Courtesy of Dave Brown
Fishing has been good latley. Of course it’s all perspective. The DIY wading folks have been liking it…mostly. They like the water level and the bugs and the fish. They didn’t like the wind that much. They have a different perspective on why they fly fish and they come out here for various different reasons. Some guys like to find that picky fish laying in a tricky current, others are here to get the fish in the faster stuff, etc, etc.
If you like fishing out of the boat and you’re more of an all around type, you’re going to like it a lot. You can nymph down until you see heads, throw streamers at the bank or on shallower flats until you find fish looking up, or just go on a boat ride until you find what you’re looking for.
River traffic has been manageable. The Bozeman and Missoula crowd are starting to stay closer to home with their rivers coming into shape. We haven’t seen the heavy summer traffic yet. The pleasure floaters are pretty sparse right now as well.
Have not seen as many PMD’s as previous days, but I think that had more to do with the wind than anything else. Down in the canyon I’ve been seeing tons of caddis. Fairly large clouds of caddis swirling just above the surface. They are not on the water yet…hopefully soon though. Few little yellow sallies. We may see more this week as the mercury begins to rise. Not that the LYS is a major food source for the Missouri River trout, but it’s cool to see them filling the sky.
I finally got a chance to do some fishing on my own. Went out with my buddy Dave Brown Saturday. It was windy, but you gotta go if that’s the only chance you’re going to get for a while. Dave is a mad scientist when it comes to fishing. I learn new stuff every time I go out with him. Streamer fishing started off slow. We did the cast to the bank strip-strip-strip back to the boat. Then cast to bank, strip-strip pause back to the boat. Finally Dave says, “I’m going to try something new here on the retrieve”. And of course it works. We fished this unorthodox retrieve all day and caught enough fish and had enough grabs and flashes to make it fun. Dave’s a fun guy to fish with, he’s been guiding and outfitting for twenty something years and he stills giggles and laughs just thinking about how he’s going to catch the next fish.
Fly selection hasn’t changed much from previous post. With the exception that a light Peep Show has been getting it done for me. But, different flies work for different people.
We may see another bump in flows, nothing crazy. Canyon Ferry is full so they may (or may not) evacuate some water for space.
Going to be a good summer here on the Missouri! Be sure to stay tuned!—Matt
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