A day on the Big Hole with family friends from Ennis, Jack and Jenn. One of those windy threatening thunderboomer days of August. Luckily no rain and just some wind making the rowing and dry fly fishing interesting. We prevailed having big fun, landing multiple species of trout, enjoying the conversations, scenery, and fishing.
Dan
What an incredible day! Dan and Nancy having a day together on the river in the summer is a rare thing for sure. I have been updating these reports for all our guides who get our there more often than me, the shop rat, and I really wanted to test what Dan meant by the river being "On Fire". Well, he was right. We had a great day. We rowed each other into some really nice fish.
The fish were on the bite so good it was downright giggly. Yeah!
We started off with Rusty Spinners and they liked them for a while. When it got warmer out the hoppers were all over the place so we tried them and the fish loved them too. The fish were rising to the flies with full body leaps. It was really fun. Then we could see the spruce moths out and switched to the Delektable Twisted Baby Tan/Brown and the Tarantula in Gold. They wanted the Baby like you can’t believe and sometimes the Tarantula too. I definitely missed a ton of hits and landed so many I lost count. I had two great events at the end of the day. I caught double Rainbows on dries and landed them thanks to Dan’s netting skills and then had a huge Rainbow that got away because I had personal problems with my line.
It was a terrific day and my sweetheart got me into a ton of trout. I caught Browns, Westslope Cutts, Rainbows, White Fish, and Grayling. Thank you Dan.
Love,
Nancy
I fished the Big Hole River on Monday with Gerry and Sarah. The Upper Big Hole was on fire fishing Trico’s, PMD’s, Psuedo’s, Caddis, Hoppers, and Spruce Moths.
From the start to finish of our float; the fish consumed the dry flies presented to them. We caught Browns, Rainbows, and two Westslope Cuttthroats. What Fun! This was one of those days you dream about.
Dan
The Jan and Ken group was back in town for some Madison River therapy.
Four days in a row of sun, wind, rain, clouds, hail, cold, warm; a healthy dose of Montana was had by all. The group was great, catching trout, making new friends, enjoying the Madison River Valley. The smiles, handshakes, and conversations tell the story. Flyfishing takes you to some of the most beautiful places on the planet. I refer to it as soul food and highly recommend a good dose. Take 4 days in a row and let us know how you are feeling in a couple of weeks. Review the gallery of photos. You be the judge; priceless!
Dan
Bunny Fur and Hoppers…that’s about as good as it gets…The last week has been good…Really Good. Bright bunny fur has been working well in the morning (6-10:30 A.M.). Natural Zonkers, JR’s CH Streamer in Olive/White, and the Delektable™ Badger Screamer tight lined through the middle and in the deep Trenches next to the big rocks have been deadly. Try dropping some sz.18-20 mayfly emerger’s off the back of the bunnies to replicate the Trico’s, Psuedo’s, PED’s and other small mayfly’s we have been seeing up by the shop lately. The Soft Hackle Pheasant Tail and the Micro Mayfly have been my trailer’s of choice in the morning’s.
Once you start hearing hopper’s buzz the around the bank, tie on a flesh colored Three Decker, a Rainy’s Grand, a Red Slammer, a Tan Carnage Hopper, or your favorite hopper pattern and HOLD ON! Keep ‘em a couple feet off the bank or on the small shelf’s created by gravel bars in the middle and never judge a fish by the size of the strike. The biggest fish will move the smallest amount of water sometimes when eating hoppers, not to say that some big fish won’t give the classic takes, but a lot of the time they don’t even break the surface…they just suck ‘em down; never judge a book by it’s cover kinda deal. Other dries that have been working well in the afternoon include: the Delektable Flying Ant in cinnamon or black, the purple Twisted X in an eight, Half Downed Hoppers in a 12, gold Turks Tarantula’s in 12’s and 14’s and the rose Twisted X in a 16 have all been good second’s in a two fly rig. However, if I can find a single fly that is getting a good amount of attention, I will usually keep it at just the one…We had a good amount of rain and colder temps coming about in the later afternoons, and when that happened I went back to the bunny.
The lighter colored streamers weren’t producing like they were in the mornings but the darker colored ones were moving some large fish under the clouds. Olive and Black were the colors of choice during the late afternoons (4-7). The Olive MCCune’s, the Black Christmas Tree, and Shiela’s Sculpin (which isn’t olive or black, I know) have all been good producers later in the day. The small mayfly trailer’s I previously mentioned have still been working in the afternoon, but so have Prince Nymphs, Lightning Bugs, and a range of Caddis emergers. Tight to the bank or short stripped through the middle, these combo’s have been deadly under a little bit of cloud cover. So whether you’re a dry guy, a streamer guy or a nympho, you’re gonna be happy, so GO FISHING!!!
Charles P.
Photos from that week added by Nancy
We are very busy having lots of fun fishing with many wonderful people and are just catching up…sorry for the delay in our reports.
The Indiana Angler group was ready for their first float…and so was the wind. The forecasted rain and lightning never showed up, which was nice, but the winds were HOWLING! We floated Ruby Creek to Varney Bridge and fished nymphs all day. Big fish were hooked right out of the shoots on a green and white streamer but that quickly died around ten. After that, we found a good amount of fish in the trenches next to rocks and about two feet off the bank-nothing in the middle. Girdle bugs and sz.14 prince nymphs were the go to bugs for the morning. Lots of 8-12 inch trout, a few 12-14’s, a handful of whitey’s all came to the boat but we also a hooked couple big fish that we didn’t see. Then we got one of the prettiest 19 in. slab rainbows I’ve seen all year, which ate a sz.6 black girdle bug next to a rock-just a gorgeous fish.
After the slab we continued to find a few smaller trout and then just before lunch we poked a beautiful 17 in. rainbow on the prince just below an irrigation diversion. After lunch we saw a lot of 10-14 inch fish again, a few medium sized fish, including a nice brown pulled out of the middle and a few more whitey’s, all on nymphs. When the girdle bug died off, caddis nymphs started to pick up (olive Hares Ear, Lime Juice, Nymphicator’s etc…) when tight lined through the middle, until we got to the Cottonwoods.
Once in the trees we started fishing stoneflies in the shallows banks and about halfway between the cottonwoods and Varney we found a very large brown that ate our sz. 8 Delektable™ Mega Prince. As soon as the fish ate, it ran so fast that I immediately jumped out of the boat to stop moving. Even at a full stop, the fish ran until we could see our backing knot, almost surfaced itself on the bank 90 ft. upstream, turned sideways and ran for a stick and then came right back at us. I jumped back into the boat, pulled anchor and started chasing the fish. We got it to the boat and I couldn’t stop shaking for about 10 minutes…big fish get me all sorts of excited. We taped it at a true 20. If that doesn’t sound big to you, look at the picture and try measuring the next fish you assume is 20 inches. All in all it was a great day, even with wind. GO FISHING!!! Charles P.
