a year ago and a few days the Big Hole River at Melrose was at 11,800 cfs and today it is at 1100 cfs. What a difference a year makes in an undammed Montana river. We will see how the flows go....
Left early this morning and put in a Notch Bottom and floated to Pennington. So it is not quite July and we are throwing hoppers in clear water on the Big Hole. Started out sort of slow and just got better as the day went on. Some very nice fish but no real big ones but there is much to be said for a trout eating a grasshopper. Sometimes it is an attack.
In the lower sections there are channels blocked by trees from last years flows so a little local knowledge will keep you from going places from which the return will be long and arduous, drift boats were meant to go downstream and dragging them upstream is a huge pain in the ass.
Stopped in one little back channel for lunch and got three nice trout in a riffle....bam, bam, bam....so they are moving to more oxygenated water already and then there are those that must be eating grass they are so tucked into the bank.
