Snow?? In August??

Yes sir, that's right. They were calling for winter weather advisories in the higher elevations out here this weekend. Although I haven't seen it, I do believe with the weather down here on the Mo, it probably is snowing up high.

It does happen from time to time and I do remember while working for Alternative Youth Adventures, having snow in the Pintlers in August but it doesn't happen very often. It's pretty awesome though because it's about this time that the fishing really can suck if we are consistently in the 90's. This cool weather has ramped things up again and fish are mowing the big stuff.

Thursday, with the cold front moving in, the fishing sucked. Luckily, I had the same dudes on Friday and we got our redemption. By the end of the day, every fish in the river was looking up. Although most were on the pesky little pseudos; we threw caddis, ants, and attractors and did really well.

Today was the worst of this stretch of weather with highs in the upper forties. I met my clients, a husband/wife duo, at the Craig ramp. Knowing there was a chance that she might want to bail early, we set up our shuttle to get out at Spite Hill--about four miles down.

The bugs showed up early but with the rain, fish weren't on them. It was raining hard enough that I don't think the fish could see them on the surface. Knowing they were going to be hungry, we went with the T-bones, (P-Daddy Cray,) and started crushing them early and often. It's a good thing too because at around 10:30, Roseanne asked how long it would be until we were done.

I said, "We could be out in a half-hour or we can make it as long as you want."

"I think a half-hour would be fine," she replied.

The last seem we hit was at Bernie the Billionaire's. They doubled up on two really good rainbows and she said, "Ok, I'm done."

"Sweet, let's go..."

Why is this weather so good for the fishing? A big part of it is the water temps. Last week the water temps coming out of the dam would come up to about 67 or 68 degrees everyday. Once the temp gets too high, trout don't eat. Yesterday the water never got above 64 and today, 62. That much of a difference is huge. It doesn't necessarily take a storm to have that affect, however. Even just good cloud cover can keep the water temps down for a while and keep fish eating.

The other atmospheric/weather factor that comes into play is barometric pressure. There's some confusion of the role that pressure has on fish but I believe low pressure is good and high pressure is bad although if you read this article, http://www.weather.com/sports-rec/outdoor-fishing-reports/fishing-barometer-20120328, Woodward and I don't necessarily agree on this.

All I can go by is my own experience. I can't tell you how many times I've fished as a thunderhead comes over and the fishing goes off the charts and every fish in the river is looking up. The thunderhead is an extreme low pressure system and it always seems to turn things on.

I remember as a kid fishing with Paul Osbourne. We were absolutely crushing the crappies on White Sand Lake, which usually didn't happen for us when we were in our early teens. We were catching so many fish we didn't realize the turn in the weather. I looked at Paul and noticed his hair sticking straight out.

"Hey man, your hair; it's sticking straight out!" I said.

Just then he waved his graphite rod by my head and I could hear it humming.

"Can you hear that?"

Paul touched the hook keeper on his rod and a spark jolted him to the point he threw his rod down in the bottom of the boat and immediately started the motor and we headed for shore. A thunderhead had moved over us and it was just about to get really ugly. By the time we tied the boat up at the dock and headed to his house, the storm hit with torrential rain and deafening thunder claps.

We had put a buoy out while we were fishing but didn't have time to bring it in before racing back to shore. After the storm went over, we went back out to get it and to catch more crappies. The buoy was there but we didn't catch another fish.

A couple years ago, the same thing happened on the river while fishing with a couple women from a group that called themselves the "Reel Hookers." We got to one of the toilet bowls above Craig and were catching a few fish in the scumline with a short nymph rig. Again, we saw a storm cloud moving in and told them we could either stay and fish until the storm hit and then I would drop them off at Craig or we could head downstream and try to beat the storm to Stickney Creek; about three miles down. If we stayed and fished, I told them, we would see some stupid dry fly fishing before the storm hit.

They elected to wait it out and once that cloud got over us, every fish in that run came up to eat on top. Until you see something like that, you really can't even fathom the amount of fish that hold up in those scumlines. Literally, a thousand fish or more were rising on a line about 30 yards across and maybe 60 or 70 yards long. It was ridiculous. All you had to do is throw any fly out there and it was going to get eaten.

One thing Woodward and I can agree on is that fish don't like instability and will hunker down with changes in the barometric pressure; usually as high pressure moves in. However, after a cold front when things stabilize, fishing can get stupid good again, which is what's happening now.

One thing that might need to be considered is the amount of the pressure change and the rate at which the change is happening. Thursday a cold front moved in and it sucked. Friday, it started to stabilize and the fishing was stupid good but mostly small fish. Today, all we caught were toads. Maybe, just maybe if it's a relatively slow moving front, the fish need a couple days to recoup. Barometric pressure has a bigger affect on large fish so maybe it takes longer to recover and start eating again...I'll have to think about that.

I did have a friend of a biologist who fishes a ton explain it to me once. He said it has something to do with a fish's swim bladder and as pressure is released, an enzyme is secreted that actually makes fish hungrier. It's almost like they have to eat and the bigger the better because it fills the void quicker. That might explain why fast moving low-pressure systems have that kind of impact. Hmmm...

Look at what happens with pseudos. They are tiny-tiny little mayflies and like I've said, when fish get on them, they get picky and won't eat anything else--unless a low-pressure system comes in and we get weather. When that's the case, you can throw size 18 parachute Adams at them and they will absolutely devour them.

Regardless of the "why," the fact is, is that the fishing is stupid good right now and I suspect it will be for a little while. The cool thing is that it creates a nice break from the typical summer pattern and that is pretty awesome. It also makes me even more stoked for fall.

Keep 'em where they live...