One picture (ok it’s really a graph) tells a lot of the story on the Missouri this week – check out the drop in flows this week…. Fish have been looking up in a major way all week now, though folks patient enough to nymph have been and will continue to do very well. It’s […]
Missouri River Steve
Real summer is settling in on the Missouri. In my mind that summer means at least four things on the Missouri – One, flows are settling into their (typically) lower levels. The dam boys finally dropped flows yesterday after a false start on Wednesday – the river is still far above seasonal average flow for […]
The river over here is entering one of those magic windows – flows are still running a bit on the high side at 7800 to 7900 cfs though they’ve been stable now more or less since the afternoon of the second. The bread and butter dry fly action is on PMDs and Caddis (the evening […]
There will be two reasons to party in Craig this weekend. Here’s a copy of the Water Order Change from none other than the US Department of the Interior – flows will drop to 8730 cfs this afternoon at about 1600, and to 7230 tomorrow afternoon. The official paperwork is courtesy of my friends at […]
Rains in and about the drainage have really pushed flows – check out the bumps on the flow chart…. Canyon Ferry is in the flood pool – it’s 23.2% full as of yesterday with inflows almost pushing 14000 cfs (13,862). We’re looking at these flow levels for a few more days at least, and warm […]
Now it feels like summer on the Missouri. Flows are back down in the 5000 cfs range; above the promised 4100 range but well below the typical for this time of year. Fish have settled back into their standard haunts for these flows and hatch patterns, and water temps are prime. I for one never […]
Before last weekend’s blast of cool (cold for some of you) air, despite flows rolling along at around 8500 cfs, we were enjoying some great fishing on the evening Caddis hatches, with some PMD and Callibaetis action as well. The Caddis got nailed by the cold, but will be back this week as the weather […]
Particularly considering the condition of most freestones around the state right now, some of the best fishing in the neighborhood state just might be on the Missouri right now. Flows remain quite a bit above average out of Holter (this AM at 0500 11,200 cfs with the average for today around 8000), and when you […]
The Missouri fished well over the holiday weekend and into this week despite the rain, with once again the most productive fishing being subsurface on nymphs more than streamers. Every May and June I’m really glad to be living on one of the greatest tailwater fisheries in the world that doesn’t totally blow out when […]
The Missouri is in pretty damned good shape all things considered this week. Canyon Ferry is just a bit over 80% full and even though upper Missouri flows have spiked dramatically like almost all freestones in the state over the past few days, flows out of Holter have been more or less steady. Flows were […]
Despite the hefty flows rolling out of Holter these days (8330 cfs this morning) the Missouri is fishing well, particularly from the dam down to the Dearborn. This has definitely been the week that the river has turned on; my guess it’s water temperature that’s done the trick. There have been some bugs on the […]
Here we are again. It’s early in the second week of May, there’s a damned healthy snowpack sitting in the Missouri headwaters’ drainages, the reservoirs in the system have a lot of water in them, and flows are cranking up. This week’s flow chart says it all – The fishing report is sort of good […]
Had to run to Helena today – haven’t seen this one before.
Damn these big April storms. I’m gonna have to get a snowblower with some power. I got just right at two feet of snow at my cabin this past week with drifts easily pushing four feet. People were stuck everywhere, and it’s going to be muddy and crappy when it melts around here – the […]
The weather is acting pretty much like it’s supposed to for April; last week we had highs pushing 80 early in the week, and yesterday it was snowing like hell for a while. It was 12 last night at my place near Craig, and highs today will only be around 40. The big news is […]
