Mother's Day Archives - Wolf Creek Angler

Missouri River Mother’s Day

Just over a week into the month of May and things are busy as ever on the MO.

Some mornings it’s already been feeling like June with a steady stream of traffic in and out of the shop from doors open to around 11 AM.

Lodging is off and on with a full house some nights and a ghost town on others but usually somewhere in between.

Shuttles have been hard to plan for with a handful one day and hitting max capacity the next and while spring usually means a bunch of shuttles at the dam, traffic has been moving around a lot.

One day it feels like we’ve already entered the grind phase of the season, the next might be crickets or close to it.

Such is springtime on the MO.

As indicated by the movement of guide trip traffic, fishing has been solid river-wide with good nymphing most anywhere you go and localized dry fly opportunities ranging from waning BWO events to the old standby midge fishing and most recently loads of Caddis, particularly in the canyon stretch and a few March Browns in the mix making things interesting. More of this please!

Streamer fishing continues to be worth your time though I wouldn’t say this has ranked as one of our better spring streamer seasons. There have been some great browns chasing the streamer and some nice fish landed, but overall, I’d rate the streamer fishing a solid Meh…and that’s coming from someone who lives for this time of year as it relates to said streamers, so it pains me to say it.

You’ve heard it already and you will hear it again but for all sorts of reasons we need some water on the MO (and most every other river in the state of Montana). It doesn’t look like it’s going to happen this year, and we’ll be fine, but as we look beyond the current season, I for one have already added a daily appeal to the higher power for a real winter and an abundance of water in 2027 so if we see high water next year you’ll know why!

Just a few days left for our Mother’s Day Wader and Boot Sale which ends on Sunday. Forty percent OFF ALL WOMEN’S WADERS AND WADING BOOTS! This is in conjunction with our Spring Wader and Boot Sale running through Memorial Day with all waders and boots 20 percent off.

If you’re spending Mother’s Day on the MO stop by the shop for bugs and shuttles and pick up some new waders and boots for mom at the best prices you’ll see in 2026.

Springtime is in Full Bloom, and it looks like a gorgeous weekend ahead with sunny skies and temps in the 70’s tomorrow and Saturday. We will hit 80 on Mother’s Day with more of the same on tap for next week. Highs in the 70’s, overnight lows in the 40 and plenty of sunshine. It doesn’t get much better!

New Shop Hours starting Monday, May 11th. 7 AM – 5 PM Daily.

Weekend Outlook

If you’ve been waiting for spring to take hold it looks like this is the weekend it’s going to happen.

The warm-up is underway and while we may see some scattered showers and thunderstorms today it looks like we’re in for a gorgeous Mother’s Day weekend with plenty of sunshine and highs reaching into the 70’s tomorrow and near 80 on Sunday and Monday.

We’re expecting a VERY BUSY weekend on the MO.

Blue Wing Olives and March Browns are popping and these past couple of days we’ve actually had the opportunity to target a few rising fish. The water is still on the chilly side at 44 degrees but with the warm up underway we’re expecting the fishing to heat up this weekend. We may even start to see some Caddis soon if we’re lucky so be prepared.

Nymphing will continue to be where the numbers are at but dry fly season is upon us so bring your dry fly rigs and your A Game and get back to hunting heads on the MO. It’s been too long! Sprout Baetis, Olive Para Adams, Flash Cripples, Wilcox’s Micromay BWO and Quigley’s Film Critic are all good calls. We’re stocked up with more BWO patterns than you can shake a stick at and we’ve also got plenty of options for your March Brown and Caddis offerings.

If you’re going to stick with nymphing keep rolling the tailwater sows, pill poppers, Yum Yums, Firebead Rays, Cotton Candies, Pederson’s Sow, Soft Hackle Sow etc but you’d do well to mix in some baetis nymphs like LGM’s, Psycho Mays, Redemptions, Radiation Baetis, LB’s, PT’s, Split Case BWO’s, Olive 2 bits….I could go on and on. And don’t forget the weight flies, Tung Darts, UV Czech Caddis etc as Caddis pupae will soon be in the mix. You might even want to try the Zirdle…just sayin’.

Streamer fishing has FINALLY started to heat up. These next two to three weeks could be PRIME TIME. Fish your favorites, get em’ deep and give them some life. Strip fast with plenty of pauses, both short strips and long and make them irresistible with plenty of aggressive twitches.
Sure you might prefer a little less sun but from the WCA eternal optimist perspective you couldn’t ask for much better conditions than what we’re going to see this weekend.

Flows are holding at around 9,000 CFS and are projected to continue to drop throughout the month of May. The latest Intel from the Bureau of Reclamation has us likely holding around 7500 CFS for the months of May and June. Max probable has us at 10,000 in May with a peak just over 12K in June and minimum probability has us at 6500 CFS this month and down to 4000 in June. Looking beyond June we’ll likely see flows holding somewhere in the 5,000 CFS range for the remainder of the summer season. Sounds good to us.

Snow pack is still holding around 100 percent throughout much of the region. A little higher in the Yellowstone drainage and right around 90 percent for the Missouri main stem. Now as we’ve made clear in the past precipitation is the X factor when predicting spring flows. Should we see a bunch of rain then all bets are off but from where we sit conditions seem favorable for a damn good water year. Not too high, not too low. The wade anglers would of course like to see those flows in the minimum probable range but if we do see flows in the 6-7K range as is being predicted there will be plenty of wade fishing opportunities.

We’ve got limited lodging available through the weekend and into next week though things are filling fast so don’t wait too long to make your plans.

We’ve got guides available most days and we’ve also got Adipose Drift boat rentals if you prefer to do it yourself.

Missouri River fly fishing trips make the perfect Mother’s Day present (depending on the mom) and we’ve also got plenty of other gift ideas from Simms waders, boots and sportswear to packs, tools, accessories and of course….flies.

We’d be more than happy to assemble an assortment of Missouri River bugs for mom. Through this weekend we’ll throw in a free WCA fly box when you purchase three dozen flies or more.

We wish all the moms out there a Happy Mother’s Day and we hope to see moms and dads and kids alike on the MO this fine weekend.