That's right. They 'bumped' up the flows throughout the week from 15,900 cfs to 20,000! So what do you do? To be honest, I got a little stymied yesterday morning so I'm probably not the best person to ask. I would like to say that in spite of the changing weather, sun, and high water, we wrecked 'em but I'd be lying. But then, I didn't see many people having too much luck up high so I felt pretty good with how we did. Plus, the guys in the boat from Bloomquist's lodge were pretty damn cool so all in all, we had good days.
Starting on Wednesday, keeping consistent with wanting to stay away from the boat show up high, I took my guys down low and like a couple days prior, we did pretty well keeping out of the main channel and fishing off grass ledges. On Thursday, we did it again and the fishing got increasingly better. The word on the street was that the entire river fished pretty well so we didn't really gain anything as far as fish counts go but then, catching high numbers of fish is only half the battle. We had awesome days floating to Cascade on Wednesday and Thursday because we were able to find fish, (lots of fish,) and we were the only boat on that section. It was hard work, I'm not gonna lie, but definitely worth it.
So Friday, due to some time restraints and quite honestly, I was beat from going down there the last few days, we stayed up high and floated Wolf Creek to Spite Hill. Throughout the day the flow went up to 20,000 cfs so the row-arounds were pretty much impossible. Even in the channels, the current was raging. We missed a few fish on the Little Prickly Pear riffle right out of the gate and after rowing back up twice I had to keep going down stream. We hit the next run and stuck a 21 inch brown but again, could only make one more pass before going down stream. The channel run produced a couple but we got foul hooked and trying to bring a fish in against that current sideways is pretty much impossible. I should have just had my guy break it off but we chased it instead. We did land it but we lost the run and had to move down.
It was kind of like that pretty much all the way down. We started hugging the bank and fished the eddies along the bushes and got some action but not much. We went deep with long (very long) leaders and a ton of weight but still couldn't seem to get anything consistent going. By the time we hit the Sterling Channel, I was getting pretty desperate. We had caught a few really good fish but we needed something to make the day. And I kept looking at that channel wishing we could fish it but even at 16,000 cfs I only had about an inch of clearance under the bridge half way down. There's no fricken way we would clear it at 20,000.
There are no secrets on the Mo. We all know there are fish in that channel. We've all fished it and as long as there aren't a ton of boats going through it, you will catch fish. So I'm not giving up some secret that nobody else knows about and now there will be 100 boats going through there on a daily basis. You still have to know how to fish it. It's not like the toilet bowls where fish are stupid and competing with each other for food and you can pretty much throw anything at them. And, you have to be able to access it. So feeling some desperation, I said fuck it. We are going to fish it.
I told my guys to strip in their lines and hold on. We pushed past the mouth of the channel, down along the island and as we got to the bottom of it, I started pulling. The bridge is about a half mile from the bottom where the channel spills back into the main stem and we rowed all the way back up to it; fighting the current, getting out of it when we could, and zig zagging back and forth from eddy to eddy. It took about 30 minutes to get up it and I was whipped. I dropped anchor and switched up our rigs and explained how we would fish it. I also told them when they set the hook, just hold on.
Gordie, who graciously took the back seat the entire day, told me at the beginning he knew fishing would be tough due to the conditions but his goal was to catch one monster brown. (No pressure.) On our first pass, he no longer threw his line out when I yelled, "Hit it!" A fat 20 inch rainbow exploded out of the water and as he laughed, the other gentleman, Dave, looked back at me shaking his head and said I was crazy. On our third pass, Gordie got his 22 inch brown.
We didn't catch a ton of fish yesterday but we definitely finished strong. Geordie got his 22 inch brown and a couple really nice rainbows along with a number of "average" fish. Dave landed three browns well over twenty inches and since this was his first fly fishing trip, he was pretty stoked.
As for the rest of the group, I have to say I don't know the last time I laughed so much in the boat with clients. Keep it up Will. You'll get it. Thanks Bruce, it was definitely good to see you guys back out on the Mo. And JT and Ron, you guys were fricken hilarious. Thanks. Hope to see you all next year.
