Boy do we love Baetis here in central Montana fishing the Missouri River. It is the real beginning of the spring dry fly game.
While the Midge kick it off, the Baetis bring in the dry fly year adding validity to the daily dry fly game. Do they come every day? Mostly. So do the Midge. So we begin to expect dry fly opportunities excellence on a daily basis.
In the shop there are daily questions about the flies we like to fool those sometimes finicky feeding trout.
We like the emergers and flies that sit in the film. Film flies rule. Baetis are all about hanging in the meniscus. So therefor those are the type of flies that our fly guru Ninch fills our overstuffed always stocked fly bins.
Duns are cool too. Who doesn’t like the adult. Cripples are what John, Jared, and Ben Hardy like. Spinners can come in handy too. John is also a fan of the BWO Spinner. Mark likes the Buzzball on everything else. But for BWO’s he fishes the CDC emerges most. Sara digs the small attractor type Baetis like the Purple Haze, Craze families which we do not even have listed. Those are a different category for us, but many like to throw the generics out there and our fish do seem to agree on one thing. Braden likes the bright dun stuff. Max is into the Spinner too.
It’s all about the presentation. And the right fly helps.
So what do we suggest? Any fly you dig. We all have our favorites and go-to patterns. What are yours? If you need a hint do not be afraid to swing by the fly shop. If you want to buy one of everything…two of everything…an even dozen? Why not. Be prepared. Fish well stocked.
We have not included the Para Adams in several post colors we carry, the Craze patterns, the emergent purple flavored filmy’s. That has to bring up the total closer to 60 patterns. Tired of fishing the same old patterns. Try something new this year, this week, on your favorite BWO reach.
Here are the flies as pictured above in some sort of order. Mostly in order as follows…
- Top Row 1: Low Water Baetis, Hogan’s Sipper BWO, Harrop’s Short Wing BWO, RS2 BWO, Harrop’s Captive Dun, Harrop’s Captive Dun BWO, Brook’s Sprout BWO, RS2 Grey
- Row 2: Harrop’s CDC Biot Emerger, Loop Wing Emerger Grey BWO, Indicator Parachute BWO, Para Cripple BWO, Swisha’s Clumpa, Quigley’s Half Dun Hatching BWO, Thor Cripple, Snowshoe Dun BWO
- Row 3: Cripple Parachute BWO, Baetis Cripple, Harrop’s D & D Cripple Baetis, Harrop’s Last Chance Cripple, Sparkle Dun, Sparkle Dun Olive, Quigley’s Sparkle Flag BWO, Silverman’s Stacker Cripple, Nyman’s DOA Cripple
- Row 4: Hi-Viz Para BWO, CDC Wing Para Spinner BWO, Harrop’s Hi-Vis CDC Spinner BWO, Harrop’s CDC Paraspinner Baetis, Silverman’s Stacker Spinner Olive, Passage’s Magic Fly BWO, Nyman’s Black Posted DOA Cripple, CDC Winged BOW Emerger, CDC Winged Emerger Grey
