The Salmonflies are here! We have seen them in the Melrose area and on the upper Big Hole.

by sunriseflyshop

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The Salmonflies are here! We have seen them in the Melrose area and on the upper Big Hole. Fishing has been tough though because of high flows. The river needs to drop to a more manageable level to get the fish looking up. We have just started to see the Salmonflies and the hatch is in the early stages. We will keep you posted on the progress of the hatch and the quality of the fishing as the river drops.

Recommended Flies: #4 Cat Puke; #12 Rogue Stone; #10 Purple Haze; #12 X Caddis; #10 Mr. Beam; #10 Skwala Stone; #10 Pat’s Stone Olive/Brown; #8 San Juan Worm; #12 Pheasant Tail; #12 Caddis Pupa; #6 J.J. Special; #4 Smokin’ Mirrors; #4Mr. Creepo

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June has been off to a high water start.

by sunriseflyshop

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June has been off to a high water start. The Big Hole is almost at flood stage around Melrose. We would not suggest floating in the Melrose area due to high flows right now. Our Big Hole River guides have been fishing the upper Big Hole. Above the Wise River the Big Hole has 2 feet of clarity on the banks. We have been successful with dead drifting streamers, worms and stone fly nymphs. This is a good time to get all of your gear ready for the Salmonfly Hatch. We are getting close to the hatch and we will keep you posted once we see the bugs. We are hoping the river drops before the bugs start to hatch. The first area that we will see the Salmonflies will be around the Glen Access site.

Mark that calendar for June 10th. Our 2nd Annual Salmonfly Fest will be from 5pm – 9pm on June 10th.  We have music from Smokestack and the Foothill Furry. We have food from Brunchies, and Rollin Bites brick oven Pizza. Beaverhead Brewery will be here, and Rattlesnake Distillery. We have giveaways and raffle items from Patagonia, Winston Rods, Simms Fishing Products, Dirty Water Fly Company, Bauer Reels, Scientific Anglers and much more. 

Sunrise Fly Shop Client Corky with a Big Hole River brown trout

Recommended Flies: #10 Purple Haze; #12 X Caddis; #10 Mr. Beam; #10 Skwala Stone; #10 Pat’s Stone Olive/Brown; #8 San Juan Worm; #12 Pheasant Tail; #12 Caddis Pupa; #6 J.J. Special; #4 Smokin’ Mirrors; #4Mr. Creepo

 

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Sunrise Fly Shop

by sunriseflyshop

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We have had some nice warm Summer like weather this past week in Southwest Montana. Today feels more like Spring with cool wet weather. The river has been coming up due to snow melt, which is typically for late May. Clarity still remains at 2 1/2 feet on the banks. We have had more good fishing lately subsurface. Lots of Caddis are hatching but the fish are not crazy about rising to them due to the high flows. Our best fishing has been underneath with streamers and nymphs. Around Glen we have been fishing Salmonfly nymphs with some success. As long as the river doesn’t rise too much, the fishing should stay consistent subsurface. If the flows continue to rise around Melrose it will be difficult to find fishable water due to high flows.

Mark that calendar for June 10th. Our 2nd Annual Salmonfly Fest will be from 5pm – 9pm on June 10th.  We have music from Smokestack and the Foothill Furry. We have food from Brunchies, and Rollin Bites brick oven Pizza. Beaverhead Brewery will be here, and Rattlesnake Distillery. We have giveaways and raffle items from Patagonia, Winston Rods, Simms Fishing Products, Dirty Water Fly Company, Bauer Reels, Scientific Anglers and much more.

Sunrise guide Rutger Wilson getting clients into the big ones this week

Recommended Flies: #10 Purple Haze; #12 X Caddis; #10 Mr. Beam; #10 Skwala Stone; #10 Pat’s Stone Olive/Brown; #8 San Juan Worm; #12 Pheasant Tail; #12 Caddis Pupa; #6 J.J. Special; #4 Smokin’ Mirrors; #4Mr. Creepo

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High water right now on the Big Hole but fishing has been fantastic the last couple of days.

by sunriseflyshop

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High water right now on the Big Hole but fishing has been fantastic the last couple of days. The Big Hole has about 2 1/2 feet of clarity and remains at a stable flow. We have had good fishing from the upper reaches of the Big Hole all the way down to Notch Bottom. If you want to get into lower flowing water then fish above the Wise River on the Big Hole. You will find some bug activity in the afternoons. We have had hatches of Blue Winged Olives, and March Brown mayflies. Our best fishing has been sub-surface with streamers and nymphs. Yellow Zonkers, Yummies, Sparkle Minnows and Sunrise Sculpzilla’s have been our best streamers. Nymph droppers have been San Juan worms, pheasant tails and lightning bugs. We have a good period of fishing before the next bump in flows. Get out there while it remains good.

Recommended Flies: #10 Purple Haze; #12 X Caddis; #10 Mr. Beam; #10 Skwala Stone; #10 Pat’s Stone Olive/Brown; #8 San Juan Worm; #12 Pheasant Tail; #12 Caddis Pupa; #6 J.J. Special; #4 Smokin’ Mirrors; #4Mr. Creepo

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Fishing has remained very good on the Big Hole.

by sunriseflyshop

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Fishing has remained very good on the Big Hole. We have hatches of Caddis, March Brown’s and Blue Winged Olives. The river is clear and stable at the moment. Streamer fishing has picked up since the water temperatures are getting into the 50’s in the afternoon. The warmer weather in the next few days might start to bump the river so please stay in touch with the latest report by calling the fly shop. We have Big Hole River guides on the river daily with your latest fishing report.

