Archive for 'Nymphs in rivers' Category
Fly Fishing Maiden Rock: Big Hole River Montana
29 February 2008Big Hole River - guided by Jim Stibbs, Monday Sept. 7th
A bright and frosty morning!
The day was clear and cloudless with excellent visibility in the clean air.
We drove to Maiden Rock via Salmon Fly on the Big Hole with Jim ( took about 11/2 hrs) and stopped at a small tackle shop when I bought a map of the Big Hole and some strike indicator (adhesive type).
Patty fished with Jim and did very well catching a number of white fish and a cutthroat at the first stop.
She also lost a good sized Rainbow.
The technique both of us used was long line nymphing with a split shot and strike indicator.
Shot were placed around 12″ from fly with indicator about 8 feet from shot (further from shot if in doubt).
I finished the run Patty fished for a short time after lunch and caught a beautifully coloured 20″ Brown (11/2 lbs) - deep yellow belly and fins with amazing spots.
Photograph of Big Hole River from Montana fishing reports.
This pool was a long deep ( 5 feet? ) not too fast flowing. The speed of the current enabled the nymph ( flashback Hare’s Ear again ) to sink deeply by the time the indicator had travelled around 7 metres.
I earlier caught a Brown of around 12″ in the shallow riffle and later caught a 14″ Rainbow in the deep run of the ripple. We moved to a spot further downstream which really was a classic double riffle running into long deep runs. There were occasional rises to BWO and Patty caught a good number of whitefish on dry fly (sparkle dun - no hackle upright wing). She also managed a brown and a rainbow all on dry. I only caught 1 whitefish on nymph (flashback). The classic nature of the river was evidenced by the straight run riffle down a deep channel allowing both sides of the ripple to be fished.
