Congested

It's no secret; I don't like to go up to the dam. Even worse is the stretch from Wolf Creek Bridge to Craig. The fishing up there is great. It's probably better than anywhere else on the river right now but what you compromise is having any kind of sense that you've gotten away from the hustle and bustle of the city. It's fricken crazy up there and although some clients could care less as long as they're catching fish, the fact is, is that most of the people I take out would rather get away from the crowds and do something else.

There's 35 miles of blue ribbon fly fishing on the Missouri and 90% of the folks out fishing and just fun-floating are stacked up in the first 5 miles. What's frustrating is that many guides go up there because it is easy and at the end of the day, the only thing that seems to matter is numbers. I don't know if they even ask their clients what they want for their day.

I did go up there yesterday because the other two guides I fished with wanted to--the same thing the day before. Yes the fishing was great but I almost got ran into by anther boat being rowed by a guy who was walleye fishing and at one point a boat maggot guy yelled at me for getting too close because I parked along the bank to re-tie 50 yards down-stream from him. (There was another boat 30 yards up-stream, another one 50 yards down from me and 3 more boats about 75 yards further. I really didn't have a choice.) It also took me ten minutes to find my boat in Craig and we had to wait for the ramp to clear out before even thinking about backing in. Clients don't want to see that every day they're out here.

The other day I floated down to Pelican Point and the fishing was epic. We only saw three boats the entire day. Not everyone should do it because not everyone has clients with skill to do what you need to, to catch fish. Sometimes you feel like you have to go up high just to get someone with lesser skills into fish. However, it's only July 7th and many guys are just using that stretch as a cop-out. I've taken a number of new-be's to the sport below Craig and have had some great days and landed just as many fish with only seeing a few boats and no wade fishers. We still have two months of heat to go and pretty soon, the dam might be the only game in town. Use it wisely my friends. You beat it up now and you won't have it when you need it.

Keep 'em where they live...