Mid-May Blow-Out

9,670 cfs and going up on the Mo this morning. It will probably reach 10,200 if it stays consistent with what they did to the flow the last couple days. Looking at the chart, that puts us right in-between most probable and max-probable. (I stole the chart from Headhunter's blog by the way. http://www.headhuntersflyshop.com/wp/archives/4136. I'm not sure exactly where they got it but they said it came from the water management team controlling the flows below Holter.) There's an on-going bet in town to predict the max flow for this spring between all the guides. The highest I've heard was 23,000 but that was later rescinded and now Mike Kuhnert is guessing 21,500. I'm holding firm at 14,000. I realize there is another couple of feet of snow coming to the mountains. I also realize that there is already more than 150% of normal snow-pack in most areas. But I've seen those in charge of the flow being very proactive this year and I think they will manage the water much better than the last couple years. Of course, none of this matters if we get the torrential storms this Spring or a week of 90 degrees at the end of the month.

So how's the fishing? If you're the do-it-yourself'er, get a guide. I'm serious. The guides will get fish. You'll have to go deep for them and find them stacked up but when you do, you will catch a bunch. But it is work and you may as well spend your money wisely and let someone else do the row-arounds in this kind of water. The Mo will fish for sure but the other rivers probably won't with the exception of other tail-waters.

As for the rest of the season; I'm very hopeful. I think the water will come down sometime in early July and we will have good action on caddis and PMD's. And the cool thing is it looks like they will try to keep the flow relatively high for the entire summer, which means the entire river will fish all the way to Cascade. Boats will spread out and fishing in solitude might be possible.

Keep 'em where they live...