September in November

Or is it June?  I'll take November and a size 10 dry fly with 60+ degree afternoons.  The crowds are gone for the season.  The flow is as low as it gets. I see only two other wade anglers both days and just a half-dozen boats float by late in the afternoon.  The place is abandoned by any standard, and just 45 minutes from home.  Trout are eating, hook-jawed browns waiting for a meal along the shallow banks, and cookie cutter rainbows rising in the winter runs.

The baetis and midge eaters are picky at this point in the season, but some are eager for one last steak dinner.  Some do that push, where they come up closed mouthed, pushing water underneath the fly in a sarcastic refusal.  The fish here are notorious for that, and turning around to follow big bugs downstream for a bit.  Both the big winged beetle and tiny baetis take fish, but the beetle is the sure winner.  Some even eat it skittering.  Must be some sense of urgency, like winter.

The approach

Tons of these cookie cutter rainbows.

Splashdown channel is nearly dry at this flow.

A light sunny day baetis hatch both days, all afternoon.

Sunny and 64 baby!  

The shadows creep in fast mid afternoon

An occasional big rainbow

The end of the half-mile walk back out

I don't know if they take it for a cicada, a beetle, a horse fly or house fly, or maybe just a big mouth full of calories.  Whatever it is, they sure take it!

In a #20

The higher double peak flows ended October 1st

The fish and this fisherman love a graph like this.

The road home

I guess it's only fitting that I finish my summer on the water where my summer started at the end of May.  I use the term "summer" loosely, as it's late October, snow has fallen, and more is in the immediate forecast.  But I think of summer beginning with the first time I hook up the trailer and leave home after winter. It ends when I tow it back home for the last time and put it in the garage until the cycle starts again next May.  There have been years where I towed it some place warm to fish for a few days like Lees Ferry or the San Juan.  One year I went to Silver Creek and the SF Boise in November, but I left the trailer home and stayed in a motel.  This is the last planned trip though.  I'll still cast a trout fly between now and May, a bunch of times, but this is the final stop of the summer.

So I zip down here from Montana.  It's the traditional pit stop on the long road home.  There is one truck in the parking lot, and the sole fisherman is down river. A quick look over the platform reveals a few rising fish around the log jam.  I know how to deal with this.  It goes according to planned and I take three quality fish, as well as a few smaller ones.  I'm working for 'em with lots of casting. My hands don't freeze and my casts go where I intend them to go.  The reservations I had about leaving the Missouri are erased.  The water still flows at a trickle, the wading is easy, and there's no boats.  Hopefully the trout overwinter well.

The last morning starts below freezing, but the overcast sunshine warms things up.  Its calm to start, and there's nobody here.  I wade in late morning for a few-hour session before the last leg home.  I get three more good fish before the wind kicks up pretty strong.  It's time to go.

Low and clear.

Some really nice ones in the slick here.

You should have seen the one I couldn't get my hand around!

The only fly I tied on.

Beautiful conditions

The sunrise view from my favorite campsite.

From the camper window

More clouds this morning

This could be the one I couldn't hold yesterday.  My last Ranch fish of the season.

No brown drakes now.  There should be in June.  See ya then.

MOctober is Over

When I went to sleep last night, I figured I'd fish today, maybe starting up river at bull pasture or PhD, where the fish would likely be midging.  Maybe a side channel down river.  But the trailer is shaking in the wind all night and into the morning.  It's shaking while I eat breakfast.  I decide a week is enough and it's time to move on.

It's tricky though. As I pull out of the campsite, there's still some uncertainty.  I take the long way around to the southbound interstate, turning north from camp along the river up toward Craig. I can't yet just leave the river and drive south, straight to the on-ramp. I pull off the frontage road twice to look at the water, to evaluate whether I'm making the right decision or not.  It's not blowing too hard where I pull off at Lonetree.  I'm torn between doing it again for another day, or moving on.  I get out and pace.  I look at the weather forecast again, the one I looked at about 15 minutes ago.

The screen says winds all day, and a cold front is coming. The forecast for the Henry's Fork is sunny and high 50s with no wind.  I can be there by 1:00, easily. Last time I was there, it was cold and windy. Today's forecast is enough to push me on up through Craig and on to the interstate southbound. I resist an urge to fly shop hop as a stalling tactic.

