The Year of the Brown 2010

…and therefore 1 month closer to fabulous dry fly fishing.

Until then, nymphing is the game.

According to the gaggle of guides that just traipsed through the hallowed doors of Headhunters…the WHITEFISH bite was on today.

A significant drop in the old barometer will sometimes make the river fish as though there is not a single trout in the resource. You would think there had been a chemical spill upstream, that specifically targeted the wily trout. And when the trout do bite the fly, they run so hard and fast that the tippet strength has no correlation in landing rates.

The most common phrase of a Missouri River guide, “Let ‘em run, let ‘em run, let ‘em run. No, he did not spit it. I’ll tie on new flies now.”

These fish are strong! Steroid strong, as a client of mine recently said. There were some expletives thrown in for good measure.

Flies of the Day included: Little Green Machine, Red Headed Step Child, Rainbow Warrior, Rainbow Czech, blah, blah, any small PT like a green lightening bug, Craven’s Ju-Ju Baetis, Morrish’s Anato-May olive, Kyle’s C-N Superflash PT, Bubbleback Baetis…all in 16-20.

Hoppers were looked at but not often eaten. A few, said the guides, not a lot.

Try something other than a traditional hopper. Try PMX’s, beetles, ants, anything goofy looking in your attractor box. Even a Stimulator can be effective.

September is here and so is our most productive nymphing month. Hardcore nymphing client come out and are tuned into the bobber.

Bodycount bobber fishermen unite.

Lots of anglers fishing at the dam. Guides, Rec anglers, and wade fishermen alike

Lots of fish stacked up at the dam. It is a “Circus w/o a Tent”, as Capt. Scott Yetter would say. Lots of boats circling the wagons engaged in row-arounds to get the big ones. Average fish is something to behold. Etiquette amongst these anglers is imperative. The rule is, do what the majority of these guys is doing. Follow suit.

As for the fishing report: Still tough. Synonym: Not hot.

The inclement weather has slowed the hopper bite, as rain will do that, but has not damaged the subsurface show.  Fellows, and females at the dam have been getting them on…Cheesemen emergers, WD-40’s, Love bugs, Zebra’s, Pearl LB’s, Midge Modgers in red& black, small rainbow Czech’s, Black, Beauty’s…and the like.

There have been guides fishing the entire river, and with limited success. It is how you perceive success. Is 1 giant brown on an attractor your view of success? If so, the river is on fire. Nymphing below Wolf Creek is good if you can dodge the weeds. They will inhabit the water column for another month. But will dwindle with the tides. High line speed casts, and the ability to “snap” the fly from the water with a haul are both effective ways to dislodge the ubiquitous weeds.

Those fishing well down river have not had great catch rates. Fewer folks will pressure the fish anywhere below Craig, so if you are after solace, go down my friends.

As for Caddis and Trico hatches…yes, there are opportunities for dry fly fishing. They are few and far between. Headhunters will need to look closely in ‘fishy dry fly water’ for dimples. They are catch-able, with the difficult task being locating these little devils.

Pseudo’s will come off in droves daily depending on the conditions. Overcast, rainy…like today, will bring these fellas for their surface exodus. Try shortening up the entire rig, like at the 1 foot level. @ beadheads can get the job done. Trust it, and fish it near bank lines and shallow center river bars.

As for Pseudo dries. Ya, we got ‘em. As for Pseudo dry fly fishing? It’s for the birds.

Temps for the week: 61, 63, 61, 68, 77…still summer?

Pink Morrish strikes again...

Ditto.

Same report as the last few.

Dam Flies: Small midges, Zebra’s, Black Stallion’s, Black Mercury Midge, Black Beauty’s, small midges. See a theme?

Below the Dam stretch: Pink Morrish Hopper’s, sz 6, or there abouts.

Headhunters Open daily @ 7am. Open late til 8pm. Stop in, chat with our crack staff and for the up to date skinny.

Nice one Len...

Leonard from Spokane with a beatiful brown from this last week. Len fishes here often. He used to fish the St. Joe, the Clark’s Fork, and other river more often. Then he made his first trip to the Mighty Missouri.

He makes fewer trips to those other rivers now.

Piggy's near the dam

Lots of corpulent rainbows caught near the dam in late August and early September. The water is cooler and the oxygen  content is high. So, therfore…

Fish the tiny stuff up there. Midges are the key to success. It changes daily, and sometimes hourly…the feeding behaviors of the sometimes finicky dam fish. The rule is…change depth, change profile, change fly. That’s the order most of us adhere to. Most of the time, or some of the time. Remember: It’s fishing, there is no hard and fast rule.

Still healthy late in August...

As for the flies, and the fishing report…

Nothing has changed, I’m afraid. Lots of guides, rec boaters, and anglers hovering around the top 1 mile of our wonderful resource. Some folks asked me if we always and only fished up top. No, just when necessary. The water is cooler, the ….

Today the hot tip was a Miracle Midge, a Rainbow Warrior, a Black Zebra, a Pearl LB…Fly du Jour. Tomorrow it will change. The damndest thing is that I do not get the memo for the feeding times, styles, and fly selections til it’s too late. A breakdown in communication.

Scumliner, John, is in BC for a few weeks shasing the wild steelhead…so, SOL, Mark, me will be scratching this report out. Take it with a grain of salt. I know you will, you are the most intelligent fly anglers of all time.

Hopper fishing at it's best...

The hopper bite may be waning. Fewer eats per mile is to be expected. If you only get five eats in 8 miles, and one of the fish is 23 inches…is that enough to make the day?

I think so…

Love the colors of this brown...guide Mark Raisler

Pretty tough if you are a staunch dyed in the wool Headhunter. Decent Trico hatches, but very, very few fish are ineterested. So, if you remember the good old days and want to find rising fish bank to bank, you better look pretty hard. But, if you enjoy nymphing and hopper fishing, you are in luck!

Most of the guides and most of the non-guided boats can be found rowing around in circles near the dam most mornings. Then the most common afternoon program has been floating to Craig and enjoying cold beverages on Izaak’s porch.Some anglers fishing down stream, and if you need solace, it can be had below Craig. This is the softest tow weeks of the year for the Missouri and it’s anglers as most of you folks are getting kids back in school, headed out on a family vacation, or are hunkered down inside with the A/C blasting.

Dam Flies: Kuhnert’s Zebra Midge, Craven’s Ju-Ju, WD-40’s, Hogan’s Drowned Midge, Downey’s Mr. Ugly, BH Cheeseman Emerger, Kingrey’s Ice Nymph and the like.

Everywhere else flies: Lots of PT stuff dangling from the perpetual Rainbow Czech Nymph. Green LB’s, FB PT’s, Quasimodo PT, Little Green Machine, Craven’s Ju-Ju BWO (it’s purple!), Arnold’s Grape Slushy, Arnold’s Sili-Scud, some caddis pupa stuff, but it is certainly waning. We will see a resurgence of a cinnamon caddis in September, so don’t put that box away just yet.

This guy does not miss meals...guide Cap'n Carp

For those of you who want to go big, fluffy dry fly fishing we like Morrish Hoppers in all colors, Whitlock’s Rubber Legs, Bloom’s Hopper in Tan/Yellow, Berrets Hopper, Stalcup’s in all flavors, and the penultimate Noble Chernobyl.

Other terrestrials include a Bloom’s Cinnamon Ant, black ant, Neversink Trudes big and small, Silverman’s Sparkle Stimulator, or any sexy attractor in your box.

The weekend is over, the touristas have returned home…come see us for a mid week fishing extravaganza!