Mid-June Fishing Report

We've been here a month! Can you believe it?!? This is about the time we got to the river last year. Nice to know that we've had a wonderful 30 days of fly fishing. This last month has been the earliest that we've ever been here and it's been different and good.

Those who know what the fish are eating and have the right flies are catching lots of fish. The water came up to 330 cfs and it's been typical Montana weather. We fished this morning from 10:00 until 1:00 - when the clouds opened up and we got wet. We didn't take our rain gear, but that was OK. (We will the next time we fish.) By 1:00 there were a 'few' other fisherpeople and we'd caught more than our share. We called it a day and got wet walking home to the motorhome. We spent the rest of the day reading, tying flies, and puttzy-ing around the motorhome. There are more campers in the campground than we've ever seen. That's good for the campground owners, but the river can get a little crowded in the easy to reach areas. Most of the campers have boats and fish on the lake, thankfully. We'll have to walk a little upriver or down if we want to get away from the people.

Rick had tied some lemon yellow colored scud-like nymphs in size 18 and they were on the fish's morning menu. This afternoon he tied up some size 16 nymphs that are green to imitate the numerous caddis larva that cling to our wading boots. They are rather large compared to the PMD emergers and if I was a fish I'd go for the larger bugs. I'll let you know if the green caddis larva imitations work or not.

We're starting to see the PMD's flying around, more each day. Today was the second day that I've found a fish continuously feeding on dry flies. I haven't switched up to dry flies yet, but I've started carrying them in my chest pack. Rick keeps egging me to change up, get the splitshot off my tippit, and see if I can catching a rising trout. I probably will the next time I see a fishing hanging in a feeding lane taking off the surface. I told Rick that nymph fishing on a cloudy day is like dry fly fishing with a blindfold on. Most of the time (sunny days) we can see the fish we are throwing nymphs to and we say we are sight-fishing with nymphs. But when the sun is hidden in the clouds and the fish become invisible, you are just casting your nymphs where you think the fish will be. And when they surprise you and take off with your nymph, that's exciting! Totally different than fishing with dry flies on the surface. I'll let you know when I make the change to dry flies.