Spence,
but somehow no one kills each other. :)
That may be true but when I used to fish there in the early 1990's it was a nightnmare. Admittedly the fishing was excellent but then the flows were a constant 3000 cfs and that was the first week of August. It was arguably the best nymphing river I had ever fished and the dry fly fishing to both PMD's and black caddis in the evenings was outstanding.
However on more than one occasion I got into arguments with guys when all I wanted to do was walk behind them to go fish below them. One guy, who was facing towards the main flow, told me in no uncertain terms that if I walked behind him he was going to "come over there and stick that rod up your a__. Nice guy.
Another time we were down river about hallway between Three Mile access and Thirteen Mile access where later Orvis bought a lodge that was on river right. There is a long run there and at the head is a shallow shelf and after about 30' the shelf just dropped off to water over my head in depth. Fish would come up on the shelf early and feed and later drop back into deeper water. A San Juan worm and a scud drifted into the deep water always got a strike.
Way down in the tailout, about 80 yards from where we pulled in with our Jon boat (back then a guy rented 10' - 12' Jon boats for about $40 a day) Anyway as soon as we pulled the boat onto the gravel two guys in waders came charging out of the streamside brush over 200' away and came quickly up to where we were and in no uncertain terms told us we could not fish there. They were both guides with clients and said they were having a streamside lunch and wanted to "rest" the run so their clients would do well. (BTW Big Horn guides are infamous for the shuffling they do above their clients so there is a steady stream of nymphs drifting down where the sports are attempting to nymph)
Again we were threatened about what would happen if we started to fish there. I'm not ever going to get into a fight with somebody about a trout and while I might be tall I'm not big and didn't want a bloody nose or a broken tooth so we found other water with no assholes on it. I had fished the Big Hole for four years, always the first week of August, but because of the altercations 1993 was my last year.
I'm in the back, my buddy Jerry is rowing, and another friend Dave is waving his hat.
This big rainbow was hooked at dusk but not landed until full darkness. There is a pool we called the "Hog Hole" on river left about a mile and a half above Three Mile access and just below a long bench. It too had deep water but at the head was a shelf about a foot deep. It was big enough to hold three guys. Sometimes we'd quit dry fly fishing and pull in there at dusk and get into position of the shelf with a 4X tippet and a San Juan worm and no BB. Just spit on the fly and cast it out onto that shelf and follow the drift with your rod tip and hang on and be ready for a solid strike. Great fun.
This is pretty much an average rainbow back in the 1990 - 1993 time frame.