Big Hole 300 cfs, temp. 63 Beaverhead 701 cfs
Returned last night from three days on the Missouri and was greeted with the cool breeze of the Big Hole Valley, what a relief. Even though it was hot the fishing was quite good on hoppers. There are a lot of tricos from Holter Dam to Craig but we concentrated on the stretch from Mountain Palace to Cascade as the hopper fishing was better there. The first day we put in at about 2:00 pm at Mountain Palace and went to Pelican Point and did great. Actually a black chernoble ant pattern worked better than a hopper. We boated several fat rainbows and browns. The next day we did Pelican Point to Cascade. This was a long hot trip with a lot of flat water and fishing was spotty. The few riffles there are on this portion of river did produce some nice fish. There was a south wind thank god , so the last few miles we just put up the sail, drank about ten gallons of water and admired the scenery. That evening we went back up the the channels and fished until dark and did great.
Phil and Joan Camera have opened a new fly shop at the Prewett Creek Access. They have a great little shop there and offer every thing from lodging, shuttles, boat rental and very friendly service. Ostermans Missouri Inn is next door and has great food at reasonable prices. If you want to avoid the hustle and bustle on the upper river, this is the place to go.
The Big Hole is pretty low but the fishing is good. The forecast for the next few days is calling for cooler and overcast conditions–just what the doctor ordered.