Friends and enemies back home in Montana have been telling me for weeks now:
1) How good the nymphing has been on favorite waters.
2) How tired they are of winter.
3) How amazing fish counts are on the Missouri and other rivers this year.
4) How concerned they are about the beer battles brewing.
5) The next week (which ever one) is probably THE WEEK that spring dry flies burst forth in abundance.
My responses:
1) Yawn. Dammit.
2) Yawn3.
3) Fish counts, like exit polls, weather projections, anything your inlaws tell you and all political oration, should be taken with a grain of salt. Even some fly shops agree (image links to article)…
4) So am I. Dammit. Best summary I’ve seen written by a fly fisher was Josh Bergen’s posted Friday. Read it here.
5) After all the hoopla and false predictions – this may actually be the week looking at today’s forecast for the week. Here are a couple of forecasts – for Bozeman and Craig. Much warmer nights help maintain warmer water temps and the upcoming warmish days with cloud cover scream blue wing olive magic.
Flows will obviously bump up as the midlevel snow starts to come off on the warmer days (and if it indeed rains); that just means it’s tailwater time.
Speaking of the Missouri sounds like Jake is mounting a Missouri run this weekend with friends – flows look primo though water temps could still come up a bit. The trend (rising temps) is your friend here.
This just might be the week.
