Summer Days on the Missouri

Well it’s official….summer is here! Today is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year.

Will you spend it casting to rising trout on the Missouri River from dawn until dusk?

We’ve had some summer-like weather these past few days but it’s about to cool down. We will see below average temps in the low to mid 60’s for the next several days before summer sets in early next week with abundant sunshine and much more seasonable temps in the high 70’s and 80’s.

We’ve received a fair amount of calls over the past couple of days concerning the flows. People are understandably concerned about high water. The flow at the time of this writing is 9160 and the latest word from the Bureau of Reclamation which we received yesterday is as follows;

CURRENT RESERVOIR CONDITIONS: Elevation: 3796.55  Storage: 1,876,908 acre-feet;  River Release: 9,500 cfs;  Inflow: 13,100 cfs;

Canyon Ferry Reservoir releases will continue to be reduced.  Flows on the Missouri River below Holter Dam will be maintained to near 8,400 cfs.  In response, the following operation changes are required at Canyon Ferry Dam and Powerplant.   

What can you expect for these next couple of weeks?
I would think a continued gradual reduction in flows would be a safe bet barring another major rain event which would obviously trigger another increase as Canyon Ferry is very near capacity.
The good news is that the dry fly fishing has been nothing short of exceptional over the past week or so in spite of fluctuations up and down in the flows. Some have found it to be better than it’s been in years with bugs a plenty of lots of rising fish. Bring your A Game and expect good things.
Is it wadable? Yes. Are wading conditions ideal? Perhaps not, but if you know where to go you shouldn’t have any problems finding places to wade and if not then we’ve got boats available to deliver you to where the fish are.
The water is in great shape, the fish are healthy, happy and hungry and while we realize that many are disappointed with these conditions we just want to assure you that this is all great for the health of the river and the fishery. Many were hoping for the two to three day flushing flows of 15K or more which we haven’t seen but several days near 12K certainly didn’t hurt.
Consider just a few examples of the bright side of things. 1. Bugs   2. Rising Fish 3. Clean Water 4. Other rivers dropping which is reducing angling pressure on the MO’.
Some of your favorite wading spots may be out of reach at these flows but there are other spots and there are other options if you insist on fishing your favorite spots.
Happy Summer Solstice! We’ll see you soon at Wolf Creek Angler!