The Beaverhead River continues to impress.  We have great hatches of PMD’s, Yellow Sallies and Caddis.  You will have pods of fish rising to PMD’s in the morning and Yellow Sallies throughout the afternoon.  The Caddis fishing in the evening is crazy good right now.  Nymphing has been very good throughout the day with Split Back PMD’s and Trigger nymphs.  Mustang Sally Nymphs and Kyle’s Sallies have been fishing well.  Flows remain excellent and the fish are healthy and putting up some serious tugs on our clients lines.

Happy Clients and big fish on the Beaverhead River right now

Flies: #18 Split Back PMD, #16 Soft Hackle Sow Bug, #18 Pink Ray Charles, #18 Mustang Sallie, #18 Kyle’s Sallie, #18 Larimer Sallie, #18 PMD Comparadun, #16 Stimulator  #18 Micro Mayfly, #4 Black Sculpzilla, #6 Sparkle Minnow

We are back to clear blue skies and the fishing continues to be very good.  We have PMD’s, Yellow Sallies, Nocturnal Stone flies and caddis hatching.  Your best dry fly fishing with the clear skies will be in the morning with PMD’s.  Mid day we have been doing very well in the riffle runs on #8 Pat’s Stones and #14 Copper John’s and Batman Nymphs.  We have a nice cool down from the summer heat tomorrow.  The Big Hole River flows remain excellent and our guides have been coming back each day with great success.

The morning dry fly fishing on the Big Hole continues to be very good.  The fish are keyed in on Nocturnal Stones in the early morning hours, and then switching to PMDs once the mayfly hatch begins.  Once the morning hatch tapers off, switch to nymphing with an indicator and you should be able to stay consistently hooked up all afternoon.  The fish have been eating Girdle Bugs and PMD nymphs in the afternoons. 

Like most of the other locations in Southwest Montana, we have been dealing with slightly smoky skies for the past few days.  Luckily, because the smoke that is effecting the area is coming from so far away, we are not smelling any smoke in the air, we are just experiencing hazy skies.

The Big Hole River fishing report continues to be very good from our guides.  We have hatches of Golden Stones, PMD’s, Yellow Sallies and Caddis.  The best dry fly fishing has been in the morning and tapering off around 2:00 unless you get some cloud cover in the afternoons.  If you need to get down with a nymph dropper in the afternoon the fast riffle water about two feet deep is packed with trout right now.  We have been staying hooked up in the riffles with a size #8 Pat’s Stone and a red copper John or a Batman nymph.  Nocturnal Stone Flies are around and the fish are keyed into them at the right time of day.

Flies:  #10 Chubby Chernobyl Yellow/Purple/Black; #8 Rogue Stone golden, #10 Purple Haze; #16 PMD Cripple; #10 Rocky Mountain Mint, #10 Pat’s Stone #12 Red Copper John #16 Bat Man Nymph orange/brown: #8 RL Stone; #6 J.J. Special #6 Coffey Bugger; #4 Bad Boy #4 Yellow Zonker

Fishing has been wonderful on the Beaverhead.  We have Yellow Sallies, PMD’s and caddis hatching on the Beaverhead River.  Our Beaverhead River guides have been doing great on dry flies.  You can sit on pods of fish eating PMD’s in the slick or fish a single yellow Sallie dry fly below High Bridge and stay hooked up.  Nymphing has been solid on Split Back PMD’s and Mustang Sallies.  Flows remain at about 400cfs out of the dam.  The fish are chowing down and fattening up.

Flies: #18 Split Back PMD, #16 Soft Hackle Sow Bug, #18 Pink Ray Charles, #18 Mustang Sallie, #18 Kyle’s Sallie, #18 Larimer Sallie, #18 PMD Comparadun, #16 Stimulator  #18 Micro Mayfly, #4 Black Sculpzilla, #6 Sparkle Minnow

The Big Hole River is in perfect July shape.  We have great water flows and the hatches have been stellar.  The morning PMD fishing has been fantastic.  Fish have been looking up from daybreak till about 2 o’clock.  #10 Purple haze’s and Rocky Mountain Mint’s have been the dry flies our guides have been knocking them out with.  In the afternoon after the hatches taper off we have done well with a Golden stone dry and either a #10 Pat’s Stone dropper or a #10 Kyle’s PMD nymph.  You will have PMD’s, Drakes, and Golden Stones on the water.  We are starting to see some nocturnal stonefly shucks so we are not far off from some fantastic dawn fishing on big Chernobyl dry flies.

The Big Hole River has dropped below 2500cfs and the river temperatures are bumping up into the low 60’s.  These river conditions are ideal for July dry fly fishing.  PMDs, Drakes, Yellow Sallies, Caddis and Golden Stones are currently hatching, and the dry fly fishing has been really good.  You may not see all of the those bugs on every stretch every day, but with such a variety of bugs out, you can expect to find something hatching.  Also, now that the Salmonfly hatch has ended, the massive crowds we were seeing in mid to late June are all gone.  So if you are looking for great dry fly fishing to help you celebrate the 4th of July, come on over to the Big Hole River.