Big Hole River current conditions

The Big Hole remains on a steady drop in flows after a week of rain, sleet, snow, hail and every other weather condition you can imagine. The river (at Maiden Rock), peaked on Wednesday at about 3,100 cfs. Since then it has been on a steady drop. Clarity on the river is 2.5 feet or more. The closure that was in place due to the Saw Log fire has been lifted (as of Thursday). All of these positive things mean that if you have been itching for some spring streamer fishing, now is the time!

Current snow water equivalent for SW Montana

An additional bonus to the wet and cold weather of the past week, is that our snow pack held, and we gained some more high elevation snow. The Big Hole basin is showing 91% Snow Water equivalent. We are hoping for more cool nights to help preserve the remaining snow, which will help keep the river cold for mid and late summer fishing.

If you are wanting to get out and do some streamer fishing, we have been seeing fish chase well from off the banks. It has been cloudy for the majority of the week, so bright colors have been working well (white, yellow, gold). The nymph game has been pretty solid, and easy. Tie on a couple of worms, and fish the seams. Yesterday, we did manage to get some fish up on dry flies, using a #12 or #10 purple haze (March browns). If you are going to be fishing above East Bank, you may have some luck finding rising fish in the afternoons.

So far this spring, we have seen a lot of healthy fish. The rainbows are wrapping up their spring spawn, and the browns appear chunky and happy. Give us a shout to get a guide booked for late spring fishing on the Big Hole! It is a beautiful time to see the valley as it wakes up from winter.