Below is information on our second annual Salmonfly Fest.

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Fishing has been pretty good on the Big Hole lately.

by sunriseflyshop

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Fishing has been pretty good on the Big Hole lately. We did get a bump in flows in the last 24 hours due to snow in the mountains and rain in the valley. The river still remains clear and fishing well but the dry fly fishing might be sacrificed until the water stabilizes. Cool wet weather remains for the rest of the week, which bodes well for dry fly fishing if the river flows don’t continue to rise. Our Big Hole River guides have been catching some very nice fish lately on the Big Hole. The snowpack continues to build and we are setting up for good summer flows if this weather pattern continues.

 

 Sunrise Fly Shop Client with a nice Brown from this week

Recommended Flies: #10 Mr. Beam; #10 Bullett Head Skwala; #10 Skwala Stone; #10 Pat’s Stone Olive/Brown; #8 San Juan Worm; #12 Pheasant Tail; #6 J.J. Special; #4 Smokin’ Mirrors; #4Mr. Creepo

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The Ice off Event

by sunriseflyshop

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Every winter the upper Big Hole River valley freezes over and gets covered by a thick blanket of snow. Some years the ice and snow stacks higher then others. This winter was a cold and snowy winter in the upper Big Hole Valley and we had several days below zero and a healthy above average snowpack at low and high elevations. We experienced the normal spring warm up and the Big Hole valley is in the process of thawing out. This is just the valley snow and ice that is releasing right now. The event every year is involved with ice jams and flooding fields. As you can see from the above hydro graph we have an incredible amount of valley snow and ice to melt off. Some massive ice jams are occurring above East Bank fishing access and Sportsman Fishing access on the upper Big Hole. Once the ice jams release we can start to see a decline in flows and the river will start to clear up. Right now the river is a muddy mess and un-fishable. This is not our peak runoff we experience in late May, this is just the thaw of the valley. We will be reporting soon as things improve. Here are some photos Eric took of the upper Big Hole Valley. Spring fishing on the Big Hole will return once the ice clears and the river drops and gains clarity. April is setting up to be a fantastic month. Here is a link to our Spring Special  

Ice Flows Above East Bank Fishing Access

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Spring Fishing Is Here

by sunriseflyshop

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It is that time of year again and we are looking forward to a great season. A few big Hole River guides got out last Friday and had a good day fishing. This was our first float of the season and the Big Hole is in good shape for mid March. You will find some shelf ice around some banks but it is not bad below Melrose. We have been floating below Melrose and the midges are about all the top water action you will have right now. Streamers and nymphs got all the fish to the boat for us. Clients are coming in tomorrow so we will be updating our reports now regularly. Don’t forget to check out our Spring Special. We are anticipating a great Skwala hatch if water flows stay favorable this spring. The snowpack in the Big Hole is over 100% and the the prediction is for above average precipitation for the months of April, May and June according to the Climate Prediction Center. It is gearing up to be a fine water year in Southwest Montana.

 

Cory with a nice Brown caught a few days ago below Melrose

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Fall is here and we just had a blast of rain in the valley and snow in the high country.

by sunriseflyshop

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Fall is here and we just had a blast of rain in the valley and snow in the high country. Foliage is at it’s peak on the Big Hole right now. Fishing has been very good lately. You will find hatches of Blue Winged Olives and Slate Drakes on the river. Streamers have been working well and the nymphing has been solid. Look for the flows to rise with this Fall storm we are having. The Brown trout are staging to spawn so please do not walk on spawning beds or fish over the spawning areas. We have a large Fall sale going on in the shop: 20% – 40% Off clothing. Please stop in or give us a call if you are interested.

The Wares with a 20 inch brown on their 20th wedding anniversary!

Recommended Flies: #16 Split Wing BWO : #16 BWO Cripple #14 Purple Craze; #14 Comparadun Yellow; #12 Bloom’s Caddis; #12 Purple Chubby; #14 Para Wolf; #14 Psycho Mayfly; #12 Prince Nymph; #10 Pat’s Stone; #14 Pearl Lightning Bug; #14 Red Copper John; #18 Silver Lightning Bug #16 Micro Mayfly;  4 Mini Loop Sculpin; #8 Trevors Sculpin

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Fishing has been excellent lately on the Big Hole.

by sunriseflyshop

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Fishing has been excellent lately on the Big Hole. You will find hatches of Blue Winged Olives and Slate Drakes. Streamer fishing in the overcast weather has been fantastic. Nymphing in the tail outs of runs have also been very good. A large cottonwood tree has fallen about 1/3 of a mile above the Salmonfly take out in Melrose. Below is an image of one of our Big Hole River guides portaging around the tree. We have contacted FWP about the fallen tree. Hopefully it will be removed so you will not have to portage. Please be aware of this obstacle if you are floating above Melrose. 

Recommended Flies: #16 Split Wing BWO : #16 BWO Cripple #14 Purple Craze; #14 Comparadun Yellow; #12 Bloom’s Caddis; #12 Purple Chubby; #14 Para Wolf; #14 Psycho Mayfly; #12 Prince Nymph; #10 Pat’s Stone; #14 Pearl Lightning Bug; #14 Red Copper John; #18 Silver Lightning Bug #16 Micro Mayfly;  4 Mini Loop Sculpin; #8 Trevors Sculpin

 

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