Headhunters Friday Fishing Report 6.17.16

Headhunters Friday Fishing Report 6.17.16

Friday Fishing Report goes like this. All good in this neighbor hood. For those who always email, call, and plead for us to let them know when it is good enough to come on out, this is the call.

Get on out here if you like to dry fly fish. Today is the day for more fish on the dry. Headhunters Fly Shop is built on the dry fly concept. Headhunting is our favorite thing to do. It is all I want to do for the next couple months. Period. Nymphing is a great game to play when there is not too much happening on the surface. Nymphing is a good way to put up some numbers. Nymphing is a good time when the river surface activity is low. Nymphing is a good thing when the fish are not rising.

But that time has passed. It is now time for the dry fly. So get out there and fish the dry fly.

Pale Morning Duns

PMD’s are here in full force. Hatches daily. PMD spinner fall can happen at any time during the day. Look for the spinners on the water and change it on up to the film fly. The traditional poly wing feller is a good one. The orange tipped Harrop CDC winged guy is good. The narrow biot bodied feller is a great one. As the hatch progresses the diminutive versions seem to get the attention of those finicky sipping trout better than the fluffy ones we can see.

Cripples are a good idea as well. From the poly winged DOA to the CDC winged Harrop’s patterns to the Quigley’s you cannot go wrong most of the time fishing a cripple pattern on the Mighty Mo. Most guides would not be caught dead without a wide selection of cripple flies in their boat bag. Long time Missouri River anglers are in the same boat. Emergers are not a bad idea either.

How about all of the rest? Transitional duns. Half Duns. Trapped duns. Captive duns. You know. All of the rest. PMD’s can get in a stage that the fish just love but drive the anglers nuts.

We will try to explain that there will just be certain periods of time that we can see them rising, or almost (actually just under the surface when you can see the dorsal and some wiggly movements that are not actually eating duns off of the surface and not actually eating flies off of the surface but sometimes anglers just cannot believe that they are not rising and will not listen to reason at all and will just keep asking questions that cannot be answered because the fish are not actually eating on the surface but the angler just is not understanding that the fish are not eating on the surface at that moment…just because you can see them near the surface and sometimes some of the body or dorsal or tail or something is visible near the surface or actually poking through the surface the fish are not eating the bugs from the surfaced they are actually eating something under the surface and they, the angler is quite dumbfounded because all of the DRY FLIES they threw at the fish did not get eaten at all and that is so strange because they can see the fish, but it is not actually rising to flies on the surface but actually eating the flies subsurface and they continue to quiz us about some sort of dry fly that will work but not understanding that the trout is not eating from the surface…and then it starts over again, and again, and again) All true in the parenthesis. I really don’t know why people use parenthesis when it is generally important info. Or I guess it is side info? But that is why I became a fishing guide as opposed to an English Teacher.

So, try something below the surface. Like an unweighted pheasant tail. OR some =sort of soft hackle. Or some type of fly that is not on the surface. Or some sort of fly that does not result in the fly resting on the top of the water. So we suggest a fly that rests below the surface. And we got lots of them.

We have a couple sizes of PMD’s and they are the 14 and the 18. Sometimes we can fool the fish with a size 12 and sometimes we must get on down to the size of 20. But the big ones work early in the season, like now, and the smaller ones work well in the latter portion of the hatch, like in mid July and on to August. If they hold on that long. Having gotten started early this year we expect them to be gone by the latter part of July.

Caddis Flies

Night time on the lower reaches of the river are real good. Try floating Prewitt to Pelican after the crowds have gone to the bar. You will be rewarded. Drakes soon enough and we will see some late activity as we move towards the next couple weeks.

Love the caddis patterns that lie in the water and do not float too high. The high winged bugs are good for the angler to see but not too good for the fish to eat. We have an amazing caddis fly selection at Headhunters in Craig. Form CDC to hair wing to synthetics we got all the bases covered.

Caddis Fly Tip: Try dangling a soft hackle or emergent pattern from your top floaty fly. We like the Translucent series including the pupa and the emerger. Both real good for catching trout. A soft hackle is always good. How about the Fuzz Face. Half a Chicken? Some sort of CDC winged deal that is not greased? A good insurance package.

Streamer Anglers

Streamers? Why not? If you don’t like to catch them on top you may as well toss the big lunch. Been pretty good on the streamer this last week with some overcast and rain. Some of the less flashy stuff has been the best. Strange for us to even say. Yet true.

Headhunters Fly Shop

Open daily at 7am. All kinds of killer logo wear. We have got you literally covered up in Craiglandia gear. All kinds of creative and fun T’s, hats, and fishing shirts for you to proudly wear around our fishing town, and yours back home. 50+ styles of hats in store, 20+ T’s, and the only SIMMS dealer on the river. We stock all 22 sizes of SIMMS waders for your wading pleasure. And women’s clothing as well. A bigger selection than anyone on the Mighty Mo. Hands down. We love women anglers here in Craig.

If you need lodging you would look up www.CraigLodging.com for nearly 30 different lodging options. How about www.CraigTroutCamp.com The most lodging opportunities in Craig. 6 cabins in downtown Craig. Come and fish, park your car, and walk to the river, the fly shops, Joe’s Bar, and Izaak’s Restaurant. Easy-Peasy.