With the season starting to wind down here on the Big Hole River it’s time to look back and reconoiter how things went for 2008. I’ll have to say they went very well. It was slow starting with ole man winter hanging on as long as he could. The snow pack was great and we had good flows all summer. Speaking of flows many of you probably remember the bet Maxman made and I accepted. I even gave him an extra couple weeks to see if the flow would peak again at or over 8000 cfs. Well needless to say he lost the bet. He made the bet and the wager was for a shark skin fly line, I called. Had to won I’m sure he would have shown up to get his new line. As it turned out he welched on the bet and was a no show. Oh well next time I’ll get a name, address and cc number.
The mother’s day caddis hatch was late but so was every thing else including the salmon fly hatch. We had a client who caught a 27 inch brown trout on a bullet head salmon fly. He also caught it on his new Scott 4wt he had just purchased from us which I was lamblasted for merchandising, which I didn’t take very kindly too. But that’s water under the bridge and I feel much better now. The spruce moths showed up right about on time about the 1st of August and like always this is some fabulous fishing. For some reason the tricos were not as thick as they normally are although the fishing was still good using those patterns. Hopper fishing was hit and miss with some days being great and other days the fish wouldn’t look at em. Fishing is still good right now and the weather is just fine. That has many hunters grumbling as the general season opens this Sunday and it doesn’t look like there will be any trackin snow.
It’s time to start thinkin about Andros Island and I will be heading there next month. Any body who is thinking about making a trip there this winter, I would be happy to offer any info you would like. Such as which Bahamian guides to hire and which ones to avoid. Also tips on traveling to and from Andros. Some say air fares are quite high but there are some good deals out there if you know where to find them.
Our little fly shop did very well this season and I would like to thank all who stopped in. We will be offering the same service next year.
In my next entry I will have to compile the humurous high lights from this season.