Beautiful weather and fantastic winter fishing has continued right up through… today.  If you were camping in the back of truck, you woke up to a skiff of white blanketing the Craig area.  26 degrees and snowing lightly at the moment, BUT, it’s supposed to get into the 40’s and turn to rain this afternoon.  Could be good streamer fishing and midging this afternoon if the wind lays down.

John Chase shows off a nice fish he caught yesterday on the lower river.

Streamers that have been producing include Silvey’s Sculpin, Flesh Eating Sculpin, Sculpzilla, and other large, natural colored minnow patterns.  Smaller drab buggers and clousers are also a good call.  A black clouser is as good as anything.

Cloudy with a chance of precip is the forecast for the next few days.  It’ll be colder than it has been, but still nicer than usual for early March.  Midges continue to bring fish to the surface on a consistent basis, and things should only get better in the coming weeks.

It doesn’t seem like it… warm temps, active fish, risers, and plenty of dudes around.  Most of the Headhunters staff and guides were on the river today, and all had good fishing.  Midge activity was intense, and when the wind stayed down risers were pretty easy to find.  Midges were clustering this morning, and it was easy to pick up fish keying on them.  Streamers worked well for Arnold and Heckert in the Canyon.  Lots of Browns looking to eat.  We didn’t nymph… why would you with all the rising fish?

The river remains low and clear.  The weather is warm and clouds are in the forecast.. Headhunters is now open 7 days a week if you need shuttles, flies, tippet, free coffee or whatever.

Izaak's owner/chef John Heckert with one of many nice Brown Trout he caught on a streamer today.

Another incredibly beautiful day on the ‘Mo!  Bluebird, no wind and 50 degrees.  Montana anglers were out in force again on Sunday.  The fishing wasn’t great over the weekend, but it was good enough for most.  the forecast called for clouds, but they didn’t really set in for any length of time.  When they did, fish were up rising and hunting streamers.  Nymph fishign was OK. definitely not what was expected from many anglers.  The best nymphing occurred below the dam.  The usual flies worked.

We’re looking at a solid week of nice weather with moderate winds in the forecast.  Flows are listed at 3900cfs, but it seems lower to most.  Sunken islands are no longer sunken.  You could play football on some of them.  Water temps are recorded at 35 degrees, which is a couple of degrees warmer than usual for this time of year.  Midges are thick.  Headhunters juniour angler Adair was poking around in the river today and brought us back a cup full of mayfly nymphs, scuds and midge larva.  No lack of food for the fishey’s.

We’ll be in the shop most days and always Th-Sun while this nice weather holds out.  Feel free to give us a call for up to the minute weather/water/wind/fishing reports.   1-877-379-3597.

These guys were all smiles while we watched them fight this nice Rainbow on Sunday 2/28/10.

Headhunters 8:00am | 43 degrees | dead calm | overcast | fish rising

A perfect winter fishing day, and it’s a Saturday.  What’s your excuse?  The Dearborn flat was covered with rising fish on my way to work this morning.  It’s gonna be a good day.  Dries and streamers will definitely be in the mix today.  Make sure you have some Griffiths Gnats and/or Buzzballs.  Zebra midges are a must for dropping off the back of dry flies.  Streamers should include Sparkle Minnow’s, Clous-a-bou’s, olive buggers and the Skiddish Smolt.

Nymphs that you should be packin’ include Pink Lightning Bugs, Rainbow Czech, the WORM, Zebra’s and Firebead Ray’s.  We always recommend fishing deep and slow, but you’ll find some fish at the head of riffles today.  Keep you eyes peeled and you should see some snouts.  Fishing a lightweight nymph rig just subsurface will get results in this kind of water.

Quite a few anglers will be out on the water for this time of year.  Don’t let that discourage you, though.  It’s great to Montanan’s out enjoying Montana.  That’s why we live here.

Greenheads are everywhere right now.

The Great Falls Tribune reported today that much of Western Montana is headed into a low water season, but that Central Montana (the Missouri River area) is fairing much better.  The only drainage complex in the state reporting near normal precipitation is the Smith-Judith-Musselshell drainage (just east of Craig), which is at 99%.  Many of the drainage’s on the West side are in the 50-60% range.  Southern Montana (Madison, Big Hole, Yellowstone, etc.) is somewhere in between.  The good news as far as managers are concerned is that we’re coming off of 2 really strong recovery years that have refilled reservoirs and recharged groundwater systems.  Conditions for anglers, ranchers and farmers in Central and Eastern Montana should be pretty good.  Western Montana will need an above average precipitation this spring to bring precipitation levels closer to normal.  (Read the full article)

What does this mean for Missouri River Anglers?
As we’ve been forecasting, 2010 should be a banner year on the Missouri.  Fishing conditions will be better than the past two seasons, especially for wading anglers.  Fish health and juvenile recruitment is phenomenal thanks to the recent back to back high water years.  April, May and June should provide excellent and wadable conditions.  Dry Fly fishing should last much longer this year.  We may be headed into one of those all summer dry fly season like we saw in the early 2000’s.

Currently, bookings in May and early June are a little soft.  It’s going to be good.  Don’t miss it.

In the Meantime
Expect to see the Missouri’s flows drop some more in the coming weeks as managers hold back water in Canyon Ferry Reservoir.  Low water means good winter/spring fishing.

Feb. on the Missouri