ChuckNGaleRobbins.com
Montana’s Best Kept Secret
By Chuck Robbins
The Big Hole’s fabulous mid-June Salmon Fly Fest is sure to draw a crowd. But early spring features solitude and big trout on the prowl…H’mm, crowd free, big trout, seems like a no brainer, ey?
Perhaps the best-kept secret in the West is the great early spring fly-fishing southwest Montana’s Big Hole River offers. In a valley better known for its Ice Age-like winters, many anglers assume the river's trout don't wake up until the Salmon Flies hit town sometime in mid-June. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Ice-out normally occurs mid- to late March and Salmon Flies have an uncanny way of popping just as snowmelt runoff peaks—generally mid June. This leaves a huge window of opportunity for anglers willing to dance around often fickle springtime weather for the chance at casting flies to bigger than average trout, hungry to get back into fighting shape following the typically long, cold and lean winter. Generally speaking, streamers and nymphs produce most consistently but skwala stonefly, blue wing olive (baetis), midge, caddis, and March brown hatches provide ample opportunities for top-water action throughout the period. Better yet competition is scarce; more often than not you have the river to yourself or close enough anyway.
The River
The river runs for 188 miles, Skinner Meadows, high in the Beaverhead Mountains southwest of Jackson, to the confluence the Beaverhead River a mile or so north of Twin Bridges. For fishing purposes the river can be divided into four sections: Upper, Upper: Skinner Meadows to Squaw Creek Bridge; Upper: Squaw Creek Bridge to Jerry Creek Bridge; Middle: Jerry Creek Bridge to Browne’s Bridge; Lower: Browne’s Bridge to confluence Beaverhead River near Twin Bridges.
Skinner Meadows to Twin Bridges the river drops from about 7000 to 4500 feet elevation. Obviously winter comes earlier and stays later up river so the best bet in early spring is to start your adventures down low and work up as spring gains a firmer grip. This past season (2006) serves as good example: Ice out on the lower river occurred pretty much on schedule, open water by end of March. However, the upper river remained locked in ice until about April 10th. When it let loose a huge ice jam formed at Dickie Bridge (just above Wise River) backing up the river until eventually spilling over flooding the entire river corridor. April 15th the jam let loose, scouring the river below and effectively killing off the early spring fishing for about a week. Moral of story: Early spring conditions can and do change literally overnight. Maintain a flexible schedule and always check first before making anything like a long trip.
Squaw Creek to Jerry Creek offers anglers the best chance to achieve the coveted Big Hole Slam—brook, brown, cutthroat, rainbow, Arctic grayling and mountain whitefish in a single day; and early spring is prime time. For instance last spring, just three days apart, two clients came close, netting five of the six; one failed to net a brown, while the other struck out on whitefish of all things. (FYI, whities here are almost as numerous as slippery rocks…almost). Brookies, grayling, and whitefish, with a smattering of cutthroat dominate the upper reaches, but there are plenty of rainbows. (Author note: Even to my layman’s eye most appear to be cuttbow hybrids, but for the sake of argument, [heaven forbid you should be a contender for the Slam] it wears the signature red throat slash, then by God and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.) Hefty browns, apparent leftovers from the fall spawning run, show up frequently, especially around the mouths of tributaries. While not a factor in early spring be aware once runoff ends upper river flows tend to drop drastically and in dry years the summer fishing here can be pretty grim. In recent years miles of the upper river have been shut down to fishing for several weeks due to low summer flows and dangerously high water temperatures.
Many of the biggest trout fall to streamers—buggers, Yuk Bugs, JJ Specials, bunny leeches and such— but nymphs and dries usually produce the most consistent action.
Lacking a hatch its tough to beat a pair of nymphs rigged five or six feet or so below a strike indicator. Limited to just two patterns a #10 Pat’s Rubber Legs and a similar sized red San Juan Worm would be my picks. Though my nymph box contains a good selection of bead head and standard nymph patterns—Prince, PT, Hare’s Ear, Micro-may, Bloody Mary, Copper John, etc., in a variety of sizes and variations.
All of the hatches mentioned above occur in this stretch of river. While the trout aren’t known for fussy, they do sometimes have their moments. With that in mind my dry fly box always contains a good selection of mayfly, caddis, midge and stonefly imitations, as well as attractor patterns such as Stimulator, PMX, Purple Haze, Royal Wulff. Though it’s always best to check the local fly shops to find out what’s hot at the moment.
