Big Hole River – Near Twin Bridges

September 6, 2008

A great Labor Day weekend on the Beaverhead with not so great of weather was followed by a short work week, then a delightful week in Twin Bridges. Hafferman and I headed to the Big Hole after wearing ourselves on the Ruby River earlier in the day. A warm, calm evening called for bamboo on the lower Big Hole River. It was a bit of a parallel play evening with him working one part of the river and me another.

Water

I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen the rivers of southwestern Montana so full this time of year. The Big Hole was actually higher than comfortable as irrigators cut back during harvest and hay cutting. The reservoirs are high and being drawn down a bit heading into winter.

Fishing

Fishing was slow, but a quiet evening below Pennington Bridge is always pleasant. There’s a big hole below the bridge a couple hundred yards where I’ve picked off fish before. After pitching a streamer in and across the big hole on the Big Hole with the Edwards “Stoddard’s Special” for a few minutes, I finally hooked a nice brown trout, maybe 15-16”. The lighting makes the fish look odd, but it was a beauty.

That was it for fish, but shortly thereafter, as the light faded, I was concentrating working a hole shortly below when a beautiful mink. It crossed the river just below me, noodled around the hole on my side of the river nearby, then eventually swam back across the river and noodled around the riprap opposite where I was standing before disappearing. What a great way to end the evening.