Big Hole River 6080 cfs at Maidenrock
It has been raining now for the past 24 hours. I should say rain here at the house and a couple hundred feet above the house it’s all white. The surrounding mountains and even the low foot hills are all white. This has brought the river up almost a 1000 cfs today and by looking at all the small streams locally with flows bank full or better it will continue to rise.
Needless to say this has put a damper on the fishing for a bit. Though the river is rising it is not muddy like it is with ice off.
There were still hearty souls out there floating the river today and chuckin big streamers looking for Big Walter. These are the conditions when a person can get the really big one. Rick and his junkie pals from Bozeman love these conditions. By junkie I mean they throw big weighted streamers (aka junk) and scoff at dry flies and or small nymphs. These guys are past deep enders and are totally junkies. There is no hope of rehabilitaion for these guys as they are too far gone. When a person is using a 10 wt. rod on the Big Hole it’s a good indication his mentality has gone over the edge. They look at dry fly fisherman with disdain like looking at little children and thinking why don’t they grow up. The bottom of their drift boat is a mixture of beer cans, cracker boxes, half eaten sandwiches and remnants of bunny fur either from their streamers or from ones they have caught along the bank and ate for lunch.
Maxman made a comment and proposed an adjustment to the wager to go beyond June 10th to include the entire month for the flow to exceed 8000cfs. I sense he is backing off just a bit. Actually he may not need to cuz with all this rain the river could very well top that mark in the next couple days. We shall see.