Big Hole River 2850 cfs

In the last couple days there has been some monster brown trout caught on the river. Two days ago there was a 27 incher caught near Melrose and yesterday Ed S. caught a 25 incher in the canyon.
Last night the river came up about 200 cfs and colored up quite a bit. By this afternoon it was dropping a bit and the banks also clearing a bit to at least foot and half visibility.
My client backed out this morning after he looked at the river and thought it too discolored….his mistake.
I already had a lunch made, the boat was loaded and ready to go so I told Roger to shut her down and let’s hit the river.
It was a bit slow at times but we boated two twenty inchers and that ain’t bad fishin any day.
We had a few lookers on top water but no connections.

We have not yet received our new license computer from the Montana Fish and Game but it’s on the way—so they say.
Until we get it and it should be soon we are not able to issue fishing license.
You can get them online at app.mt.gov/elicensesales.
I wasn’t going to deal with license at all this year as I have to install a high speed thingamajig and at fifty cents commission per license it’s a losing proposition. However some customers and clients were inconvienced that we were not able to sell them a license and we want happy customers.

Big Hole River 2180 cfs

We took that R & D run this afternoon and I have to admit I was a bit surprised. The sun was bright and water visibility only about a foot and a half but the fish hit just about every streamer pattern I tried. First fish was a nice 18 inch male brown trout that took a #4 Delektable Yellow Screamer which is a pretty bright fly for a bright day. I also caught fish on JJ Special, yellow yummy, and our own bunny leach. Never tried any nymphs as I was having too much fun with streamers.

Upcoming conditions are looking very good.

Big Hole River 2670 cfs

The river has dropped a lot in tha last few days from almost 4000 cfs. The visibility is still not good at no more than a foot and a half. Will know more this afternoon as it’s about time to do an R & D run.
JJ’s. yellow yummies, yuk bugs and the like will be the fly’s of choice.
With the moderate temps. forecast the river should be in great shape by next week.

Not much to report except that the river is at 3640 cfs after getting close to 4000 this morning.
At the present time it’s pretty much blown out…..let me rephrase that. At the present time it is blown out.
I look for the river to continue to drop and believe it has peaked for our first run off. The next one in about a month will bring the river up much higher.

For the last two hours it has been snowing heavily, must be more of that global warming goin on.

Big Hole River 1910 cfs

We launched the boat at the Divide access this morning and the river looked terrible. Visibility was less than a foot and it was obvious it was on the rise. We almost aborted the mission but Dave G. who is my client of 18 years (he reminded me of that fact today) said what the hell lets go as it’s the first nice warm day and be a good boat ride any way. Conditions were really bad and I was thinking to myself that I have not been skunked for many moons but this might be the day. About twenty minutes into the trip Dave presented that JJ Special just perfect in this foam pocket, the line jumped and we had a 14 inch brown trout to the boat. We celebrated the still no skunk deal. In just a few more minutes we had another brown that was bigger. Between that point and the mouth of the canyon we got six, all between 14 and 18 inches and all on the JJ Special. For these conditions this was excellent. Once we hit the canyon and for the rest of the trip we never touched another fish. The river rising about 350 cfs during that time may have had something to do with it.

Another cold front is on the way with snow forecast for Wednesday (imagine that) I look for the river to start to level off as all the ice is melted on the upper stretch. As for fishing conditions my crystal ball is in the shop for repairs so it’s anybody’s guess.

Big Hole River 1780 cfs

The Big Hole seems to be a roller coaster flow the past few days ranging from 1500 to 2000 cfs. The visibility remains about the same. There were a couple wade fisherman above the house yesteday chiucking streamers and picking up a few fish.

This is the story told to Linda, my roving reporter on Andros directly from Art’s mouth. I only had to a wee bit of editing.

THE PENTACOSTAL PREACHER AND THE SHARK:

The anticipation of a trip to the Joulters is always an exciting prospect and a day like we had with Clifton our guide, who is also a full time Pentacostal Preacher, turned out to be more than we hoped for. He took us to a place he called “Herman’s secret spot and swore us to secrecy. We parked the boat and waded the flats for qwuite a ways without seeing anything and then the sight we encountered before us was unbelievable. We could see bonefish tails in every direction oa far as we could see. Thre were literally thousands of then=mn. We immediately got into them and started catching fish and as it turned out the average one was 7 pounds. They were all huge. The second one I caught turned out to be the boner of a lifetime…a 10 pounder ….backed by a 9 pounder. Then the most amazing thing happened. I hooked a bone and played it out real good…had the fish circling me when all of a sudden a 5 ft shark appeared and instantly all hell broke out. When it looked like the shark was going to get the fish I yarded on the line to break it off to let it go. I was too late. The shark was already on him. Then all of a sudden there was a huge geyser of water and swirl of mud. The preacher started screaming words like I never heard in any church before then started running toward the shark and immediately jumped on the beast and started beating the shit out of him kicking and punching til the shark must have figured the wrath of god was upon him and fled for his life. I think that’s where the precher turned guide. Clifton turned around and looked for the fishwhich was headed in the opposite direction by then, chased him down and caught the guy with his bare hands and brought him back to me with that huge Bahamian grin. My special fly along with a short piece of chomped off tippet was still in his mouth. I couldn’t even speak. Where was my video camera?

