Weekend Fly Fishing Report

Weekend Fly Fishing Report

All good here on the Missouri River. It is the middle of June and the bugs are up. The fish too.

Per the last month lots of folks fishing the canyon with less pressure on the upper and lower reaches. The dam seems to be busy though as I was up there yesterday watching lots of bent rods and lots of boats.

Not a ton of bugs out as of yet. Not the massive PMD hatches that we expect int he latter part of the month and in July. Just getting rolling. But with the warm weather and thunderstorms rolling through the area we can expect a larger volume of insects ahead. The caddis will come as the month nears July.

But there are enough to get the fish up on the caddis fly. We love some sort of down winged fly that you can see. Any one of the X Caddis style can work. The X2, the Weilenman’s CDC and Elk, the Iris, Stockign Wing, Cornfed Caddis and many more!

Looks like the weather is cooler this week which will allow some of those PMD’s to come off. PMD’s are notoriously poor emerges so the wind and lightening and so forth can bring those yellow, orange or chartreuse insects into our atmosphere.

Bring some rain gear to the river with you as those intermittent t-storms can bring rain and wind and such to your wonderful dry fly day.

The flows look like they will be stable for some time. Meaning that we are looking at flows int eh 4K range for the remainder of the summer. So get used to it. While we like flows higher than they are now, in the 5-6 range, but that is not what will happen.

Canyon Ferry lake level is currently 97.7%. It is now into the flood pool. Historically they fill the reservoir on the 4th week of June. Looks like we have achieved that already. So what will happen? The controllers of the water say very little. Evaporation is part of the equation too. Braden talked to Stephanie Micek or the BOR this last week and may write a blog in regards to what they talked about.

Inflows at Toston are 9080 cfs and Holter Dam has flows at 5030 cfs.

Dearborn River at 281 cfs and Little Prickly Pear at 72 cfs. Check out all of the flows here on the USGS site.

All good here on the Mo.

Remember to catch more fish on this resource you may need think about your delivery from time to time. Presentation is the most important part of your game. The fly, the depth, and such are secondary. If you are interested in catching more trout, think about your presentation. It is paramount to your success.

Headhunters Fly Shop and Guide Service open everyday at 7am. We will see you here in Montana on the Missouri River.