Spring flew by, and June is upon us. The river has been holding between 2,000 cfs and 3,000 cfs (Dickie Bridge) for the past week, and the caddis arrived on Tuesday. Steady flows at this time of the year have helped to spread out floater traffic; we have seen boats from Mudd Ck all the way down to Pennington, with the highest concentration from East Bank to Melrose.
If you are looking to dry fly fish, we recommend staying below East Bank. Suggested dry fly patterns are miracle caddis, Peacock X Caddis (#16), Purple Twisted Baby (#16) and chubbies in the #10-#14 range. Streamer fishing has been steady, with yellow colors being our best. Watch the sky..cloudy afternoons have seen success with JJ’s, Yellow Yummy and Lemon Drops. In the sun, dig out your black wooly buggers, pumpkin buggers and mini dungeons.
We anticipate a small bump in flow over the next few days of warm weather, but then it looks like it may get cold again, and level the river out. Don’t hesitate to call for a current report. As the flows bump to over 4,000 cfs, use caution at the Pumphouse diversion, the curl on the 2nd wave can cause problems.
Summer is here, and the Big Hole looks terrific. Get out and enjoy it!