Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Thar She Blows!


The LaRue boys and I headed out before the big storms rolled in. We floated the lower stretch of the Missouri. No bobbers. Just short leashes and big ole dries for big ole browns. It was pretty fantastic.



We also found some of these, which was a huge bonus.


And then this happened over the Memorial Day weekend.


The rain and snow from the weekend has definitely changed the game for the Missouri. That doesn't mean it won't fish. It just means you might be a bit limited for a few days on what stretches to fish. As you can see, the Dearborn came up to epic proportions again. That's twice in the past two years we've seen either record or near-record flows. Last year it hit 10,000 cfs. This year it reached 6,000 but at least it's early and it's already coming down.

When I first started guiding, a random storm brought the Dearborn up to 5,000 cfs. People tried floating it, which was not a good idea. They didn't know what they were doing and 2 out of the three people on one raft of thrill seekers died. It's not anything to mess with.

That year, people were talking about that particular flow as an anomaly. It never happens. But the reality is, is it is happening now pretty regularly. Now I get it; it's only been two years but that's two years of epic flows. You have to start wondering.

So for a couple days anyway, the Missouri is out below the Dearborn confluence. I've rolled the dice before in these conditions, thinking the water would clear up a few miles downstream and it doesn't. The benefit is that you get away from people but there's a big cost. You might get blanked so it's best just to join the crowds and get what you get for a few days. You'll catch fish and if you're able to take the traffic in stride, you might make a few friends.

Keep 'em where they live...

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