Category: Big Hole River

This was very skinny water to float. Our float with Doug and Bob was a mine field of boulders to negotiate with the raft. In the morning nymphing was productive with size #18 Lil’ Spankers. The afternoon bite; one of my favorite late season combos of a hopper with a #18 or a #20 beadhead dropper was great! For hoppers we used Delektable Slammers, Tony the Tiger, and Morrish’s Hopper. Lil’ Spankers were Red, Purple, and Silver in color.

Dan

August 25, 2009

Fun with clients from the past…

Great renewing old friendships with an adventure on the Big Hole with Dan and Marty guiding a group of four. We started at 10:30 AM and finished at 8 PM; a day for the memory bank. Trico’s, Pseudo’s, Hoppers, Flying Ants, and Spruce Moths provided action on the surface. One of my favorite Dry/Wet combos, the Hopper with a #18 BH Micro Mayfly; spanked them in the afternoon. We caught Rainbows, Browns, Grayling, Cuttthroat, Whitefish, and Cuttbows. The only species we didn’t land was a Brook Trout. It was an amazing day with great people.

Dan

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

We just completed the annual July tour with Dan Delekta and the Tim Miller group. One of my personal favorites and most challenging guide weeks of the year is with Tim Miller and his friends and family in July. This year’s trip started on the Madison, the next two days were on the Missouri below Holter Dam, the next day was on the Jefferson River, then on to the Big Hole River for a day, the Beaverhead River for a day with the last day on the Madison River. I refer to this as the "Whirlwind Tour"; I love to be able to go to a variety of different rivers and be successful on each system and catch fish. This requires a lot of different fly patterns, leaders, and techniques. This is a unique challenge of rowing, driving, stamina, and focus; testing all of the senses. This year Tim brought his brother Brian who was injured in a motorcycle accident with his knee, thigh, and ankle all messed up. Brian couldn’t wade but was fishing start to finish out of the boat. We caught fish on all the different rivers; punctuated by a 60 to 70 fish dry fly day on the Big Hole and an incredible last day on the Madison with nymphs and dries.

This season has seen the third year of a good snow pack in a row; a near record rainfall in June on all the rivers of S.W. Montana. The perfect storm creating the maximum number of fish on all of our rivers and red hot catching opportunities all summer long until winter sets in. With all the rivers having great water levels; the fishing pressure should be evenly distributed throughout S.W. Montana. The Hopper, Spruce Moth, PMD’s and Caddis flies will all be overlapping with in the last week of July; the Perfect Dry Fly Storm.

Dan

Tuesday was a road trip day for the boys of Beartooth, with Dan, Marty and Charles P heading out to the Big Hole.

After a brief stop at our buddy’s fly shop, Great Divide Outfitters, for a shuttle and pleasant conversation with shop rat Roger, the trio headed to the upper end of the river. The river was still “big,” flowing at roughly 5,500 cfs, but it was clear and very fishable. Overall, the conditions were wonderful.

The action was slow at first, though accented by several brook trout, which was an exciting addition to the catch. As the day went on, browns and rainbows began accepting the offerings.

The fish were taking a mix of Delektable bugs, including the Mega Prince, Gray Hurless and Lil Spankers. Streamers were thrown in earnest at the beginning of the float, but the fish weren’t chasing them in the bright, comfortably warm conditions.

Later in the afternoon, however, when the sun got lower and the boys were adding layers against the wind, the streamers began scoring well, especially for Charles P, who scored several nice fish. They were first biting on the Delektable Double Screamer Olive and Black, then further into the float on the Delektable Double Screamer Badger.

It was a great day on yet another of Montana’s beautiful rivers; just another day in paradise.

Dan, Marty, and Charles P