Dry Fly Fishing

Monday was the first of 3 days with Jerome and Eldon who have been coming out to the Mo for a few years. The forecast was hot and sunny so we met early and launched at Wolf Creek. We started off with the deep nymph rigs and Jerome hooked into a hot rainbow in our first run.

The guys hooked a few more in the next couple of runs but they all came unbuttoned. Then the fishing turned on and we took advantage. In one long run we had back to back doubles. The first was a big brown for Eldon and healthy rainbow for Jerome, the next was a pair of feisty rainbows.

We were hooking up in the spots we should in the morning and put some great rainbows in the net. Then the PMDs started coming off and despite the bright sun there were plenty of rising fish. At that point we switched over to dry/dropper rods with a PMD dry and tiny PMD nymph.

The first set of risers were challenging as the guys were getting used to the dry fly cast, but just below those Jerome stuck a mid-sized rainbow on the dry, and then we doubled up again with one on the dry and the other on the dropper. We stayed with the dry the rest of the morning and had plenty of good eats on top. Right at Craig the guys doubled again.

Jerome had a big rainbow and Eldon stung a massive brown trout that made a cartwheeling jump before coming off. At the bottom of that run we put one more bow in the net on the dry before taking a break for lunch.

To start the afternoon we stayed with the dry fly on a fast bank, and at the bottom of it Eldon had a big brown eat the dry and make a screaming run upstream. He did a good job to stay connected and landed that 20+” brown. Then there were more rainbows rising and willing to eat our dry.

As it started to warm up the dry fly fishing began to fade. We stuck with it for a bit and picked up a couple smaller bows, but then it was time for the short leash rod. Eldon found another brown trout at Bernie’s rock and then connected with a hard fighting rainbow on the next bank.

We doubled briefly at Stickney and then the heat started to take a toll. There were a couple more eats at Spite Hill before we loaded the boat and got into the AC. I was surprised to have such good fishing in the hot and sunny weather.

That was some of the best dry fly fishing I’ve seen on the Missouri this year and the guys put some great trout in the net today.

Dry Fly Fishing

Tuesday I planned to take Jerome and Eldon to Land of the Giants, but a forest fire broke out just above the marina yesterday so we decided to play it safe and changed plans to a float down in the canyon.

We started with the deep nymph rig and in the first few runs we had a couple nice rainbows and a decent brown in the net. There were enough bugs around by then that we switched over to the short leash rods and the guys doubled up on the first foam line.

That turned into a rodeo with those fish getting tangled up with each other but we landed one of them. Then Jerome tagged a decent brown in a shallow riffle and the fishing remained fairly steady before we switched to the dry fly rods in some slower water.

There weren’t as many rising fish today and they were much pickier than yesterday. Both Jerome and Eldon had a fish eat the dry and didn’t come tight, but those were are only chances. I tried some dry/dropper fishing too but the trout weren’t interested so we tucked into some shade for lunch.

In the afternoon we were back to the deep rigs for a few spots and picked up a couple of rainbows before switching to the short leash for some faster banks and foam lines. Eldon was the star of the show early with a bunch of hooks ups and several nice rainbows. He hooked a really big fish that made a crazy deep run upstream and broke us off in the rocks.

Then Jerome came to life with a big rainbow in a back eddy, followed by another one on a fast seam, and then the biggest of the day in fast water that made a hot run upstream. Faster, moving water was the key and good drifts in that stuff often ended up with bent fly rods.

Late in the day we had some really big winds from an approaching thunderstorm. Jerome managed to get a cast into the wind on a good seam to tag one more rainbow. Then the wind picked up to the point it was unfishable and we rowed to the take out with whitecaps coming upstream.

It was a decent day of fishing in the canyon. The action wasn’t nonstop, but we were hooking fish on a regular basis and Jerome and Eldon landed a handful of nice browns and a bunch of rainbows today.

Dry Fly Fishing

With the fire under control I met Jerome and Eldon at the marina in the morning for a day at Land of the Giants. We started off on the upper river and Jerome stuck a fish right away that came unbuttoned. Then Eldon tagged a nice rainbow to get us started.

Eldon continued to have the magic touch with another rainbow and my first brown trout of the year at LOG. We were averaging one hook up per pass on the upper river and I searched around a few different spots up there for something better and then decided to move downriver.

Once we did that our action improved in the middle river. Jerome and Eldon both landed big slab rainbows and we had several other fish in the net. It was a late lunch and afterward I decided to run out onto the lake. Since it was relatively calm when we got there we took a quick trip down into the Gates of the Mountains to see the scenery.

