Missouri River Report 1.17.17
If you like fly fishing in open water, you are going to be happy with the current weather. I love a good January thaw. After an icy cold December and early January, the Chinook winds and warming temperatures are a welcome change. The snow will evaporate. The upper river will be free of slush and the shelves of ice will gradually break and drift away. And the fish- they will be hungry.
I’m the sort who prefers to be outside whenever I can. After the sustained cold period, I was getting pretty pent up. Nothing was going to keep me from sampling the goods yesterday. It was not the warmest day and it was quite windy, but it was the day I had to go, so I went. Apparently, a few other folks had the holiday off as well.
Curious how the river is doing? Check out the current river flows here
As I was pulling off my waders after a great afternoon, my phone was going off with pictures from Zach.
"My buddy Mike bought an Echo Combo back in the summer. These were the first fish he’s ever caught on a streamer. It was awesome." Zach and Mike were working Purple and Olive Balanced Leeches and they had a great outing. Mike is a fresh convert to the fly and Zach says, "He’ll never go back."
While Zach and Mike were at it, my fishing partners were getting takes nymphing Wike’s Tailwater Charlie, a few assorted fire beads and the venerable Zebra. They were working off a nice shelf into slowing water. The active fish were right up at the edge in 3-4’ of water.
Want to try out some of these flies? Take a look at our fly selection here
I was playing with a new Loop Switch Rod, the OPTI NXT 11’ 5wt. I chose a broad tapering run. Most of the fish I found were in moderate to very slow flow around 4’ deep. I was running an integrated floating line and 12’ tapered leader, finished off with a Black, Rusty Brown or Olive Balanced Leech. While many of the fish ate on the swing, some ate on the retrieve. The integrated line allowed me to fish the fly in as far as I wanted, producing several of the biggest fish of the day.
We will have the OPTI NXT in the store any day now. If you’d like to take mine for a spin to see if it’s a good fit for you, stop on by. I will show you how I set it up and send you out with a few flies the fish seem pretty happy to eat.
If the forecast holds true, the winds look pretty moderate toward the weekend and the temperatures are close to the freezing point. Those are very fishable conditions in my book. I just might have to get out again this week.