Big Hole River 357 cfs Beaverhead River 972 cfs–you will definitely get a headache going under that bridge now.
It looks like we will get a break from this heat wave early in the week with high temps. forecast to be about 80 instead of the mid 90’s we have been having.
Morning fishing with dry fly’s is still excellent and getting better now with the tricos showing up also. This is early for them but this hot weather has brought them out. So now it’s a spruce moth pattern with a trico trailing behind. Early in the morning watch for big fish to be in shallow slow water.
I postponed going up to the Missouri tomorrow for the simple reason that when it’s 90 here it’s 100 up there and the morning fishing here is just too good.
By mid to late afternoon the water temp. has been reaching 70 and above. Until things start to cool down it’s best to limit your fishing to morning hours only. Late in the afternoon if you hook into a big fish and you play it too long, you are going to kill that fish. As I said before that’s the time to head up to the mountains. If your new to the area and don’t know where to go, stop at the Forest Service station in Wise River and they have maps of all the mountain ranges nearby and the drainages. Also stop by the shop and we’ll be happy to give you some directions. If it’s real early in the morning and Art has not had his second cup of coffee — be careful as he tends to be a bit growly about then.
We were severely admonished by the game warden today as we did a shuttle for these guys from California this morning from Divide to Maidenrock. That section is closed today to commercial guiding and nonresident floating. We pleaded ignorance as we did not know where they were from and the guys floating blamed us for not telling them that section was closed to them. The game warden did not write any tickets but gave all of us a scolding. He did write a ticket to a guy who had a few 16 inch fish on a stringer in the Maidenrock area. When the guy saw the warden approaching he threw one of them in the bushes and the warden saw it. That discarded fish cost him $120 and I don’t know how much for the other two. In that section you can only keep 3 under 13 inches and 1 over 22 inches –best not keep any at all. We gave the warden an attaboy for this action and he seemed to forget about the other blunder.