Sorry to confuse you folks out there buts it’s Spring Sting not Springsteen. I can understand the confusion, especially when you say it fast enough. Needless to say we won’t be talking about The Boss, New Jersey’s favorite son. Instead I feel the need to address a feeling I’m sure many of you are sharing with me at this time. It took W.C.A guide, beer slinger and all around bearded, flannel clad hippie trout-bum Matt Hargrave to put to words that I’ve been battling with internally for the past two or so weeks. It’s the Spring Sting, that feeling you get when you’ve been pent-up in the canyon for close to eight months, the weather is reminiscent of my time in Southeast Alaska, it’s cold, my waders still leak and fishing options are limited because gauges across the state look a lot like, well sort of what you would expect with the warmer weather last week, crap. The good news my friends, looks can be deceiving.
Not only are the gauges reporting higher water now across the state, so are all the guides pouring in from North, South, East & West. Muddy from the Madi, to the Foot, Fork, Root, Stone, Hole and most other waters in between. Sitting in the shop, watching the rain fall, looking at gauges and weather when things quiet down, I can’t help but feel there’s a glimmer of hope if you’re like me and want to hit a something a little different, of the freestone variety. Let me explain. Notice the gauges pictured. We’ve got
the Clark Fork near Garrison on the left 
and the Blackfoot near Helmville on the right. You can see on both gauges that on the 20th / 21st both are on the rise and by the 25th things have mostly leveled out. I know it does’t sound like long and it’s different for every stretch, but you’d be suprised how three days of even flow can change a river for the best. Now I’m not saying conditions will be prime but I assure you there’s a stark contrast between fishable and prime. It’s pretty obvious muddy water doesn’t fish that well but don’t be afraid of the off-color water. Again, big difference between chocolate milk, crappy coffee and weak tea. As river levels even out and even start dropping, clarity generally improves. Again, every stretch is different and specific results may vary.
What I’m getting at here is , again, if you’re like me and need to scratch the itch, scratch it. The worst thing that’ll happen is that you’ll probably learn something about a piece of water you never knew before. These oases of dropping and clearing water will happen throughout runoff depending on the weather, and many fish tend to take advantage of them. Focus on the cut banks, pocket water and slower runs. Off color water normally means nymphs or streamers until the stoneflies show up, for the most part. Darker and bigger usually produce the best. Time to break out the worms, turds and big streamers and get after it before runoff really(?) begins. Best of luck to all you out there switching up the tail-waters for the big boulder gardens and bucket water.
~Cheers, Chewy.
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