Spawning Bows and the End of Waterfowl Season

Saturday on the Missouri was windy but luckily I went on Sunday and it was nice. The weather warmed up and the wind was down to a dull roar. Lots of people nymph fishing up by the dam still but with the warm weather the swing crew was getting lots of grabs. Small buggers and Hobo style flies were getting eaten on the swing. We fished up above the Wolf Creek bridge and got a few fish but decided to move down because of all the people. We moved down by the Dearborn and hooked a few fish there as well. It is easy to tell where the rainbows are spawning and lots of them are sitting in full spawn mode in the shallows so watch where you are walking, and try not to disturb them.

We got fish mostly on firebead flies as we were nymphing the whole day. Firebead Ray Charles and Firebead Soft Hackle Sow bugs are working. Had I known the wind was going to be so calm though I would have been swinging for sure.

One thing we did notice this year is a lot more waterfowl hunters on the river- which is great to see. Unfortunately everyone really needs to take an extra minute and pick up their empty shells. This is probably the worst we have ever seen it. The snow was melting this weekend and there are empty shells and a few sunken decoys littering almost every nice sheltered bend on the river. The MRF in Great Falls, and Helena Trout Unlimited Chapter do a great thing every year by helping us clean up the banks but I think we could help them out a lot by making sure our bird hunting mess isn’t one more thing they should find to pick up in the spring.