Monday Snow Day, Trout Spey, & Shop w/Headhunters
Cold and snowing today here in the Missouri River canyon. We like it. While it is colder than most would like for tossing a fly into the famed winter waters of the Missouri River there will be a few tough guys out there making it happen.
It will be quiet. This is arguably the quietest 2 week period of all 12 months. Many folks have lots of other priorities now that we are in the heart of the holiday season. I understand. Lots to do.
Shop w/ Headhunters this Holiday!
We are however in the store 8-5 and sometimes beyond taking Christmas orders, boxing, and shipping kick ass fly fishing stuff daily. The phone is ringing as well which many of you cementing your 2017 fishing plans. A good idea is to get your dates set before the booking craze that starts after Christmas. Lodging goes very quickly for the June and July periods. Also the Spring Special from mid-March through the end of April disappears rapidly as well. The early bird does get the worm.
Our on-line store is not the only place to shop. You can visit the store here in Craig, or you can also call us on the Christmas Headhunters Hotline! 406-235-3447 or 877-DRY-FLYS. Your choice. Operators standing by. Would it be appropriate to say …“waiting with bells on?”
Order anything you want up and we will diligently box it and pop it in Santa’s Driftboat Sleigh.
Monday Snow Day
Shoveling my driveway this mooring and will be for the week ahead. Not a ton of snow in the forecast but the air temperatures will be the lowest we have seen since last winter. Temps near 0 for the front end of the week warming toward the weekend. The weekend will have fishable temperatures in the low 30’s.
So slow out there today as the fish put on their SIMMS DownStream Jackets. The rest of us staying inside cleaning up front he season, checking our Trout Spey gear twice, and dreaming about getting out there again.
Water temps will be dropping with the advent of real winter weather. The flows are up to combat the Zebra Mussel new break this last week. They are lowering the level of Canyon Ferry reservoir to freeze out the possible Zebra Mussel near the shoreline this week. More on that later as we get concrete news about the information out there. The initial news is that there are not actual Zebra Mussels at Canyon Ferry but some sort of sign? Remember, only sketchy accounts. So some solid news later in the week.Can’t wait? Read the DNRC Fact Sheet here.
As you can see the water temps are dropping towards their winter plateau around the 35F zone. Sometimes the winter temps are below that near 33F and other winters we find it hovers around the 36F mark. So, time will tell. For now the temps are quite fishable. If you need gloves and hand warmers see us at the shop on your way to the river.
Weekend Spey Clinic
A attendance rate of about 80%. Some of the guests signed up found other things to do while the strong came out and found that the weather cooperated and the winds forecast did not bother us. Yes, was there a breeze? Of course. It is Montana, it is the Missouri River. NEWS FLASH: The wind blows here.
A diverse crew Saturday with some experienced spey casters, a couple intermediates, and the remainder beginners. Fun times with all improving throughout the day. John presents the nuts and bolts of the Spey game in our classroom setting fully supplied with home baked pastries from Kelli, our fabulous booking staffer. Whoa! Good eats both Saturday and Sunday. I ate a couple platefuls each day. Coffee too. Fellowship? Yep. Information? Tons. John presents a PowerPoint overview of gear, terms, history, where the sport is going, pictures and videos.
Sunday’s class was full of novice spey casters. So ground zero for all. They all took flight on Sunday. Sometimes we hear that spey casting must be difficult. It is not! Although it is not a technique that you can master through YouTube videos. Videos are great after you achieve the fundamentals of the cast. And that is where Headhunters enters the equation. Education is imperative to create a solid foundation for you to grow as a caster and angler. Free education is part of the Headhunters mission here in Craig Montana.
Check out the Headhunters Fly Shop Trout Spey Lineup here on John’s recent blog. Worth the Monday read if you have not already seen it.
If you need even more HH today this Monday, check out our Instagram feed for recent TroutSpey videos, still, and such.
