Big Hole River 332 cfs Beaverhead River 440 cfs
Young Stephanie and her dad were in my boat this morning and it was not nice. It was cold, the wind was blowing and there was not a thing happening fishing wise. Stephanie was having a real tough time casting more than 10 or 15 feet. She had developed the bad habit of wristing and another idiot had told her about the 10 to 2 deal when casting. That is the worst thing you can tell a rookie as when they feel their rod is back at 2 it’s usually at 3 and they are wristing. I tell them to stop at high noon–12 and it works. With her it took a couple hours of me threatening bodily harm to her if I caught her coming back to far again. About noon she started to get it and that’s when things started to happen.
Her first fish was a noble, grand whitefish on a trico pattern. Like she said, it’s a fish and it works for me—good attitude. The next one was a 12 inch rainbow, next a 14 inch rainbow and then a 15 inch brown. She was hot and she was listening intently to her guide. I had her fishing inches from the bank and in water so shallow most people wouldn’t even consider it. The best was in a spot where I had them wade and fish close to this bank and within a couple minutes and no more than 50 feet apart they each got a 20+ inch brown trout. To a rookie who thought the white fish was good this was unbelievable. You could not wipe the smile off her face. Even back at the shop after the trip she wasn’t saying much to anybody but that smile was permanent and she was walking on air.
Forecast for next few days is fair with high’s in the 70’s.
For those who are planning on fishing the Big Hole starting Monday the 14th you might be interested in the following shocking schedule from the FWP–scuse me they call it electrofishing.
Mon Sept 14–Melrose to Browns 15th–Jerry Creek to George Grant (Dewey) 16th–Glen to Notch Bottom 17th–Melrose to Browns
Tues Sept 22–Jerry Creek to Dewey 23rd–Glen to Notch 24th– Jerry Creek to Dewey
Tues Sept. 29–Glen to Notch 30th Hildreth (Beaverhead) Oct 1–Pull Clark Canyon Oct 2–Recap Melrose
Mon Oct. 5–Jerry Creek to Dewey 6th–Glen to Notch 7th–Melrose to Browns 8th Jerry Creek to Dewey 9th–Glen to Notch 13th–Jerry Creek to Dewey 14th Glen to Notch 15th–Hildreth (Beaverhead)
Any questions please e-mail Jim Olsen with the FWP. I looked for it on the notification but couldn’t find it. I’m sure someone will help me out with that.
There are those who say they can get right behind the shocking boat and the fishing is fine. Personally I think those are drinking their bath water again as these fish are zapped, netted, put in a live well, taken out of there feeding stations, measured, some tagged, scale sample taken and then put back in the river. I do not disagree with the procedure as this is how they do their fish count etc, etc, and the mortality rate from this is very low. I just don’t think being behind the shocking boat throwing your little dry fly behind their electric prod is very productive.