Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Roger with a great brown taken on an ant pattern below Maiden Rock.
Light tippet, light bugs, and zero water movement from the boat are required to fool the trout on the upper Big Hole. Increased pressure, sunny skies, and windy days have all come together to create spookier than normal fish this time of year. Ants, Beetles, Purple Haze, Tricos, Caddis, Hoppers, and an assortment of attractor patterns will take fish in the correct water. The fish have moved off the bank and into the middle of the river to escape heavy wading pressure. This makes it a tougher task to get a fish to rise to a dry fly as the boat has to be in the same water depth as the fish. Nymphing deep runs has proven effective as the fish escape the beating sun and inhale an assortment of midge patterns, sjw’s, pheasant tails, copper johns, princes, and soft hackles. Nymphs have been the most productive form of fishing over the past few days on the upper reaches.
The lower Big Hole is fishing well with hoppers, ants, and beetles on the surface. Angler pressure weakens as you move down the river, and the fish are responding with better eating habits. Nymphs work well from start to finish as we are experiencing a mix 0f trout and whitefish fishing subsurface. Girdle bugs, princes, caddis pupa, pt’s, sjw’s, zebera midges, soft hackles, rubber leg hares ears, and copper john’s have all been working well.
Look for the fishing to pick up in the coming weeks as the brown trout spawning season nears.
