Missouri River Report 5.2.16

If you got out in the clouds and cool wet weather the past week or so, you likely enjoyed something special. BWO’s and enough March Browns were rolling to put the fish in a happy dry fly eating mood.

Yesterday, I floated from the Dearborn to Prewit. Right away, it was obvious we were facing catastrophic cloud failure. This is a condition that I was occasionally faced with in Alaska. After a week of overcast, precipitation and epic fishing, the clouds would leave. We humans tend to rejoice. Fish do not. Fish are wet. They love water. Water falling from gray skies makes them happy.

So instead of hunting heads, we nymphed, all day long. It was not my first choice, but it was productive. We focused our attention in the deeper waters and ignored the tapering inside turns and skinny water flats. JuJu Baetis, Green Machines, Radiation Baetis, Two Bit Hookers and Tungsten Death Metal in #14 put a frequent bend in the rods.

Dave Kemp getting locked on the deep rig.

Lots of post spawn rainbows back in the mix. They will be getting stronger by the day.

Traffic on Sunday was light. We spent over two hours on the water before seeing another boat. There were midges, baetis, March Browns, and a fair number of caddis were about during the day. As if the fish cared. The weather was perfect for humans and the fish were willing to eat on our plan B attack. I’m glad I was out there.

The highlight of the day was a fish that jumped into the boat on the hook up. While this is not a frequent occurrence, I’ve seen it before. What I have never witnessed in 27 years of guiding, is a fish jumping into the boat and landing square in the middle of the net. That’s my kind of hole in one.