Big Hole River Brown Trout

Floated the Montana’s Big Hole River on Friday, a trip that I try to take on an annual basis every May. It’s not a time when you’ll get big numbers, but that’s rarely the case high on the Big Hole, above Wise River.

We managed a half-dozen brook trout, some with beautiful coloration and white tipped fins, plus one solid 16-inch, high-jumping rainbow, and a great brown trout that stretched past 20 and gave me a good battle. It ate an olive deer-hair head sculpin that I’m fond of, but we couldn’t find any more big browns that were looking up.

Upper Big Hole on Friday.

Beer and fried chicken? Is there a better midday snack. We smelled that chicken from the Albertson's parking lot in Anaconda and knew what we'd be chewing on later.

Great day to be on the water, however, and we made the float before flows bounced up a bit this weekend. We’re seeing cool evenings in Montana, but hot days. So the rivers are bouncing then dropping on a daily basis. Drove over the Clark Fork tonight and it had a blueish hue. I’ll check it again tomorrow to see if light and my mind were playing tricks. Good time to be on the water in Montana if you can find water with decent visibility. A couple shots from the weekend.

D-Sumn chilling at lunch with an Olivia #3.

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