Boulder River – Absaroka Mountains

May 2008

I fished the main fork of the Boulder River south of Big Timber, Montana, for two days over Memorial Day. This holiday weekend is in the record books as the wettest on record. Billings’ record rainfall was bested by 50%. It rained much of that Sunday and Monday, but was half decent up against the mountains on the main fork.

Water

All the rivers were high and most were the consistency of chocolate milk. The Yellowstone, East Fork, and West Fork of the Boulder River were not fishable by my standards. The main fork was high, but fairly clear. The first day (Sunday), Jo accompanied me to Two Mile Bridge and took a couple shots. The second day I was by myself just above the Natural Bridge. The gentler stretch shown here is that area. It’s a bit ominous fishing above where the river disappears underground to reappear shooting out of a rock wall and into a largely inaccessible chasm.

Fishing

Fishing was good on May 25th and slow on Memorial Day. Below Two Mile Bridge, I caught several small Brook Trout just below the big rock in the center of the river shown in the pictures and further upstream under the bridge. I hooked a nice size fish under the bridge unexpectedly and about went head first into the river from the rock I was balance on. LDR’ed that big fellow.