Finally the choking grip of what seemed like the never ending summer has been broken and fall has managed to elbow its way into Missouri River country. Like most of Montana we’ve been enjoying some nice cool weather since the transition on Wednesday – days in the fifties are a damn sight better than the […]
Missouri
A fair number of the folks who fish the Missouri year round over here are describing the river these days as being stuck in a holding pattern. I’d agree. I don’t give a damn what the calendar says – as in it’s supposed to be early fall – it’s pretty much still summer over here […]
Yesterday we blew through Craig and down the Missouri on the way back to Bozeman from Calgary. Looked for Steve’s boat but didn’t see him; it was pretty smoky along the river and in Craig due to the fire burning over on Holter. The river looked great anyway.
This may be one of the first weeks since I started writing here at Chi Wulff in April that I don’t have much that’s really new to say about the river. Conditions on the river are still pretty typical for this time of year. There are still Tricos in the morning; it’s not that tough […]
Damn it’s been hot this week. It still feels a lot more like summer than early fall, though the heat is pretty standard fare for this time of year. At least we’re not eating smoke from forest fires every day, and there’s still a little bikini weather left, probably at least until Monday given the […]
While some of my friends describe me as living a little recklessly now, I was even more reckless in my younger days. My dad had a saying that it seems like he told me every day back then – don’t believe everything you hear. (He also used to tell me don’t be a dumbass almost […]
There have been a lot of August days over the past decade or so when we’ve been eating smoke (forest fires) and braving 100+ degree heat during the month of August. Seems like those hot, dry, smokey years have a lot of wind too. That’s all been a distant memory this season. This has been […]
What a difference a few days can make. Flows out of Holter are back down after a quick little bump starting last weekend and the Dearborn’s big, muddy spike on the 7th and 8th has finally settled out (mostly, anyway). After a few unsettled days (probably due to a lot of different factors like weather […]
Better batten down the hatches on the drift boat today – odds are we’re going to see some more big boomers this afternoon. Pretty good rains yesterday in the Missouri River country, and big, big rains yesterday and last night in the Dearborn watershed – the Dearborn is already spiking and will likely blow out […]
This is one of those years on the Missouri that you almost have to see to believe. Lots of water, lots of bugs, and lots of people. Canyon Ferry is pretty much at full pool, so flows are going to remain pretty healthy relative to the historical average – flows are 4480 this morning out […]
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 […]
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 […]
