June 21, 2025

Summer is officially here with the longest day of the year behind us! However, the weather sure doesn’t seem like summer. Southwest Montana is experiencing a quick cold snap with a good amount of precipitation in the forecast. Which should prolong our season of fishing on the Big hole! Now to get into the fishing….

Beaverhead River: The Beaverhead River has continued to produce plus sized fish on the upper stretch of the river. Hot flies between the Clark Canyon Dam and High Bridge continue to be soft hackle sow bugs along with smaller PMD nymphs. Things should start fishing even better than now between the dam to high bridge with the PMD hatch starting to show a few duns on the surface, I would predict that we are at least a week out from the premier hatch on the Beaverhead showing in significant numbers. If you haven’t experienced the PMD hatch on the Beaverhead, you need to! Fishing has been best from High Bridge to Barretts, fish are on the prowl for yellow sally and PMD nymphs through this section with some caddis nymphs taking below Grasshopper fishing access. Wading is challenging through this section with flows around 680 cfs.

Big Hole River: The Big Hole river has been fishing really solid the last few days, seems like fish are finally starting to get hungry again after gorging themselves on salmon and golden stone flies. There are still some residual stones flying around but the hatch has past its prime. The prevalent hatches on the river currently are caddis, yellow sally’s, and Pale Morning Duns. Hot flies remain to be tan and black turds (pats rubber legs), large frenchies, and pheasant tails. Also, don’t be afraid to continue throwing large dry droppers set ups, fish are still looking up!

That is what we got going on in our area, we are open every day from 7am-6pm, hope to see you soon!

– Colin Crawford

Frontier Anglers Shop Dude/Guide