Dry Fly Fishing Picking Up

The Big Hole is at last dropping toward more normal flows, while the upper Beaverhead is running as usual for this time of year--high but not too high. As you might expect dry fly fishing is really heating up these past few days.

Three days ago we fished dries right out of the gate on the upper Big Hole and found the trout looking up pretty much all day.

The next day started out pretty cool and as expected the bite was slow but around 11 a.m. pmds started to pop on the upper Beav, followed quickly by a swarm of yellow sallies. Suddenly heads started showing up and down river and anglers able to make the proper pitches were in for a fun afternoon.

Yesterday again started out again chilly and slow but as the morning heated up so too did the sally hatch below High Bridge. From Hildreth Bridge all the way to our take-out at Pipe Organ the sallys continued to pour off and the trout were on them big time. Somewhat curious the pmd hatch down there never really did get going a few here another smattering there was about it.   

Upper Big Hole Wildflower Walk

What a difference a week makes. Last week wildflowers in the upper Big Hole valley were hard to find, to non-existent. A week later the entire valley seems to be in bloom. Lupine (blue and yellow and even a few whites), paint brush, blue camas, penstemon (sp.), elephant head, rocky mountain iris, oregon grape, sticky geranium, mariposa lily, and several more I can't recall at the moment.

Creeks are still brim full but some are starting to drop to more normal early July levels...notably Bull and West Fork Fish Trap creeks. More whitetails sighted than any other single day in the valley and everywhere we went were antelope and a ton of babies...

Big Brookies in the Big Hole

Over the past few days I enjoyed a couple guide trips on the Big Hole with some of my favorite clients--Doug (above) a Coloradan went both trips while Rocky a Texan and Steve a Californian did one each. Both days we caught a surprising number of fatter than average brookies. The first day Doug and Rocky experienced several hours of non-stop dry fly action--cripples, PMDs, Black Magic, Purple Haze and such. Next day Doug stuck to dries and did okay but the hatch (pmd) never materialized. But Steve went in pitching streamers and stuck with them all day...His reward: hooking more fat brookies in single day than any day I can recall. Both days the fishing was interrupted as a series of ferocious storms swept through in the afternoons. Yesterday the wind roared down river and blew the damn drift boat right up into the grass. Steve recovered quickest, remarking, "Chuck, gotta hand it to you that's certainly a unique way to stop the boat."