Day By Day

 

I could say the fishing is awesome right now on the Mo and today, it was. There was very little traffic and with the weather, fish were  happy, hungry and looking up. This gal was the first of a few we fed on dry flies and like I said in a previous post, it sure is fun being able to hunt heads and feed fish.

 

Big Jim and I were kind of on a mission. We brought a dry-fly rod, a nymph rod, and a streamer rod and we were determined to get one on each for the both of us--the trifecta and I'm not talking brown trout, rainbow, whitefish. I started out because Jim was making me have to fish out of his new Adipose. Fish were picky at first but then we ran into a pod sipping and it didn't take long to check off the dry fly fish for me.

 

We went short-leash and got one in a scumline and then threw the hopper-dropper and couldn't keep them off the dropper. (To be fair, it was a skawla, which isn't a hopper but a big dry non-the-less. Nobody would eat the skwala but we had to try.)

 

Next order of the day was to throw streamers and within a couple casts, check. And then a couple more casts and I got another nice brown and it was Big Jim's turn.

 

It didn't take long for Jim to get his first on a dry and then we switched to the streamer rod. We figured we would get the hard ones out of the way first. It was a little tougher for Jim to get his streamer fish but he did and then I got back on the stripper pole. (Because you have to strip line in when throwing streamers and it's a pole...get it? I know. Pretty lame.)

 

We thought the streamer bite would continue to be good but it started raining pretty hard and then we couldn't move a fish. With time running out, Jim still needed a nymph fish so we switched up and right at the take-out, he got 'er done. (Fish are stacked up at the Helen Keller rock. Just sayin.)

 

Ok, so every day on the Mo is a different day right now. I think people heard there were bugs and everyone and their brother came to the Mo to take advantage of it. Plus, I think some of the rivers around Missoula are getting a bit colored up with the low-level snow melting. The busier it is, the more fish start to duck and from what I heard, the other day was like rush-hour traffic in the canyon. Weather also has a huge impact on how well fish want to cooperate. Plus, bugs are good but there is a kind of paradoxical relationship between bugs and fishing. We need bugs to get fish to look up but if there are so many bugs on the water, it's tough to get them to eat your fly. And the more they eat, the less they have to eat so they can take their time and pick and choose.

 

It is getting busy out there and it does have an affect on the fish. There are ways of dealing, however and the veterans know how to work around the pressure. Find the vet, find the fish.

 

Keep 'em where they live...

 

P.S. Please buy local. The money stays in the community to help preserve our resources and improve our neighborhoods. Thanks. Missouri River trout appreciate it.