The weekend started a little slow as I took the Morris's on the Dearborn last Thursday. I've guided them now for about four or five years and we usually crush it. The Dearborn was beautiful but we hit it about a day late. The water was coming up so the fishing was off. We got three. But that's the drill on the Dearborn and you don't do it for the epic fishing. You do it for the epic scenery and the chance to see some wildlife.
We had to make up some ground with Ann the next day because as much as she likes to see cool water, she also likes to catch fish and the Lower River didn't disappoint. We started banging them early and often and eventually made up for the slow fishing from the day before.
I also worked a few days for the Missouri River Lodge over the weekend. Knowing the river would be busy, I stayed as far from Craig as possible. It was worth it. The fishing was great and the traffic was minimal. There were people out on Saturday and we did have to skip some runs but with all the water, everyone had plenty of opportunities. We did the same thing on Sunday and my folks couldn't have been happier. Again, very few boats and TONs of really good fish. Fish are moving but the double dirt snake is still on fire. I think Andrea pretty much educated every fish on that stretch for those two days.
Monday was a little different story and it just goes to show the diversity of what people want in a trip. I had another gentleman in my boat from the lodge. His wife couldn't come out so he was fishing with another one of his buddies for the first couple days, but they decided to split up on the last day and fish as singles.
Bill wanted to just have a relaxing day on the river. He said he caught so many fish the first two days, he really wasn't interested in staring at a bobber all day even if we were catching fish. He suggested the Dearborn but because there wouldn't be any fishing, we decided to not go on the 19 mile boat ride. I knew he was new to the sport and was still trying to figure his casting so I suggested going down low again and throwing dries.
It started out cloudy. The weather looked right for getting some action on top so we rigged up a chubby and started working on Bill's casting. In a few minutes he was chucking 50 or 60 feet of line and although he wasn't bringing anything up, he was enjoying looking like a hero. We weren't seeing fish rising so we kept changing up attractors and kept working on accuracy with hitting small seems along the bank.
A couple hours into it, the sun came out and our hopes of bringing up fish on dries was becoming less and less of a reality. I offered to nymph a few runs but Bill was having a great time chucking line and watching dry flies float through seems so we stuck with it.
For some people, this is the most mind numbing exercise in futility possible; watching someone throw cast after cast, knowing the chances of bring up a fish is pretty much zero but Bill was enjoying it and he was getting better and better. I had my camera and we took plenty of breaks trying to get some cool photos along the way. The photo at the top was a fleeting merganser we got as we drifted by.
The wind also came up, which made the casting a little more problematic. Bill struggled a bit but was making the most of it.
At around 3pm, we got to a honey hole and I suggested we go to the nymphing rod to put a few fish in the boat. Bill agreed but he also said he was having a great time and he was doing exactly what he wanted. He said he would nymph just long enough to catch one fish. He was learning new techniques and we were having a good time BS'ing about everything from his kids to his experience in the military to sociology. It was all good and the time actually went by pretty quick.
We did switch to the nymph rod and Bill put one fish in the boat that day. We took a picture of it and he put that rod away and started throwing dries again. We switched from gold and purple chubbies to ants to crickets to caddis to Royal Wolfs to trudes to just about everything in my box and nothing would look up. But it didn't matter because by the end of the day, Bill was chucking a fair bet of line and his confidence was growing and now he can go back home and spend some time honing his new skills and have fun doing it.
We got back to the lodge and when asked how it went with Bill I said, "It was great. We caught one fish."
The look I got back was of total disbelief because it's not something an outfitter wants to hear but after explaining to Joe what we did and what Bill wanted, (and the fact that I've been working with Joe for a long time so there's a little bit of trust,) it was all good. It was actually a really cool day; maybe not for everyone but for Bill, it's what he wanted and I was glad to be a part of it.
Keep 'em where they live...
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