More Nature at Work

[Mike Cline]

I made a couple of early trips to the Big Hole this spring in early April well before runoff. I fished my usual stretches of the river just south of Twin Bridges. Once runoff started, I knew it would be several months before I got back there. Flows finally hit ~ 800 CFS in the area I fish which is just about the upper limit for safe upstream wading with the kayak. So this Sunday, I hit my favorite stretch about 5:30AM, well before sunrise. At the put in, I began to detect immediate changes in the river. The entire bank at the put in had been eroded several feet and large chunks of grass and mud now littered the nice gravel bar where I launched the kayak.

As I waded and fished up river, I anticipated wading up a very productive side channel which held lots of deep pools and runs loaded with big browns. As I approached the entrance to the channel, it was obvious there was no flow in it. At 800CFS, the current should have been strong, but instead, the water was stagnant. Something catastrophic had occurred upstream. The channel allowed upstream travel that by passed a nasty log jam blocking the entire river that required a significant portage.

Portion of the side channel this April (now stagnant)

Skinny spring brown from the channel

Massive log jam blocking passage on Big Hole (2012)
As I travelled upstream toward the log jam, I could detect significant, but subtle changes in the river. There was more or less current in different places, new logs and new channels. As I got within visual range of the old log jam, it wasn’t there any more. It had blown through during runoff.

Where the river once took a sharp 90 degree turn and filtered itself through a mass of logs, it now ran swift and straight. An old aerial reveals it wiped out a significant chunk of shoreline as the river straightened.


Where once there was a log jam

Where once a massive pile of logs diverted the river into a productive side channel. Now gone, the side channel (gravel berm across river) now dried up.

Freshly uprooted Cottonwoods stranded mid stream awaiting the next runoff and next log jam that will change the river.

As I moved up river more and more evidence of the effect of massive runoff became visible. Log jams that diverted current into side channels were gone and the channels dried up. New trees were stranded in midstream causing interesting changes in pools and channels. Another major log jam further upstream had completely blown out and the river downstream looked nothing like it did a year ago. Apart from the fact that we’d lost some very good side channels that allowed more intimate fishing on smaller water, the river changes didn’t affect the fishing. Browns were everywhere and hungry. In truth, it was fun fishing a new river for the first time despite the fact that I’d fished it many times in the past.

Strategy without Tactics is a Slow Route to Victory, Tactics without Strategy is the Noise Before Defeat - Sun Tzu

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