Browne’s Bridge to Twin Bridges fishes well throughout the early spring season. Well-known for harboring trout best measured in pounds, in recent seasons overall numbers of brown trout, 18-inches and larger, have declined somewhat. However, despite the decline, actually more one of those down but not out situations, the lower river remains a favorite haunt of big trout specialists; the most dedicated on an almost daily basis from ice out through early summer. Tossing huge, heavily-weighted streamers these guys’ net browns most of us see only in our dreams. Make no mistake; this is tough, demanding fishing. Near-misses tend to outnumber actual hook-ups by a wide margin. And, as we all know, no guarantees a hooked trout will end up in the net, not by a long shot. In other words there exists the very real possibility of working your butt all day and still tasting skunk—the sort of fly fishing requires a bit more faith and perseverance than most of us possess. But for those who dream really big brown trout you could do far worse than chucking and ducking the lower Big Hole.
For those of us inclined to more mundane pursuits everything said about the upper river goes here, except that browns and whitefish rule with lesser numbers rainbows; brookies, cutts and grayling are few and far between. Fly patterns and tactics listed for the upper river work here also. Like the upper river this section suffers during dry summers. Irrigation demands combined with overall dry country (actually high desert) to begin with tend to reduce summer flows drastically.
This brings us to the middle river, Jerry Creek Bridge to Browne’s Bridge. When you talk Big Hole this is the stretch most anglers relate and where you are most likely to encounter early season competition. So what sets this section apart from the others? In a word, habitat. Particularly the canyons—Dewey, Divide and Maiden Rock—provide the most diverse (best) habitat. From Jerry Creek to Divide, rainbows tend to dominate although there are good numbers of browns and, of course, whitefish. “The rainbow trout stronghold is above Divide,” says Dick Oswald, FWP biologist in Dillon, adding, “though the Melrose area produces its share mature rainbows. Between Wise River and Divide, the combination healthy tributaries and little irrigation withdrawal means flows and water temperatures hang in there a little better than in other places. The aquatic system, including insects, functions better here than anywhere else on the Big Hole.” Simply stated, good habitat—a healthy mix of cold water, riffles, rapids, deep runs and pools, lots of big rocks and log jams—produces more bugs, more and larger trout on average. Bottom line: better fishing.
Fly patterns listed for the other sections work here also. In between hatches most local guides rely on a pair weighted nymphs drifted beneath a strike indicator. So common among Dillon guides, it’s hatched a local joke: “Bugs thick, trout rising all around, here comes a Dillon guide, bobbers adrift, oblivious to it all.” But there are those make a career of sorts fishing the canyons, stripping streamers and chucking dry flies almost exclusively. Al Lefor, Great Divide Outfitters, is a good example. Testing the waters early with streamers, switching to dries once the river warms a bit, you can bet the farm when he drags out the nymph box prospects are grim and only expected to get worse.
Float or Wade
Montana’s Stream Access Law affords anglers access to any stream, so long as access is gained from a public point (highway, county road, bridge crossing, public lands, state owned fishing access sites, etc.) and stay below the high water mark. In this regard the Big Hole is blessed. Both wade and float fishing access is good throughout. The river above Squaw Creek is the last to wake up and largely unfloatable anytime (small with numerous obstructions); below Squaw Creek is all floatable. There are 16 official Fishing Access Sites (watch for the brown and white signs) in addition to numerous other public access points.
Wade fishing is difficult throughout thanks to a river bottom lined with what must be among the slipperiest rocks on the planet. The canyon sections are by far the worst. High water warrants extreme caution but felt soles, stream cleats (not in the boat please) and a wading staff are a good idea anywhere.
Given that stumbling around on slippery rocks has somehow lost its appeal, float fishing gets my vote. Exceptions are high (above 3000 cfs) and low (below 300) flows, both mute points early-on, however, as flow rates through March, April and early May generally range in the rather benign neighborhood of 400-500 cfs. In other words on the low side but okay, doable even for rookies. Current flow rates can be found on the web at http://waterdata.usgs.gov/mt/nwis/current?type=flow or by calling any of the local fly shops (see sidebar). As you might already suspect the Big Hole just happens to be my favorite river to float—plentiful launch sites, varied water, scenic, lots of wildlife to gawk and the fishing…Well, I’m sure you get my drift. Distances between launch sites vary and floats can be arranged to suit just about any schedule. Area fly shops provide shuttles for a reasonable fee. (For further info see sidebar).
Minor Tactics
Armed with 8 ½ or 9-foot, 4, 5 or 6-weight rods, workable reels, floating fly lines, tapered leaders, 2, 3 and 4X tippet, a bobber or two, split shot of various sizes, a good selection of fly patterns (see above or the side bar) you are set.
