'Strong

Needed a creek fix.  3-weight.  Light and stealthy.  My big brown trout place was fishless other than a couple 13 inchers.  This place is always full of fish, testing fish.  A-game.  I get a better drift with 7X, and I get more eats with 7X.  I know, I tried it.  6X works though, and makes more sense.  I think.  I can pull more hooks with it!  Sure did plenty of that with these small flies.  Hooked some dandies.  Formed some relationships with a few others.

 

Day one was sunny turning cloudy.  Day two was cloudy turning mostly sunny.  Both were about the same, maybe more bugs and risers on the sunny to cloudy day.  I saw multiple fish eat adult PMD's both days.  Had a couple eat a #16 I tossed their way too!  But it was mainly midges in the morning, and baetis through the afternoon.  I fished #20's.  Smaller would have worked better, maybe.  How the hell would one tie a #24 Sri Lanka, anyway?  Didn't get any love on a #24 Griffiths.  Everything else small got ate at least once or twice.  Some a lot more. 

 

Judy wasn't answering the phone, so I just drove in, signed in, paid my $80, and fished.  I was the only car in the lower lot the whole two days!  Having the whole run there to myself made life easy.

 

Iconic

 

 

CDC on a hook worked good

 

Big Fish Place

 

Fat boy on 6X

 

That one ate this

 

 

Love this drift.  On the flat, and edge of the weeds

 

Really

 

 

Trout Flats.  About a foot deep.

 

Extraordinary sight fishing

 

Day two FOD.  Yes, its a thread-tail, nice and frayed.  Hackle on a hook.

 

 

Traditional worked good at the top of the run

 

No love here this time

These are four attempts to get that above/below shot I've been attempting from time to time all season.  I need flat, super-slow moving water, and was reluctant to move and spook the run just for a shot.  These are closer though.  Weather window is closing for underwater shots.

 

 

 

 

More MO (3640 cfs)

So yesterday it snowed all day with very little accumulation, and the temperature was in the mid-30's all day, with a slight breeze.  I didn't need to catch one that bad, especially after the day before.  I went to the water a few times and saw all the bugs and rising fish, but didn't want to try to keep my fly dry and my hands from freezing in that.  Good day for a shower and DQ!

 

Today started out bright sunny.  Hit the water about noon, and there were enough bugs, but not many rising fish.  As the afternoon went on, a cloud bank moved in, and the fish ate more.  I didn't really notice more bugs after the clouds, just more noses.  Had to hunt and work for 'em, but that was a nice change from "just chuck it out there."  Stayed busy casting and looking all afternoon.  Landed the fish of the trip so far too.

To Get There

Arrival

#20's and #18's.  Why on earth?  FOD

2nd side channel fished

Didn't even cast to this pod

This bank was where it was at . . . again.

A few hard-to-spot brute noses here

22 inches as measured on my net and wading stick

Worth a second look.  Fat too!

For a different fly to stare at every cast

And it worked on a few.  The water is full of weeds, worst I've seen in a while.  Need to use the "Missouri  River Slap" nearly every cast.

 

Rising Fish, Falling Water! (4,000 to 3,640)

Ok, I left the Fork Monday and B-lined to the sure thing.  Not many folks here.  Tuesday and Wednesday were windy, as forecasted, but there were still BWO's and a few fish to be found when I got out and looked hard enough.  All in the afternoon.  Mornings are dead.

 

Today was one of those afternoons that we visitors (tourists) wait around for days to happen.  Clear start, warmer, clouds covering the sky in the afternoon, NO wind, lots of bugs, and fish up everywhere.  Singles, pods, banks lined with noses.  Just enough bugs to bring 'em all up, but not carpeted, so they could easily find the larger-than-natural #18's I fished all day.  It started about 1:00, and was still going strong when I "limited out" at 6:30.  Pretty much non-stop action.  Fly didn't matter.  I indulged in the madness.  Oh, and the water dropped a little too! 

 

Now I have my rhythm.  In the groove.  Like that's hard here!  Just what I needed though.  And I ain't done yet, but the storm is blowing in, and its supposed to be windy and shitty tomorrow.  That's ok.  There's more good ones coming.  Maybe.  Hopefully.

Just me, free camping.

 

First pod, first afternoon

 

A few fish working the bank here

 

Early afternoon magic all in this channel

 

Pod working here non-stop

 

It worked.  Over dressed, shitty hook, poorly tied Sri Lanka.  Deadly here.

 

 

Some dandies along this whole bank

 

Lots of soft hackle love.  Hours.

 

 

Whole bank with noses

 

Stuck a few pigs on the bank here

 

Its a caddis, but a #18, and they took it for a BWO over and over.

 

 

 

You know you're on the MO when you see a riffle (upper left), but its really not!

 

All heads, no riffle!

 

Even a Sri Lanka soft hackle worked.

 

 

Bank below the bridge had a pod

 

 

From the bridge