|
|
SPRING 2003 NEWSLETTER |
The sandhill cranes have finally arrived in Southwest Montana filling the air with their prehistoric sounding squaking. I was guiding on a spring creek on a nearby ranch last week and we flushed a female sandhill off her nest, which was situated on top of an old cottonwood tree that had fallen in the stream. We decided to pass up the tempting looking pool near the nest so she'd return soon.
Our spring season at Big Hole River Outfitters Lodge opened on May 10th in anticipation of the annual "Mother's Day" caddis hatch. We had two clients at the lodge who came separately as singles so each had a guide all to himself. Bernie had fished with us for the past few years but wanted to try something different and come early this year. Bob had never been to the lodge and had never fished the Big Hole, but he had the time and just loves to fly fish.
We floated the Big Hole the first two days under a veil of dark clouds with intermittent rain and snow. The sun would come out long enough to warm and recharge our bodies so that we never got cold or uncomfortable. Fishing was generally slow in the morning, but afternoons brought blanket hatches of Baetis and March Brown mayflies, with caddis throughout the day. Bernie floated with Chuck Ravetta, one of my regular guides, on the Jerry Creek section of the Big Hole on Monday and he had a 50+ fish day. The Baetis were on the water and most of the fish he landed were on dry flies. I floated Bob on the lower river from Glen to the Notch, which is ideal brown trout habitat with undercut banks and sunken cottonwood trees in the river. March Browns started showing up just before lunch and we stopped and tied a #12 parachute adams on and waded a small channel next to the main current of the river. The small browns didn't hesitate and came up for the dry fly on almost every cast. Bob picked up a dozen fish on this stretch and then we decided to have some lunch. My chef Lanette's streamside lunch is something to behold, but the fishing was so good that we were back in the boat in no time at all. As we made our way down a deep, undercut bank we noticed a storm coming our way out of the Pioneer Mountains to the west. I noticed a lightening strike downriver and the wall of rain was coming hard, so I pulled the boat over to the bank and we found refuge under some willow bushes. The storm was ferocious, with driving rain and 30 mph winds which lasted for approximately 20 minutes. We huddled under our gore-tex rain gear and swapped fishing stories about Argentina and Spruce Creek back in Pennsylvania until the storm subsided.
The sun finally peeked through the clouds and as soon as we hopped in the boat, we noticed March Browns blanketing the water and fish exploding everywhere. Not more than 500 yards from where we were "beached" by the storm, I pulled the boat over just upstream of a beautiful stretch of water that is one of my favorite parts of the river. A fast and shallow riffle with a broad gravel bar dumped into a moderately deep run, which fed into a long, deep pool. The fish were stacked up in the run waiting for the big mayflies to drift off the gravel bar. For the next hour, Bob had some of the best dry fly fishing that he had ever experienced and I witnessed one of the best hatches that I had ever seen on the Big Hole. One of the bonuses of coming early for this short window of opportunity before runoff begins is that the fish are not as selective. It was a day that we'll both remember for many years to come and what a way to start the season!
We also fished the Beaverhead on the ranch that I lease which allows us private access to the river. There had been a Baetis hatch on the Beaverhead for several weeks, but the sun was on the water that morning and nothing was rising. I tied on a # 14 weighted prince nymph with a # 14 soft hackle beadhead below it and handed the rod to Bernie. For the rest of the morning, he was into big, fat browns in the 14-19" range until we stopped for lunch. After fishing the private lake on the ranch over a Callibaetis hatch and landing many rainbows in the 18-19" range on a #16 parachute adams, we decided to fish the Beaverhead for the last hour of the day. The pool below the old bridge showed a few rises, so I slipped my seine into the river and found some caddis on the water. We tied on a #16 goddard caddis and Bernie managed to pick up some small browns on the surface to finish out a spectacular day of fishing.
On the last day, we guided Bernie and Bob on the new spring creek that the lodge is offering our clients. There are three miles of spring creek water and no more than six clients are permitted to fish per day. I guided Bob and Jim Stibbs, my head guide at the lodge, guided Bernie. This is a working cattle ranch and the big Montana sky completely surrounds you. The Pioneer Mountains are to the west and the Tobacco Roots are to the east, creating a panorama that looks like a Charles Russell painting. Fishing started out slow until we decided to put a conehead wooly bugger on in the slower pools. Immediately, Bob started getting into 18-19" rainbows stripping the wooly bugger off the banks into the deep water. I noticed a lot of scuds as I picked up several rocks from the stream bottom, and we caught some good fish on a #16 olive scud pattern. Occasionally we would see a rise, so I seined the water and found some red and black ants floating in the surface film. I tied on a parachute ant and Bob made a beautiful cast to the far bank where we had seen a rise. The ant pattern floated a long way down the pool until a big rainbow finally sucked it in. Each time we saw a rise, we switched to the ant and Bob caught fish consistently. It was an exceptional day made even more special when Bob caught his first brook trout, which was in the 14- 15" range.
The Big Hole River drainage is blessed with an above normal snowpack for this year. The Snotel monitoring sites like Bloody Dick and Calvert Creek are above 100%, which means good flows for the Big Hole through the summer. April was one of the wettest months on record, and May has been cool for the most part, which has delayed the spring runoff. All these important statistics point to a productive fishing season on the Big Hole and I predict it will be a memorable one. Big Hole River Outfitters has some great weeks still available in July, August and September so please give me a call (406-832-3252) and we can get you booked up for a great fishing trip. If you've made your plans already, keep us in mind for next year and have a great fishing season wherever that may be.
Best Regards,
Craig Fellin |
|  |
|
|
