Author: sunriseflyshop

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Many people come to Southwest Montana to fish the famed Salmonfly hatch in June on the Big Hole River and the Madison River.    Besides the Salmon Fly hatch, the rivers of Southwest Montana have other great Stonefly hatches.  One in particular that is worth the trip to Montana is the Nocturnal Stonefly hatch.

Nocturnal Stoneflies are found on most freestone river is Southwest Montana.  In mid July after most of the Golden Stoneflies are gone the Big Hole River has a fabulous nocturnal Stonefly hatch.  As with most stoneflies, the males are much smaller than the females, and in this case the male Nocturnal Stone does not have the ability to fly.  This is part of the reason why you rarely see these flies buzzing around during the day like you will with a Golden Stone or Salmon Fly.  Similar to other stoneflies the nocturnal stonefly crawls onto dry rocks to sheds their exoskeleton and become an adult fly.  The best way to know if these flies are hatching is to look at dry rocks along the banks of the river to see if there are any stonefly shucks stuck to the rocks.

The Best Time to Fish The Nocturnal Stoneyfly Hatch on the Big Hole River

The best time to fish the nocturnal stonefly hatch is in the early morning hours, or in the late evenings.  I believe the best dry fly fishing is in the early morning hours before the sun hits the water.  One section of river in Southwest Montana that has a wonderful nocturnal stonefly hatch is the Dewey canyon of the Big Hole River.  Mid July is the time period that the hatch seems to be the best.

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A Winston rod was brought into the shop tonight.  It was found at the big rock between Melrose and Brownes Bridge that has been sucking boats this year on the Big Hole River.  If you have lost a Winston Rod please call the Sunrise Fly Shop to identify it.  Another honest angler with a rod that wants to get back to it’s original owner.

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Fishing in Southwest Montana has remained great.  We have enjoyed the dropping water.  The Big Hole is flowing at 2310cfs today.  Dry fly fishing has been heating up on the Big Hole River.  We have done well with various chubby patterns in the mornings and evenings for the nocturnal stones hatching.  The mid day fishing has varied with the weather.  If it is overcast keep the large dries on, if you have bright sun stick with the dry dropper set up.  Copper John’s, lightning bugs, and prince nymphs have been doing well in the shallow riffle water.  The caddis hatches in the evenings have been stellar.  we have been catching some great trout in the past few weeks here.

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Doug Barba With a nice Big Hole River Grayling!

It has been a wild June in Southwest Montana, record high water, and huge trout due to the amount of earth worms in the water system.  We are looking forward to the best water flows we have seen in many years for August and September on all Southwest Montana Rivers.   Happy 4^th of July and hope everyone is having a safe weekend.  We kick off the week with a dropping Big Hole River.  The river is finally below 6000cfs at Melrose.  We have Salmonflies still around, Golden Stone, Yellow Sallies, Green Drakes and Caddis.  You will find the best dry fly fishing on the Big Hole River from Mudd Creek to Divide.  Below Divide it has been a subsurface deal until we get some lower water.  I think this week we could see the lower river fishing better on dries as it drops.  Our early morning fishing on dries on the upper river has been stellar right now.

If you all are on the river please look for a lost rod.  One of our clients lost a rod and reel.  It was last seen on the bank in front of the bright orange looking cabin below the old Dickey Bridge (that was taken down this spring).  Please contact us if found or stop by the shop.  The rod has the owners name printed on it.  We appreciate your help on finding this item. 

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Our Clients Winston BIIX was recovered yesterday.  A good hearted angler hooked something and it turned out to be our clients lost rod.  What are the chances of that!  Thanks, our client will be greatly appreciative of your honest efforts.   Big fish have been on the bite recently.  Recently we had a bump in flows due to rains.  The Big Hole is dropping and clearing today 4180cfs in Melrose and dropping.  I just got a report from the river and during the cloudy weather today the fish have been taking dries very well.  Golden stone attractor patterns along the fast banks have been producing nice fish.  We have been fishing the entire Big Hole recently.  If you are going to float the lower Big Hole please make sure you have experienced people rowing.  Good stuff over here and it is going to keep getting better as the river drops this week.   

