Fishing Reports

O.K., so it's been a long time since I've updated one of these.  I fell into a little bit of the fall burnout, and found some pretty cool fishing that I wasn't ready to put out there.

Last October, I spent several days on the Missouri in Eastern Montana targeting big fish.  I want to say a big "thanks" to Matt Lindley, Brian Bross, Jay Hanson, Paul Kanning, and Scott Kanning for the indelible memories.  We didn't catch amazing numbers of fish, but had a great time, and caught some very memorable ones.

Tactics were pretty simple...dead drifting streamers.  Did a lot of wade fishing, and sight fishing.

That's all I'm going to say about it, but felt like I owed it to them to report something.

Tight Lines!

Jeremy

Catching up with a Missouri River report.  Had another fun trip on the Missouri with Tracey, and her brother Norm.  Fishing always consists of multiple 20 inch fish per day, so it's hard to complain.  The overall fishing was more difficult than last year, but was certainly a lot of fun.

Of course the river's high, and will probably be for some time (like everything else out here).  The flow was 17,600 cfs when we arrived, but had gone up over 18,000, and was rumored to be on it's way to 22,000.  No dry fly fishing to be had, needless to say. 

We did do a little streamer fishing which was productive, and a nice way to mix it up from the nymphing.  The streamer pattern was a little rainbow frey that I've been working on.  On the nymphs, we were able to catch a few on PMD patterns each day (early), then caught most of our fish on worms (red and wine), and tan caddis pupae.

As always, a big thanks goes out to Headhunters fly shop in Craig, and we had a great time staying at the Missouri River Ranch.

Tight Lines,
Jeremy

Missouri River Report

I was able to spend a great week on the Missouri River, fishing below Holter Dam, and all of the sections down to Mountain Palace.  I very much enjoyed the fishing as the average size of fish was very impressive, and the action was steady all the way down through the canyon.

The flow was between 18,000 cfs to 19,000 throughout our week, but it seemed to help keep the bigger fish available, and in range for nymphing.  Sometimes the lower flows allow the bigger ones to disappear, and hold in water where it's tough to reach them. 

Although we caught some fish on PMD nymphs, our most successful tactics were fishing pink or tan soft hackles against the banks on the upper, and fishing a red chenille worm for a top fly in the canyon.   Pretty basic stuff, but when willing to fish lots of weight, and adjust leader length to your depth, kept us in constant action.

Thanks to the clients (you know who you are) for one of the more enjoyable weeks I've had in a long time.

DON'T FEAR THE HIGH WATER!

Tight Lines,
Jeremy