Big Hole 394 cfs Beaverhead 871 cfs
This morning started slow–no it wasn’t just slow it was dead. Might of had some thing to do with the earth quake but more likely because of the ice on my wind shield and boat. I couldn’t believe I had to scrape ice on July 26th, but this is Montana and there has been some strange things happening lately. It started to turn on mid morning and by the end of the day we had a very successful trip. I made my client a believer in fishing skinny water for big brown’s. We caught five brown’s over 18 inches and every one was in water less than a foot deep. We basically used two patterns all day, a #16 parachute adams and a #18 conventional adams, so there now you know all my secrets. The most important thing was that Dave knew how to present the fly with a drag free drift and always LISTENED TO HIS GUIDE. I talked to a couple other guides that said they were getting some pretty good hits on hoppers also. A little advice if you are going on a guided float trip with an experienced, reputable guide, you might think you know where the fish are and second guess him, wrong move. Remember he is on the river almost every day and although he is not always right, trust him. Every day is a bit different on a free stone river like the Big Hole. There are variables such as earth quakes, frost on a July morning and such things. You hired him for his expertise, listen to him or her and most times he will figure it out. If he sets you up to cast to a certain spot and you turn around and cast the other way and he gets really quiet—-your gonna have a bad day.