Southwest Montana is still under a veil of smoke coming from several fires burning west of Wise River, with more fires burning to the south east. The smoke has been keeping the direct sun from warming up the water to much, and creating a false cloud cover which has helped the fishing. We have been seeing a few summer stones out, size 8/10, and have had some decent fishing on tan/brown chubbies, brown gypsy kings, and water walkers. The small bugs are still out as well. The trico hatch has been hit and miss depending on the day. We are seeing trico’s around 930 am on warm days, and 1030 on cooler days. The nymphs have been tough in the slow and low water, but have been working well in the deep dumps and fast riffles. We have been using small pats stones, pt’s, and black/olive Spanish bullets under our big dry flies.
Big Hole River brown caught on a small streamer
The Beaverhead still has quite a bit of water, running just over 400 cfs at Barretts. The nymph fishing has been decent depending on the moss. We have been dropping small leach patterns, olive psyco mays, and jig princes. The dries have been decent in the clouds using size 20 PMD cripples and a small purple haze. We have been catching a few fish on larger dries, hoppers and stones, but the bigger bugs have not been very consistent.
The Andros connection is up and running. At this point in time travelers who have received a vaccination will only be required to take a rapid test on arrival to the Bahamas. We have plenty of slots available starting January 1 until March 15th. Reach out to us via email or call the shop and we can get you geared up and ready for your next salt water adventure.