Category: Big Hole River Fishing Report

The Big Hole River Salmonfly Hatch is here! We are seeing the adult Salmonflies from above Melrose down to Glen. Within the next few days you will find Salmonflies around Maiden Rock and Divide. It’s that time of the year to throw the large dries and hold on tight for a massive brown trout. Flows remain stable on the river and clarity has been excellent. Everything is lining up to be a spectacular week to be on the Big Hole River. We will keep you updated throughout the hatch. Always feel free to call with the most up to date fishing report. (406) 835-3474.

Shop hours are 7:00 am – 6:00 pm 7 days a week.

Recommended Flies:

• #6 Cat Puke
• #6 Trinas Carnage Salmonfly
• #6 Chubby Norman
• #6 Chubby Chernobyl Purple
• #6 pat’s stone black
• #6 Dungeon Black
• #6 Lil’ Kim

The Big Hole River continues to fish very well during this late May runoff timeframe due to prime water conditions. You will find some caddis still hatching from Jerry Creek down to Divide. We have had some good dry fly activity with caddis. Streamers have been doing well stripped off the banks and finding the slower pockets along the fast water edges of the riffles. From Melrose down to Notch in the afternoon hours the stonefly nymphing has been fantastic. Water conditions continue to be good but can change quickly if air temperatures get high and snowmelt occurs. Feel free to call with the most up to date conditions (406) 835-3474.

Recommended Flies:

• #4 Lil’ Kim Olive
• # Dungeon Black
• #6 Barely Legal Olive
• #8 Pat’s Stone Black
• #12 Jig Hot Spot

The Big Hole River clarity remains around 3 feet and the fishing has been good. We had a slight bump in flows due to valley snow, but the river is already on the drop and it fished well during the bump yesterday. Fishing will remain good unless we get a massive increase in flows. The holiday weekend fishing should fantastic. The streamer anglers have done well this week and the nymph fisherman are also producing nice fish. Olive seems to be the color of choice for streamers and you will want to move them slowly off the banks. Caddis are out from Maiden Rock up to East bank on the warmer days. Dry fly fishing on caddis should get going this weekend with the warmer temperatures. Enjoy the holiday weekend and be safe out there.

Recommended Flies:

• #4 Lil’ Kim Olive
• # Dungeon Black
• #6 Barely Legal Olive
• #8 Pat’s Stone Black
• #12 Jig Hot Spot

The Big Hole Mother’s Day Caddis hatch has started on the lower Big Hole River. We are seeing the caddis from the mouth of the river all the way up to Melrose. Above Melrose you can still find some March brown mayflies and blue winged olives. The river is entering the runoff time period. We are having some high elevation snowmelt due to the warm weather the last few days. Since the river is on the rise fishing might be tough this week. We are currently seeing about 3 feet of visibility on the edges of the river. Since conditions can change daily, we suggest calling us for the most up to date report. A dropping hydrographic usually means better fishing, but sometimes the Big Hole can fish great even with runoff pushing the hydrograph up. Streamers fishing has been active in the afternoons. We are seeing fish moving towards yellow/brown streamers and natural colors.

Recommend Flies:

• #12 Bloom’s Caddis Natural/Olive
• #12 Flambe Caddis tan
• #10 Chubby Chernobyl Olive
• #12 Jig Duracel
• #12 Blowtorch
• #10 Pat’s Rubber Leg
• #6 Barely Legal
• #6 Sparkle Minnow Sculpin

The Big Hole River May fishing is shaping up to be fantastic. We are currently in the best window of Spring time fishing. The Big Hole is stable and flowing around 1,000cfs. We have seen hatches of skwalas, March brown’s and Blue Winged Olives. The streamer anglers have been hooked up in the afternoons with home invaders, dungeons, and J.J.’s. The week ahead looks like stable river conditions and a fabulous time to get out and fish. The Big Hole will remain fishable until the next large spike in flows due to snowmelt or rain. Above is a wonderful fish caught this week on one of our guide trips. Many nice trout are being caught and released recently on our guide trips.

Recommended Flies:

• # 10 Chubby Chernobyl Olive
• #10 Water Walker Black/Olive
• #12 Purple Craze
• #12 Jig CDC Yellow Spot
• #10 Pat’s Rubber Legs
• #6 Barely Legal
• #6 Mini Dungeon Yellow
• #4 J.J. Special
• #6 Home Invader Natural

The Big Hole continues to fish well during this most recent drop in spring flows. The Skwala hatch has been impressive lately. Yesterday we started with dry dropper rigs and ended up cutting the dropper off around 10:00 am and fished the skwala dry the rest of the day with great success. We have been seeing a nice healthy age class of brown trout lately in the river. The rainbows look healthy and have been willing to eat dry flies. The march brown hatch has also started on the river. The nymph emergers have done better recently with march browns. Streamer anglers are doing well with the recent warm up in water temperatures. Black with slight yellow accents on the streamer have done the best. Enjoy the next stretch of spring fishing before the next bump in flows.

Recommended Flies:

• #8 Bullet Head Skwala
• #10 Chubby Chernobyl Olive/Tan
• #10 Double Stack Chubby Black/Olive
• #10 Pat’s Rubber Legs Olive/Brown
• #8 San Juan Worm Red
• #14 Jig Spanish Bullet
• #12 Jig Hot Spot
• #6 J.J. Special
• #6 Big Hole Bugger

The Big Hole River Skwala Hatch has started this week. We have seen the adult stoneflies from Melrose down to the lower end of the river. Some afternoons have been better than others on the dry fly bite. In the morning we have been getting fish on the stonefly nymph and then switching to the dry fly in the afternoons. Water clarity remains at around 3 feet and the river remains stable. Look for the slow grassy banks for the Skwala dry flies.

The weather looks quite pleasant for the next several days. A good Spring fishing window is upon us, time to get out and fish! We still have some availability for our Spring Special.

Recommended Flies:

• #8 Bullet Head Skwala
• #10 Chubby Chernobyl Olive/Tan
• #10 Double Stack Chubby Black/Olive
• #10 Pat’s Rubber Legs Olive/Brown
• #8 San Juan Worm Red
• #14 Jig Spanish Bullet
• #6 J.J. Special

The Big Hole River had good fishing earlier this week before Spring sprung on the upper Big Hole and the winter ice broke off the river. This is an event that happens every year and starting last Wednesday the ice broke and continued throughout the week. Needless to say the entire river is not fishable right now due to muddy water. We think sometime this coming week the river will be back in shape for fishing. We will let you know as soon as conditions get better on the river. For now I would suggest heading to tailwaters such as the Beaverhead below Pipe Organ or the Missouri River.

These high flows you see on the hydrograph is not high elevation runoff. This event is just the upper Big Hole valley floor and river ice coming down. It will clear up soon and we will be back to good Spring fishing.

Our Big Hole River Fly Shop opens for the 2024 season tomorrow! The doors opened in 2006 and it is with great honor to serve anglers from all over the country for another year and many more to come. The entire Big Hole River is open April 1st. We will be fishing from Divide down to the lower stretches. The upper Big Hole is still frozen above Dickie Bridge. Guide trips are out all week and we will have an updated report once we get on the water. the river is flowing around 520cfs in Melrose, it is running clear and should fish well. It will be subsurface activity and slow moving streamers in the afternoons. Looks like nice spring weather this week. We look forward to another fantastic season and seeing all the familiar and faces in the shop.

Spring Special trips are still available Click here for more information.