Once we set up on the lake it was only a few minutes before Jerome had a big, chrome rainbow on the line. When the lake is good you can put a lot of big fish in the net in short order. But the action completely died off after that.

We still had time in the day so I decided to run back up into the river. On the way I noticed a bunch of rainbows suspended in a slow run on the lower river. That wasn’t where I was planning to fish but it was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

We rigged up short leash rods and gave it a shot. Eldon stuck a hot bow on the first pass. Then the guys doubled up with nice rainbows. We doubled again on the next pass. The guys finished up with a bit of a heartbreaker as Jerome came tight on a big fish that ran nearly into his backing and then must have come off in some weeds.

We made one more attempt in there but didn’t get a strike. We had to work for them a little bit today. There were some big ones that got away and some big ones that hit the net. We found trout everywhere we fished, it just wasn’t at quite the same pace as it usually is at LOG.

It was a fun 3 days with Jerome and Eldon on the Mo. These guys are a pleasure to fish with and I look forward to seeing them next year.

Dry Fly Fishing

Saturday I was back in Missoula for day 1, group 1 of the Extravaganza. I was paired up with Ron and his son, Tyler, and we set sail for the lower Clark Fork. I started Tyler with a dry/dropper set up in front and had Ron with a single dry in the back.

The first run produced a cutthroat for Tyler on the dropper and then Ron tagged a nice rainbow on the dry. Immediately after that Tyler hooked up to an 18″ rainbow on the dropper. It was good fishing right out of the gate and that continued for us.

There were a couple more fish in the next run and then Tyler had a massive dry fly eat that scared all of us. He came tight and put a thick 20 3/4″ rainbow in the net. The rest of the morning was steady action with most of the fish on the dry fly and a few on the dropper.

We pulled into lunch in a small sliver of shade in a big back eddy. Halfway through lunch a nice cutthroat started eating dries mere feet away from the boat. I watched that fish eat half a dozen times or so and when lunch was over I switched Tyler over to a small dry and had him make some short casts. 2 or 3 casts yielded nothing and I thought maybe we spooked the fish.

Then he made one more that was just his leader as his fly line bunched up in the rod. He was getting ready to fix his fly line when I saw the fish move out from UNDER the drift boat to eat the fly. I told Tyler not to move and that cutthroat ate his dry fly only 2 feet away from the boat.

That was a sight to see and Tyler landed that nice cutthroat. The early afternoon was red hot as well. Tyler hooked up immediately when we got going again, and then Ron added a big cuttbow on the dry in fast water.

Then the guys doubled up with good fish, and while I had Ron’s rainbow in the net waiting for Tyler’s fish we briefly had a triple double as Ron hooked another fish before Tyler landed a big 20″ rainbow.

That action continued for the next hour or so with several more nice fish in the net and then it tapered off a little. Tyler had a couple other eats on the dry and then he landed one more cuttbow on top before we called it a day. The weather was perfect, boat traffic was light, and Ron and Tyler had a great day on the lower Clark.

Dry Fly Fishing

Sunday I fished with long-time angler Bob. After the results yesterday we went straight back to the same stretch of the Clark Fork. It was cloudy and warm at the put in and I started Bob with a single dry fly. When the first run produced 4 eats and 3 fish in the net I knew it was going to be a good day.

The next spot was even more ridiculous with an eat on almost every cast. The morning was as good as it gets dry fly fishing with several trout coming to the surface in every run. They were fighting hard and putting on an aerial display with a lot of jumps.

After lunch the action continued at a furious pace for an hour or so. Then the sun started to poke out and it tapered off some. We switched over to a mayfly dry and found trout willing to eat that. We had to pull in and work some back eddy seams with a few casts to get them to come up but that produced a few nice ones.

The sun was strongest in the early afternoon and the trout responded accordingly. A long bank that would have produced multiple fish an hour earlier in the clouds only gave up two eats. Then the clouds came back and the fishing heated back up. Bob finished the day with a flurry of action.

His mayfly dry got so beat up that it started to fall apart. Instead of retying we just grabbed the other rod with a stonefly on it and he stuck one more nice cutthroat before we coasted to the take out. It was a single dry fly day from start to finish.

Bob hooked an obscene amount of fish today with a lot of rainbows, cuttbows and cutts from 12-15″ and a handful of fish that were a little bigger. June always produces some of our best fishing of the year, and today was one of those days!