High Water, Big Fish

Big Hole River 2760 cfs

This morning as we prepared to put in on the upper river it was cold and windy and the river didn’t look that good. Bob is a long time client and he has seen some tough conditions. He just said “your the guide and if you think it’s worth going lets go” and I made my favorite remark that you don’t know if you don’t go. There was absolutely nobody else on the river any where but I had a good feeling despite the conditions.

We had a fantastic day with four fish over twenty inches. We would have had quite a few more big ones but Bob has a habit of striking them a little hard. In other words there are several big fish in the river now with no lips. All the fish were caught on streamers and most on a conehead bunny leech type concotion we tie at the shop.

A lot of folks will look at the river the way it is now and say it’s nonfishable. The thing you have to do is not look out in to the river but look at the banks. That is where the fish are and if there is foot or two of visibility it will fish and then knowing where and how to present the fly will make all the difference.