The day continued with 15 bones over 6 lbs. I had gone to heaven and didn’t even have to die to get there. That’s my story and I’m stickin to it.

Big Hole River 1450 cfs and dropping

Most of the snow has melted in my yard and there is green grass under it. This has to mean it will warm up a bit soon but not for a few days yet. It looks like Sunday will be getting back to some normal temps.
The river is looking very fishable with visibility a foot an a half at least which is in my books good enough. I have said this in the past but historically these are the conditions when we have caught some of the biggest fish.

I drove upriver yesterday and the only problem I saw was a big ice jam just below Deep ‘Creek which is about 12 miles west of Wise River.

Tony continues to send some great humurous reports from Andros Island. I already knew about the gas tank deal on the boat from another source but was waiting to see if they owned up to it. I can just see Hank coming out to rescue them and chewing on them hard, which he can do with a vengence…and then holding up the gas tank and asking them if they forgot something? The Bahamians love to laugh and this story will be told and laughed over again and again.
There is another really funny story about an event which happened at the Joulters. My friend Linda is the roving reporter on this one and she is going to get the full story and send it to me in the next day or two. The title will be the Pentacostal Preacher And The Shark.

Big Hole River 1800 cfs

There was a comment from Andy that seemed to chastise me for talking about global warming and really not believing it. Actually I have seen enough scientific evidence that it probably is a fact.

Now this morning you would have a hell of a time selling that idea to me and a lot of other people here in Western Montana. We woke up to 8 inches of new snow, the temp. was 3 degrees above zero (which meant in the upper Big Hole Valley it was probably 15 below zero), the river was choked with slush ice and there were ice crystals in the air–which only happens when it’s damn cold. The high temp. today was only 30 and it will drop to near zero again tonight. The date is April 21st. The forecast for the next few days is for more snow and cold.

With all this said if you were here and went into one of the local saloons up river and tried to sell the global warming thing—-you might find yourself stuck head first outside in a 6 foot snow drift and no—Al Gore would not be around to pull you out.
At times it’s fun to just ramble on.

The river is dropping and visibility is now back to about a foot. If it would warm up just a bit by the weekend it would fishin again. Right now it’s a bust.

Tony continues to send comments from Andros Island about the fishing and other activities there.
I have received some negative words about reports from Andros Island. If you don’t like em, don’t read em.

On this site I have tried to promote the fun with fishing with a fly–no matter where it’s at. I try to give the personal side with all it’s humor, up times and down times whether it’s on one of the many rivers here in Montana or on a remote flat on Andros Island. The joy of catching a 12 inch grayling on the Big Hole River or the joy of catching a monster 12 pound bonefish on a saltwater flat.
Nuff said.

The river pretty much blew out with flows now over 2000 and rising and with visibility a foot or less.
At this very moment there is what appears to be a full blown blizzard going on outside my window.
I was thinking of going down to the Hitchin Post this evening for the prime rib special. With the visibility like it is now I guess it’s pork chops here at the house, nice fire goin in the wood stove, nice bottle of pinot noir and watch on tv what the pope was up to today there in NY. I will have to say I’m kinda impressed with this guy and if he ever wants a fishing trip I might even cut him a little break on the price.

To get the latest and greatest reports from Tone The Bone on Andros Island just read the comments on the last entry.
To say I am not just a bit jealous would be a blatant lie.
These guys are having fun and more power to em.

Big Hole River 1240 cfs

The river has some what leveled off and the visibility is two feet at the most.
Some friends of mine from Helena floated today from Jerry Ck. to Divide and had limited success. Good news is that they caught most of the fish on Skwala patterns on top. Biggest of the day though was on a san whammy hanging below the skwala.
Weather conditions for tomorrow are about the same.
Now listen to this—winter conditions are forecast for Monday with a high of only 25. So what’s with this global warming? This has to be one of the coldest Spring conditions here.

Had a customer come in the shop yesterdsay and wanted a shuttle from East Bank down to Jerry Ck. He looked at me like I had two heads when I told him it was still froze up there and there is still 2 feet of snow going into the access. He went on to say at this same time last year they did that float and had great success. He then stared at me for a few long seconds thinking I would change my story. I stood my ground, smiled and said from Jerry Creek down is where you want to go. He left in a bit of a tiz and I would bet my last nickel he headed up there to check it out for himself.
It is very unusual as it is April 17th for the upper river to still be iced up but it is what it is.

Tone the bone did a comment on Andros Island fishing on Snowin entry. Weather on the island has improved lots and we should hear some good fish story’s soon.