Fun With Weather. A “summer” excursion to Montana’s Big Hole

The boys got into their famous grouse and this is how the day began for the D-Sum.

Ah, late spring, almost early summer and here comes Memorial Day Weekend in the Pacific Northwest—with all the rain and snow that it’s known for.

So there we were last Saturday, heading to the Big Hole River with the temperature gauge stuck at 33 degrees. In Divide we stop to see Al Lefor at Great Divide Outfitters. I load up on streamers, some 2X and a bottle, for whatever reason, of Super Float. Lefor rings it up quickly enough, but he knows as well as we do, there won’t be any dry fly action today. We agree to a shuttle, ask if our float is too long or too short and Al replies, “It’s fine as long as you have lots of clothes.”

Outside the wind has kicked in and the sleet is sliding sideways. At the put-in it’s blowing harder and for six hours the snow doesn’t stop. It’s not cold enough for it to accumulate so it just falls on our heads and backs. For me that isn’t too big of a problem because I’m decked out in a brand new Sonic Pro rainjacket from Redington. It’s my first real test of the material and it’s beading up the water like mallard feathers. Johnny isn’t so happy because his old tan jacket is absorbing liking a sponge. And old D-Sum up front, casting from the bow, he’s got a decent jacket but he’s freezing anyway. We ask a few times, as he’s shaking hands and head saying, “Gawd, I’m cold, if he really is alright. At times he’s just hunched in the front, not casting and not talking.

The fish don’t come steady, but they’re pretty good ones. Fifteens, sixteens, maybe a seventeen. They all eat streamers. By the takeout we’re ready to be off the water and that’s where I’ll end the story because…that’s where my images end. Suffice to say we saddled up, had a shot or two and ended with a Moscow Mule. Memorial Day Weekend in the Northwest boys, cold and hot. Enjoy the pics.

Well, we're here. Might as well fish. Heck yea we'll fish. And we'll love it.

Little feller.

Fightin' one.

Gopher dies.

We did not do this.

Headed home on Sunday.

 

 

 

 

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