Monday Morning Missouri River Fishing Report 6.3.24
Flows 6K.
Water Temps 54F
Spoke with Tyler Stremcha at BOR this am. Says we have not seen all the high elevation snow come off yet. Still freezing in high elevations at night. Run-off occurs when night time temps do not fall below 45F. Flows below Holter should be about 6K for a while. How long? Don’t know, a while. If we have a hot spell, or a rain storm analogous to the previous 2″ raining like cats and dogs event, then the water will push through the system. That is how we could see flows above ve the current 6K range. Levels could increase to 7-8K if that rain and/or hot weather event occur. Monthly Water Report from BOR coming later this week. Of course ,will disseminate to you the blog and fishing report reader upon delivery.
Inflows at Toston 7600 cfs. Outflows at 5916 cfs. Lake levels 92.3% full. 4 feet to full pool.
PMD’s: Arrived at 52F. Some misinformation about there about the trigger mechanisms for insect emergences. Water temps are how insects are triggered. Not flow levels. Below average flows at this moment, do not push the time table forward, of insects. Insects do not care what the water levels are. Nope. Angle of sun, and water temps are the triggers for bugs. Not water level. Localize hatches so far. The bugs take about a week to get rolling strong. The fish start really eating them at this point. But, good reports of PMD success. They are true. Not all day, not great spinner falls yet, as the numbers will increase as we move through the month. Soon, you can set your watch to the spinner fall clock!
Cripples are king. Early on the cripple and/or dun will work. A short window for the dun. A fun period! 14’s will get that big brown to move a bit of rthe fly. The fish are dumb with eh PKD on the early side of the hatch. As easy as dry fly fishing get on the front end. As difficult as they get on the back end. Spinners, cripples,a dn mergers are the primary patterns we use for success here fishing Montana’s Missouri River. 14’s are perfect for the front end. Ephemerella inermis, recently changed to Ephemeralla excrucians, as well as the larger of the two the Ephemeralla dorothea infrequens. Those are the two we see most often here on the Mo.
Check out TroutNut.com for more info on mayflies.
Caddis are in the canyon reach and below. Tan and brown. Trichoptera Hydropyche and Trichoptera Brachycentrus occidentalis are the primary for us this time of year. We used to have a few Trichoptera Brachycentrus americanus (green bodied) and certainly more widespread across American than the occidentalis.
The fish are liking of course the X Caddis, Translucent Emerger or Pupa, Corn Fed always popular, and chopped down higher floating caddis representations. We have great caddis patterns that not all are fishing. Come check out the Best Flies Under the Big Sky @ Headhunters of Craig Montana. Open 7-7!
Midges? Take the back burner as we move into the mayfly bonanza in the moths ahead. Always present in some manner as. there are lots and lots of species of midge here on the Missouri River.
Trico’s? One month. July 1st, if not a bit sooner? Or some years, a bit later. Water temps drive insect emergences, not higher or lower flows.
Grasshoppers? July and beyond.
Nymphers loving the PMD nymph. Popular ones include the Frenchie, and the Split Back. Two Bits, LGM, Micro May, S & M’s, all the Euro stuff of course, Miracle Bugs, narrow bodied brown mayfly nymphs…
Nymphers all over the board on depths. The rule is, if it ain’t working, change it. Change depth, change location, the bottom line is “change”.
Streamer guys getting them on flashy. Coffey’s Sparkle Minnow, Goldie, Skiddish Smolts in town olive and original, Shock and Awe, Kreelex, Dali Llama white and chartreuse, Barely Legal Brown and Yellow, Sculpin Clouser Minnow…
Swingers? A month ahead of swinging soft hackles of the PMD variety on Scandi lines. Oh, man. That is fun stuff!
Rental boats, waders, nets, life jackets, etc at HH of Craig.
Free information. Shuttles daily. 7-7.
See you in downtown Craig Montana.
