MO-the rest of the week (8,000-6500)

The water continued to drop around 500 cfs a day.  The PMD hatch began to wane, and the afternoon fishing was better than the morning, and the evenings were better than the afternoons.  On the 28th and 29th, it was pretty tough all day except for the last couple of hours.  Fish beat to death coupled with declining pmd's left short windows in selected spots.  The afternoon float was pretty good on the 25th and 26th though.  Bank and channel feeders loving the spinner.   Caddis were also being eaten, especially in the afternoons and evenings.  Broke an oar lock on the boat on the last float day, but came up with a fix using an extra strap to row the last couple miles.  Always carry a couple extra straps!

 

 

 

Love the bank feeders

 

 

 

 

 

 

They loved this PMD Partridge and Yellow

 

 

 

It got me to the take-out, fishing all the way!

 

Last fish, last cast, last evening! 

 

Oh MO. High Water Madness (8500 cfs)

Here we go again.  Running out of adjectives.  But this year is different.  The normal spots, flats, islands, and channels are under water.  The grass and willows are under water or have water flowing through them.  There are channels that usually only look like water was there in a flood.  Now they have fish rising.  And so does the whole damn river.  PMD madness.  Pods of fish, single fish, lines of fish.  Crowded, of course, but everybody's casting to fish.  This is only from day one, and I chose to float to Craig, but only really fished three spots.  I passed thousands of rising fish on the float.  One of those "know when to say when" days on the MO.  Physically, I hate to say I just can't keep catching these fish all day either.  Age sucks.  Got backing?  Better have.  Hottest fish in the west, and then throw in the high water, and off they go!  Never saw a fish under 16 inches, most 18-20.  Sometimes it was literally, a fish a cast.  Lost count early on.  Oh, and forget the early shit.  Bankers hours.  Hatch starts at 10, goes until dark.  I launched at 7:30, and made it until about 3:30 today. 

 

I'm still working on the underwater picture thing.  If there was one thing not quite perfect today, it was the clouds.  Poor picture light, but the sunny days will prevail.  And I'll get better at the underwater shots I hope.

Fish in the grass--That's where they are

 

Caddis are back! 

 

 

Usually dry, now a fishy channel

 

 

The boat goes in grass, not on a gravel bar

 

 

Ma and Pa's riffle, deep and covered up.

 

 

Still a few wadeable spots

 

 

As usual for MO PMD's

 

The little spooky channel, a river runs through it.

 

 

Smashed and Trimmed Lt. Cahill-Fly Of The Day by far.  They're gobbling spinners!

 

A little bit of California Island showing.

 

 

Just killer along the island between Barb Wire and Lone Tree

 

 

It worked too

Getting closer to that in/out shot I'm looking for.

 

Rough Start--Henry's and the Beav. 6-17 6-21

Well, this isn't what the book says, or all the experience over the years.  What is it they say, "its just nice to be out here," "the weather sure is comfortable,"  "better than working."  Right.

 

The flow on the Fork is a perfect, knee-high 850 with no weeds.  Water is clear.  Not excessively crowded for the opener.  Bugs?  What bugs?  Something's out of whack.  (First morning, I saw one fish rise, cast to it, caught it on the first cast, and then never made another cast all day.  Come evening, I went looking for Brown Drakes at Osborne.  No drakes, but saw one fish rise, cast a Drake Cripple at it, it ate first cast, and I never saw another rise.  But hey, two for two, right?  Days are pretty long to make just two casts.  Day two I never made a cast.  I gave it one more morning, "just in case."  Nope.  Outta here.  Probably will be a blanket hatch in the morning, but a guy can only take so much.  I did see a few other guys hook a fish here and there, but you just had to be lucky, in the right spot for a fish taking whatever happen to float by on occasion.

 

Now, I did take a minor detour over to another spring creek, the Buffalo, one afternoon.  The Green Drakes were poppin', and the fish were up and on 'em!  10-13 inchers.  Its not every day you get to fish drakes on a small clear spring creek, so I enjoyed it for a few hours, but that's not what I'm here for.  Again, outta here. Shoulda listened to Les!  But, I can't drive by, or around, my favorite trout river, even if it is in peril.

 

The Beaverhead?  I gave it two full mornings, in the glory hole, with a perfect flow of 300 cfs,  with clear water (NOT "Beaverhead clear, but really clear!).  Saw one fish rise, it took, I missed, and that was the whole fucking Beaverhead eperience.  A few fish rising at the bottom of the big slick in the evening, but that was the only activity other than its famous evening mosquito hatch in full force.  I gave it two mornings and evenings.  A least they have a Dairy Queen in Dillon. Outta here.  When it doubt, head for the MO!

 

It is a nice place to be

 

The one lucky riser

 

The only Brown Drake I'll use this season

 

The PMD box--for not.

 

More snow up there on June 17 than in many years

 

Afternoon saver, the Buffalo

 

Drakes!

 

Big drakes!

 

Its a new towing machine, 11 mpg, might as well drive it.  No risers here.

 

Finally, Come Hell or High Water!

Long spring, following a long winter.  My home river was "blown out" on March 1st with wide-open flows making room in the reservoir for over 200 percent of average snowpack.  Then I started working, every day through mid-May.  Then I needed to buy a new truck, as the old '03 began to show its age.  I love the new ride, but that took up one of two long weekends that I usually fish and kick off the "summer" season.  When Memorial Day weekend arrived a week later, the water was raging to flooding in nearly every river in the west, and I had shit to do anyway, so I took a much-need break at home and got shit done.  Kind of.

So now its time.  The truck is loaded, even though I have 3 more days of work before departure.  The trailer is cleaned and loaded.  The coolers are ready to be loaded, ice and contents already acquired.  The final prep, which is really just a routine re-load from last fall.  But it seems like forever ago.  I didn't fish enough this spring.  My first summer-swing will be a few days shorter than planned because I need to work this week to accommodate some of my favorite customers and make up for a couple of days lost to weather. (see also--new truck payment).  I'll make up for the lost fishing time later in the season.

First stop, The Fork, of course.  A possible evening-bite stop at the creek on the way.  High water or not, I need this.  New Eco-boost turbo engine with a 10-speed automatic should let me clear any pass, with trailer in tow, at whatever pace I desire.  I think I can keep it reasonable and prudent, while in more comfort than ever before.  I hope it's a towing machine, because Ford prices its aluminum and plastic motorized box more like its gold.  I guess there's some steel in there, somewhere, but I haven't found any.  So far, I'm lovin' it though!  Hope I don't collide with a Kia or Hundai and total the thing.