As a general rule early spring mornings typically start out chilly and trout, being cold-blooded, tend toward lethargic. Streamers fished slow and deep, with or without a nymph trailer (18 inches or so is about right) often provide a wake-up call. Vary the pattern, add or subtract weight and presentation until you find the right combination, then stick with until the trout tell you otherwise. Many times just a subtle variation—size color, add a shot or two—does it, other times its more a presentation thing. For instance, start by casting down and across, let the fly(s) swing around; next cast bounce the rod tip a few times during the swing; then toss in hand-twist retrieve. Next pick up, strip off a little more line and do it again, only this time use a short-strip, pause, long-strip, pause retrieve, and so on. No dice add a little weight, change patterns and repeat same. In a general sense the colder the water the slower the retrieve. Also it pays to add or subtract weight as necessary to keep the flies down near the bottom—especially in cold water trout are often reluctant to move up in the water column. The point is to keep switching gears. Worst thing is to keep plugging away something isn’t working in the first place.
Here’s how I rig nymphs: Overall the leader should be about as long as the rod ending in 3X or 4X tippet and a pair of nymphs 12-18 inches apart; weight in between the nymphs or six inches or so above the top nymph. In high-water or deep, fast runs it seems to help to rig the nymphs on short (3-4 inch) tags (off a blood knot) 12-18 inches apart, with weight on a third tag 6 inches or so below the bottom nymph. Regardless how the nymphs are rigged, fasten a strike indicator (bobber), yarn or corky style, above (five or six feet is a good starting point). Most urgent is to add whatever weight necessary to keep the nymphs on the bottom. A wise man once observed “the difference between a great day nymphing and a skunking is often one measly split shot.” Strive for drag free drifts, anything less is largely a waste of time.
The secret to successful dry fly fishing starts with the leader. Generally, 10-11 feet overall works in most situations; adjust tippet diameter and length to the size and wind resistance of the fly. In other words, shorter and stouter for big, air-resistant attractors, long and skinny for smaller, less wind resistant patterns—4X, 5X and 6X are most useful for dry fly work and fluorocarbon offers a distinct edge in low /clear water conditions. Limited to just one cast I’d work to perfect my reach cast. Done properly the reach allows for pinpoint presentations, drag free drifts and fussy trout get to see the fly instead of the leader first; often the difference between catching or not. Big Hole trout are not usually pattern selective or leader shy but sure don’t cotton unnatural drag.
Regardless the rig—streamer, nymph, dry—strive to make each cast different—lengthen the cast, move a step or two, change the angle, change the retrieve, etc. The only exceptions are when casting to visible fish—rising, feeding, resting underneath, whatever. Beyond mastering the basics—casting, wading, reading the water, fly selection etc.—the hardest thing for beginners to grasp is to keep moving, make the first shot count, then move on. As I like to say, “When the fishing’s fast move slow, when the fishing’s slow move fast, above all “keep moving.”
Side Bar
Tackle and Gear:
8 ½ or 9 foot rods, 4, 5, 6-weight, floating lines, tapered leaders, 2-5X tippet. Chest waders, felt-soled wading shoes, stream cleats (not in the boat please) wading staff. Weather changes quickly, come prepared for anything, hot one day snow the next, never leave the raincoat in the truck.
Useful Early Spring Fly Patterns:
Streamers: Woolly Buggers (olive, brown, black, pumpkin, yellow), Yuk Bugs, Bunny Leech (various colors), Egg Sucking Leech, Yummies in sizes 2-10.
Nymphs: Prince, Copper John, Pheasant-tail, Bloody Mary, Micro-mayfly, Girdle Bug, Bitch Creek, Skwala stone. Should all else fail a #10 Pat’s Rubber Legs (brown) and a #10 San Juan Worm.
Dries/Emergers: Adams (parachute and standard), Elk-hair caddis, Purple Haze, Skwala Stone, Stimulator, PMX, BWO, March Brown, Flash Cripple, Griffth’s Gnat, Royal Wulff.
Check locally for current hot patterns and tactics.
Local Fly Shops:
Great Divide Outfitters, Divide, 406-267-3346; Tom Smith Backcountry Angler, Dillon, 406-683-3462; Montana Fly Co., Melrose, 406-835-2621; Trout Fitters, Wise River, 406-832-3175; Sunrise Fly Shop, Melrose, 406-835-3474; Uncle Bob’s Outdoors, Dillon, 406-683-2692; Frontier Anglers, Dillon, 406-683-5276.
Useful Books:
Flyfisher’s Guide to Montana, Chuck Robbins, Wilderness Adventures Press (2005); Montana’s Best Fishing Waters (Maps), Wilderness Adventures Press (2006).