Keep 'em where they live y'all, in the water not in the trees. That means you Gordie.
(Pictures will come as soon as Gordie learns how to use his email.)
Starting on Wednesday, keeping consistent with wanting to stay away from the boat show up high, I took my guys down low and like a couple days prior, we did pretty well keeping out of the main channel and fishing off grass ledges. On Thursday, we did it again and the fishing got increasingly better. The word on the street was that the entire river fished pretty well so we didn't really gain anything as far as fish counts go but then, catching high numbers of fish is only half the battle. We had awesome days floating to Cascade on Wednesday and Thursday because we were able to find fish, (lots of fish,) and we were the only boat on that section. It was hard work, I'm not gonna lie, but definitely worth it.
So Friday, due to some time restraints and quite honestly, I was beat from going down there the last few days, we stayed up high and floated Wolf Creek to Spite Hill. Throughout the day the flow went up to 20,000 cfs so the row-arounds were pretty much impossible. Even in the channels, the current was raging. We missed a few fish on the Little Prickly Pear riffle right out of the gate and after rowing back up twice I had to keep going down stream. We hit the next run and stuck a 21 inch brown but again, could only make one more pass before going down stream. The channel run produced a couple but we got foul hooked and trying to bring a fish in against that current sideways is pretty much impossible. I should have just had my guy break it off but we chased it instead. We did land it but we lost the run and had to move down.
It was kind of like that pretty much all the way down. We started hugging the bank and fished the eddies along the bushes and got some action but not much. We went deep with long (very long) leaders and a ton of weight but still couldn't seem to get anything consistent going. By the time we hit the Sterling Channel, I was getting pretty desperate. We had caught a few really good fish but we needed something to make the day. And I kept looking at that channel wishing we could fish it but even at 16,000 cfs I only had about an inch of clearance under the bridge half way down. There's no fricken way we would clear it at 20,000.
There are no secrets on the Mo. We all know there are fish in that channel. We've all fished it and as long as there aren't a ton of boats going through it, you will catch fish. So I'm not giving up some secret that nobody else knows about and now there will be 100 boats going through there on a daily basis. You still have to know how to fish it. It's not like the toilet bowls where fish are stupid and competing with each other for food and you can pretty much throw anything at them. And, you have to be able to access it. So feeling some desperation, I said fuck it. We are going to fish it.
I told my guys to strip in their lines and hold on. We pushed past the mouth of the channel, down along the island and as we got to the bottom of it, I started pulling. The bridge is about a half mile from the bottom where the channel spills back into the main stem and we rowed all the way back up to it; fighting the current, getting out of it when we could, and zig zagging back and forth from eddy to eddy. It took about 30 minutes to get up it and I was whipped. I dropped anchor and switched up our rigs and explained how we would fish it. I also told them when they set the hook, just hold on.
Gordie, who graciously took the back seat the entire day, told me at the beginning he knew fishing would be tough due to the conditions but his goal was to catch one monster brown. (No pressure.) On our first pass, he no longer threw his line out when I yelled, "Hit it!" A fat 20 inch rainbow exploded out of the water and as he laughed, the other gentleman, Dave, looked back at me shaking his head and said I was crazy. On our third pass, Gordie got his 22 inch brown.
We didn't catch a ton of fish yesterday but we definitely finished strong. Geordie got his 22 inch brown and a couple really nice rainbows along with a number of "average" fish. Dave landed three browns well over twenty inches and since this was his first fly fishing trip, he was pretty stoked.
As for the rest of the group, I have to say I don't know the last time I laughed so much in the boat with clients. Keep it up Will. You'll get it. Thanks Bruce, it was definitely good to see you guys back out on the Mo. And JT and Ron, you guys were fricken hilarious. Thanks. Hope to see you all next year.
Keep 'em where they live y'all, in the water not in the trees. That means you Gordie.
(Pictures will come as soon as Gordie learns how to use his email.)
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