelf or passed through some boulder pocket water.
The upper river has been more productive for surface action, but the lower river is seeing its share of dry fly fishing as well as great nymph fishing. Look for the river to continue to shape up and get better each day. With a little cloud cover comes more bugs, and with some storms on their way this weekend we should see plenty of clouds roll in by weeks end.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
A quick update on the Big Hole river. Yesterday fished well from Divide to Melrose. The fish were taking rubber leg stones, sjw, and dead drifted yellow yummies and zonkers. We fished close to the banks and on the inside and outside soft corners. Upper river from Sportsman’s Park down to Greenwood was a little tougher nymphing today as the water temps are still in the mid 40′s. Our best luck was on buggers and streamers either dead drifted or dredged through deep pockets and along the banks. Olive, yellow, and black were the best colors. Caddis and PMD’s were coming off and we did see some rising fish in big back eddy’s and along softer banks in the foam line.
Stoneflies should be starting to move more each day, and by judging from the fish activity we are getting on the nymphs, the higher you go up river the less likely they are to take a stone. The fish in the lower river are a little more keyed in on the hatch…but nothing too exciting yet. However, that can change in a day as the water continues to warm and the level continues to drop.
