The Big Hole river has had a very interesting season. Starting with a cold June, the river has maintained an above average flow, and the snow is still lingering on Fleecer Mountain for the second time in my career beyond July 4th. That being said, there is plenty of water, but our temps are getting up near 70 degrees during the day. This could lead to restrictions if the temps continue to rise, even though there is plenty of water, certainly a very different situation than we have faced in the past 5-10 years. Here at Great Divide we urge anglers to fish early in the day to reduce stress and mortality rates per catch. The fishing in the morning has been the best time of the day anyway. Now the report:
Dry fly season is in full swing. We have been fishing smaller attractor patterns including the Black Magic, PMX’s, small Chubbies, and Golden Stones, for our front fly and changing it up between caddis, purple haze, PMD’s, and ants as trailers. The nymph game has been on as well, producing mass amounts of whitefish sprinkled with a few trout here and there. If you are lucky enough to find a bug that only trout are targeting, don’t tell anyone (like a big gold lightning bug). Personally, I am looking forward to the next couple of weeks because all of the rivers through out the state are shaping up and fishing well. I will be taking some river tours up to the Blackfoot, Clark Fork, Missouri and Bitterroot with any fisherman that are up for the adventure. If you are interested in going camping on eith ker of these rivers, Great Divide has put together 2 days fishing/one night camping and cooking over the fire on the Black Foot, the river where I honed my rowing and fishing skills in the early 90’s.
Also would like to update folks on the Andros Connection dates for 2019. We have had more interest this year than ever before and a couple of the weeks have already been booked but here is what we have left for the next bonefish season. If you would like to book outside these weeks please call Craig or Lia at the shop and we can talk about your options.
Week 1: January 13-19
Week 2: January 20-26
Week 3: January 27-February 2
Week 4: February 3-9 (4 spots left)
Week 5: February 10-16
Week 6: February 17-23
Week 7: February 24-March 2 (2 spots left
Week 8: March 3-9 (booked)
Week 9: March 10-16 (booked)