As I pass the Wolf Creek turnoff, I let off the gas a little with thoughts racing to exit and turn around.  I make it passed however.  By the time I drive out of the colorful Wolf Creek canyon, I'm committed.  My mind goes straight to thoughts of what is now in my rear view and being left behind at 75 mph. It's 10 hours home.  I do have world class water 30 minutes from my house, but it's not the same, and it sure ain't no MO.

A week here leaves no doubt that it's the undisputed best trout river in the lower 48. Numbers, size, bug life, water types, ease of access, and lots of it. At this time of year, it can't be called crowded either. Nowhere else comes close to having such a total package. That little taste of winter a couple weeks ago sure made this Indian summer week just that much sweeter. This late October weather makes me think, "Are you kidding me?"

But wait, there's more! Water flowing at 2,600 CFS. Easy wading from every access.  If there is average to above average snowpack over the next winter or two, it could be years before I see this flow again, if ever. I can't even remember the last time it was, but it seems like decades ago. It turns a wide, sometimes brawling river into a series of little spring creeks, easily navigated on foot.

I can only hope there are more visits to a low-flowing Missouri River in my future. This trip ain't quite over yet though. Sunny and calm in Last Chance . . . Just a stop in Ennis for my last chance at $2.95 gas, and I'll be standing in some super low water casting a big ol' winged beetle by early afternoon.  Where's that terrestrial box?

MOctober Pt. 6

Day 7 of this visit.  Time flies.  Windier again today, so I try some drive by strategy to stay more mobile and get a few breaks.  Some of the turnouts and runs are occupied, given the balmy weather that seems to bring out a few more people.

CA Island is calmer early, but not much going on in the morning midge hatch.  Down to Lonetree for the rest of the morning where I take a few.  I drive further down looking for baetis early this afternoon, and I end up at Rhodas.  The sweet spot in the middle is occupied, but I take a few random risers on a big #16 para adams. 

For the evening bite, with most of the turnouts still occupied, I head up to PHD Island, where somehow I still haven't wet a line this trip.  There's a rise here and there, and then as the sun sets, fish come up all over the bottom and inside of the island.  It lasts until after I can't see my fly anymore.  The light-winged mole gets the eats.  So a slower day, but a strong finish.

I awake to this view, with some high clouds.

There's midges in the calm morning air, but the fish here don't care.

A Lonetree pig 

The good channel at Rhodas, occupied 

Took a couple here, in the backyard.

Look who landed on my cork.  It's not June, silly.

The middle canyon has some cool vistas.

PHD at sunset.

PHD looking up.

Still lots of fall yellow.

MOctober Pt. 5

Sunny, 66 for a high, and light to calm winds most of the day.  There's a couple more of these left apparently.  Yes, it's getting to be a bit of a re-run now, but I'll repeat this knowing the end of it is really near.  As I'm driving down the river this morning, that ending is in my mind and I'm pulled back to the ladders for a second time this week. This area is fishing the best right now with all of its little sweet spots, and there is a ton of good water I can easily wade to around some of the islands, spots that I still haven't made it to.

It isn't until this evening that I leave the first two channels.  There are rising fish to cast at from start to finish today.  I think the late morning fish are midging.  Maybe I'll throw the actual midge box in the pack tomorrow and see how that does.  I do wonder about a little griffith gnat or Harrop midge this morning.  Very sparse baetis patterns are adequate enough.  The late afternoon and evening bite is still the best.  Little groups of rising fish. Lots of eats with good drifts and a bit of stealth in the low, bright conditions.  Pleasant, uncrowded, and a friend even answered the invitation and paid a visit today.

Since I sent out the invitation, I really had to follow through and be at the ladders just in case.  I guess it takes a formal invitation to get close-by friends to drop in.  It worked!

My favorite color tree getting a little thinner.  This is a sign.

It really was this beautiful blue when I rounded the corner to the lower channel. Oh so low.

Probably hooked a dozen or so today fishing pretty relaxed, paced, and low key. We had some fish under 18 inches crash the party, but they're all still pretty good fish.

More beautiful oh so low.  This is a big riffle in June.

There he is, with a fish on no less.

We fished the riffle here until dark.

Pretty close to perfection.

The best bugs were little sparse #20 and 22's.  Little thread-bodied cdc floaties, and the black Adams for casting into the glare.

I know, I can't believe it either.

What an evening.