If you follow this blog at all, than you know I've been working up on the Missouri a lot the last few weeks. The great thing about this is that the fishing has been great, the weather not so bad, and I'm fortunate enough to have some terrific anglers to row around with. So, sometimes I feel like super guide but it really has more to do with having some pretty good anglers with me in the boat.
I was thinking about that last night and how we've just been "gettin' em" up there so well that the fish just must be semi-retarded right now. Maybe so, but I was reminded of a trip I did up there about 9 or 10 years ago with some folks that had never fished before. I knew the river pretty well back then, probably more so than any other river at the time. I remember we got a few fish, had a good time, but I also remember hoping to GOD that we didn't hit the boat ramp the same time as everyone else because they were "hammering" the fish that day and we were NOT.
The fish hold in the same spots and eat the same bugs, minor tweaks here and there, but overall I think the biggest part of why we've been getting them so well has more to do with my clients than me. Hopefully none of them read this! I like fishing the MO and the Big Horn with people that I've been fishing with for a few years as they know the "drill" and go to those kinds of places with me more for the catching than the fishing. We always seem to work well together and share the highs and lows of every drift and usually end the day with a sense of the why, where, and how of the whole experience.
The waters around Bozeman are getting pretty chunky once again and it's supposed to warm back up next week so I'd bet that there is going to be some dirty water to be found around here for a couple of weeks at least. The Yellowstone should be gone for a month, the Gallatin at least a few weeks, Jefferson is gone, East Gallatin is gone, small streams are gone and on and on. The Upper Madison should be pretty junky too by the end of next week as Cabin Creek below Hebgen goes along with the West Fork, Indian, Ruby, and more. Hebgen dam releases are scheduled to be around 700 cfs so the majority of the water flowing through the Madison Valley should be coming from these tribs as they begin to do their spring thing. The lower will probably be the best bet, hopefully they'll pump it up to around 3 grand once Beartrap Creek and Cherry Ck really get going. The MO is good though, the Bighorn not so much.
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