Beaverhead River Fishing Report

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Flows are up on the Beaverhead and the fish are liking it. The water coming out of Clark Canyon is cold and clean right now. We are finding the start of the PMD hatch. You will find fish up and eating in the slick. Nymphing has been dynamite. Fish are eating a variety of PMD nymphs, and yellow Sallies. Wade fishing is a tough prospect right now. It will help to be in a boat to get to each hole. Our Beayerhead River Guides have had stellar fishing on the Beaverhead River and it should stay consistent for awhile.

Flies: #18 Split Back PMD #18 Kyle’s Yellow Sally #18 Mustang Sally #16 Ray Charles Soft Hackle, #16 Tan Scud, #18 RS2, #16 Sow Bug Tan/Pink, #18 Olive Split Back, #10 San Juan Worm, #18 Barr’s Emerger #16 RS2 

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Our Big Hole River Guides have been getting to work early lately.

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Our Big Hole River Guides have been getting to work early lately. We are currently in a heat wave in Southwest Montana. We have been targeting the nocturnal stonefly hatch on the Big Hole. The dawn dry fly fishing on large foam dries has been fantastic. Around 8:30 a.m. you will find a blizzard PMD hatch. #16 Cripples and #16 Rocky Mountain Mint’s have been working well on the surface. After the PMD’s you will find Yellow Sallies and Golden Stones flying around. Our best late morning and early afternoon fishing is subsurface in the fast riffle water with small bead head nymphs. I would suggest being off the Big Hole around 2:00 pm since the afternoon weather has been heating up the river lately.

Flies:  #10 Rogue Stone #10 Chubby, #14 Rocky Mountain Mint #16 Purple Haze #8Pat’s Stone Black/Brown #8 San Juan Worm, #14 Pearl Lightning Bug #14 Red Copper John #16 Superflash Pheasant Tail #12 Psycho Mayfly #14 Kyle’s Sally #6 Bellyache Minnoe Olive #8 Sparkle Minnow,  #6 Copper Zonker

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Fishing has been very good on the Big Hole.

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Fishing has been very good on the Big Hole. We have had plenty of hatches to work with lately. You will find PMD’s, caddis, Yellow Sallies and Golden Stones hatching daily. #14 PMD cripples, and comparaduns have been working very well during the PMD hatch. Some of our favorite bugs to prospect with have been #12 Purple Craze’s and #12 snowshoe Sallies. You will find nice brown’s laying up in the shallow riffles. We have also had success with streamers in the riffles. Natural color streamers have worked the best lately. You will find the nocturnal stoneflies hatching on the lower Big Hole. The partly cloudy weather we have had has made for nice dry fly activity the entire day.

Robert Harp With a nice brown caught on a dry fly

Flies:  #8 Rogue Stone #6 Chubby, #12 Purple Haze #4Pat’s Stone Orange/Brown #8 San Juan Worm, #12 Pearl Lightning Bug #12 Red Copper John Bellyache Minnoe Olive #8 Sparkle Minnow, #4 Yellow/Black Beldar; #4 Smoke N’ Mirrors #6 Yellow Zonker #10  #6 Bad Boy

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Our Big Hole guides have had great fishing lately.

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Our Big Hole guides have had great fishing lately. You will still find Salmonflies around the Dewey Canyon area. Elsewhere on the river we are having hatches of Golden Stones, Yellow Sallies, PMD’s and Caddis. Some of our best patters for dry flies have been purple craze’s in size #10 and Chubby’s in size #10. Our best nymph droppers off the dry flies have been #12 Red Copper John’s and #12 Pearl lightning bugs. In the cloudy weather we have had in the afternoons as the thunder storms creep up, we have had good streamer fishing with natural patterns. #4 Sculzilla’s and tan Zonkers have been working very well. I would focus on the riffle water with 3 to 4 feet drop offs right now.

Photo By Dan Armstrong Photography: Big Hole River Fly Shop

Flies: #4 Cat Puke #4 Fluttering Stone #4 Rogue Stone #6 Chubby, #12 Purple Haze #4Pat’s Stone Orange/Brown #8 San Juan Worm, #12 Pearl Lightning Bug #12 Red Copper John Bellyache Minnoe Olive #8 Sparkle Minnow, #4 Yellow/Black Beldar; #4 Smoke N’ Mirrors #6 Yellow Zonker #10  #6 Bad Boy

Hello everyone:  As you may have noticed construction work on Silver Bridge located on the Big Hole River near Divide is beginning to be initiated by MDT and Anderson Construction.  In order to stage equipment, the work bridge must be reinstalled over the river.  Therefore a one day closure (Monday-June 22, 2015)of the Big Hole River is required for this installation.  Please be advised that the River will be closed to all occupation from 1000 ft. upstream to 1000 ft. downstream of Silver Bridge starting at 8 AM to Midnight, June 22, 2015.   Please see the attached notice.

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Salmonfly Hatch Update

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We are still seeing a lot of the Big Bugs from Thompson’s Corner all the way into the Maiden Rock Canyon, and the dry fly fishing has been really good.  Today the dry fly fishing remained very good even into the heat of the day. Golden Stones seemed to be working better in the afternoon hours.

Photo of Ryan Barba and an army of Salmonflies by Brett Seng

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Big Hole River Salmonfly Hatch

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It’s been a busy weekend on the Big Hole. We are experiencing the most Salmonflies we have seen in about 10 years on the Big Hole. Currently the hatch is on the entire River. Some of our best dry fly fishing has been from Jerry Creek down to Melrose. Our best dry fly fishing has been in the morning and late afternoon. You will find Salmonflies, Golden Stones, Yellow Sallies and Caddis hatching right now. Flows have been dropping and water conditions are ideal right now for dry fly fishing. During the middle of the week you will find the river traffic to be much more pleasant. It is time to throw the big bugs and hold on tight. Our Big Hole River guides have been catching clients some very nice fish lately.

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They’re Here

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Early reports from today are that Salmonflies are flying between Maiden Rock and Brownes Bridge.  From what we are hearing, it sounds like there are a lot of bugs in the air and that the fish are really starting to key in on them.

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The Salmonfly Hatch is Here!

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It is still in the early stage of the hatch, but we have seen a lot of shucks in the willows and saw a few of the Big Bugs flying.  With the weather warming up over the next several days, Salmonflies should really be flying by this weekend.  Most of the fish that we have caught over the last few days have still been on the Salmonfly nymph, but we are getting a few nice fish to come up and eat the dry.  It really feels like the fish are starting to look up, and the fishing this weekend should be great.

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Big Hole River Salmonfly Hatch Update

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Fishing has remained pretty good on the Big Hole during these rainy days of June. The water is up a bit today but that will not affect your fishing. Clarity remains good and the Salmonfly nymphs are moving around. We spotted about 10 Salmonfly shucks at Brownes bridge this morning. It is still early but a few Salmonflies are crawling and hatching on the lower Big Hole. Some warm and sunny weather will get the bugs flying around once they hatch. Right now dropping a #4 Pat’s Stone has been working very well.

Flies: #6 Chubby, #12 Purple Haze #4Pat’s Stone Orange/Brown #8 San Juan Worm, Bellyache Minnoe Olive #8 Sparkle Minnow, #4 Yellow/Black Beldar; #4 Smoke N’ Mirrors #6 Yellow Zonker #10  #6 Bad Boy

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