Big Hole River Flyfishing: Trout are "Looking Up"

Today begins the National Folk Festival in Butte, Montana--three days of music, beer, and dancing. With company in town and a crowd of more than 100,000 people predicted (Butte never had a population higher than about 60,000), I thought it well to grab a few hours of flyfishing on the Big Hole River a half-hour south of town. Though still a little high for wade fishing, the river has dropped considerably now that our record June rainfall is behind us.

It was a grand few hours. It was a busy morning so I skipped lunch and still did not leave town until after twelve, not expecting much--mid-day fishing can be "iffy" with a clear sky and high sun. But rigging up on the bank, I was pleased to see the usual Big Hole smorgasbord of large golden stoneflies, an unusually red form of "gingerquill" mayfly, and caddis flies of all sizes. I never even tied on a nymph, and so long as the float was drag-free, dry fly fishing was very good for trout of all sizes. I use a longish leader and tippet to control drag--it doesn't make for elegant casting on a windy day, but it brings up lots of fish.

The larger brown trout seemed keyed on the mayflies and medium sized caddis:

The smaller browns and rainbow trout were in shallow pockets near the banks feeding on anything that came their way:

And the larger 'bows were in the deeper seams taking goldens (interestingly, nearly all of the rainbows had orange slashmarks under their gills, indicating they were rainbow-cutthroat hybrids):

 I don't wear a watch but the fishing seemed to get better and better until I left the river with a tired arm and a hungry belly. I was surprised that it wasn't even 5 p.m. when I stepped into the house. A good day.