Big Hole 564cfs, temp. 49
Three students from the U of M came into the shop this morning and since they had not fished the Big Hole before, were asking a lot of questions and all the right questions I might add. After recommending a few different patterns and telling them a couple places to go wade fishing, they carefully selected a few fly’s. I noticed one of them grabbed a couple pumpkin buggers. They returned to the shop late in the afternoon and literally dove into the pumpkin bugger bin and said “these things are awesome”. They picked up a couple fish on skwalas and purple haze but said the pumpkin bugger ruled. This time they were not a bit shy about grabbing a handful of them. They were taking the long way back to Missoula, up along highway 43 which parallels the Big Hole so they could stop at every opportune spot to swing some buggers, until they ran out of day light.
These young men go to school, fly fish when ever possible and are fire fighters in the summer. I was glad to be a small part of their successful day on the Big Hole. I think we’ll be seeing them again and again.