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The Big Hole River has been fishing well.  This fish was caught on the upper Big Hole River.  26 inch 8lb. brown.  This was a fish of a lifetime.  Way to go Steve Gilb.  It will be an interesting week.  Will the Big Hole River remain at a steady flow or will it spike from snowmelt.  I have been thinking I can predict mother nature but we all know that is difficult to do.  Traffic here has remained very light and the fishing has been great.  Some caddis still around in the Maiden Rock Canyon, mainly streamer fishing and nymphing everywhere else.  Salmon Flies soon??

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Mother’s day Caddis arrives on June 1^st.  After the last couple of years of having a  late spring, we should call it the June 1^st Caddis Hatch.   I did an evening float from Maiden Rock to Melrose and we did well on caddis dries through the entire canyon.  You had to be in backwater channels and back eddies for the dry fly fishing.  Get over here fast before the next push of water.  We also threw streamers late in the evening and moved several fish on J.J’s and muddy buddies.  The river has moved some trees below the Meriwether Ranch.  The one large cottonwood that has been pointing downstream right above the slough channel is now gone.  The power of water this time of year makes you realize that you need to be on your toes while rowing.

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The Big Hole is back in shape once again.  There is 3 feet of visibility on the upper river and 2 feet of visibility around Melrose.  We will have a good week of fishing while the Big Hole is on the drop.  This will be a good opportunity to fish before the next warm up and push of water.   Everyone is wondering and thinking that we will be blown out the next three weeks, this is not true.  We will get higher water again once the upper elevation snow melts but this will not last for weeks.  Stay in touch and get the most up to date information.  Caddis should pop this week, let’s hope it is fishable when they hatch.  Streamers and worms have been the ticket in the slow water and inside seams.

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We’ve seen some warm weather over that last several days, but the Big Hole River has handled it rather well.  A lot of people were predicting flooding by this weekend, but that hasn’t come even close to happening.  The river has come up, it is currently flowing at 3620 CFS, and it has about 18 inches of visibility.  Finding fishable water on Southwest Montana rivers is tough right now.

The river has been increasing every night for the last three days, but then it has been leveling off or slightly dropping over night.  The forecast for the next five days show that the daytime highs are going to be in the low 50’s and the nighttime lows in the low 30’s.  This drop in temps should slow the snowmelt and bring the river flows back down.  There is some precipitation in the forecast, but it doesn’t look like enough to have much of an impact on the river flows.

The fishing has been decent over the last few days, but you have to work for ’em.  The good thing is that we have been getting some really nice fish in the upper river.  On Friday we had a single client catch 7 fish over 18 inches, with his largest measuring 22 inches.

We have been slow stripping streamers and having good action nearly all day.  The color of the most successful streamers has been Yellow, Olive, and Bright and Flashy.  Most of the fish that our Big Hole River Guides are catching are holding tight to the bank.

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We woke up this morning to our second good frost in a row, which is good, because it stopped any snowmelt that yesterday’s heat started.  Last night the Mud Creek and Wise River Gauges leveled off for a few hours, but as of 6:00 AM on the 12^th, both the Mud Creek and Wise River Gauges were back on the drop.  Here in Melrose the gauge shows that the river dropped all night and that it is starting to level off just now.  I just went down to the Salmon Fly Fishing Access here in Melrose and the river is still off color, but the visibility has improved since last night.  I don’t know that I would give it a full 18 inches if visibility, but its close.  The sun wasn’t on the river yet, so it was hard to tell how clear the water really was.

Bottom line is that I think the Big Hole will fish today.  You will probably have to go upriver to find cleaner water, but the upper river is my favorite place to fish this time of year.

If you want to Streamer fish, use yellow, white, orange or flashy flies and strip as slow as you can.  If you are into nymphing, go with stoneflies, San Juans, and even try dead drifting one of those streamers mentioned above.

I am feeling good enough about the conditions that I am going to guide on the Big Hole today.  When I went to bed I was thinking that I was going to be heading over to the Madison, but I like what we are seeing this morning.

We’ll keep you posted as conditions change.

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