Mon. was the first of two days with Jim Cote and Herb Depp over on the Missouri. Last week I fished with Jim on the Bitterroot for one of the last dry fly days of the Skwala season before local rivers started blowing out. I mentioned how good the Mo had been this spring and he was up for the road trip. It was an easy drive to Craig, and after getting the hotel rooms and a few flies we headed up toward the dam. There were a couple boats and some wade fisherman in the normal morning spots so we started sliding downstream. Jim hooked a decent fish in our first spot and Herb netted a rainbow in the second spot we drifted. We continued making our way downstream to a good inside riffle and the guys doubled up on nice rainbows there. I recycled that spot a few times and we hooked fish on each pass. As I was rowing back upstream I noticed a pod of fish sipping midges behind the boat. We rigged Herb up with a dry and a dropper and took some shots at those fish. The boat angle was bad so I rowed us further upstream and Herb fished to them again, but still no luck. After changing flies several times Jim finally asked me what would happen if he threw his indicator nymph rig at those fish? I told him they would probably scatter like the wind but since we were moving on he might as well make a few casts. He hooked a big bow on the first cast and we were all so suprised that the fish got off. A few casts later Jim was tied into another 19" rainbow and I think we hooked another 5 or 6 good sized fish out of that little spot. They simply wouldn't leave or go down despite strike indicators and split shot bouncing off their heads. That was to become a common theme today. We'd come to a spot where I usually catch them on shallow dry/dropper rigs and we wouldn't touch a thing on the short stuff, but as soon as we switched back to the nymph rig we would start catching fish again. Both guys landed several nice bows and a few good browns as well, but Jim did especially well today with a bunch of big rainbows in the 18-19" range and one that stretched the tape to 20". We pulled the boat out at Craig and were within walking distance to our rooms and a great dinner at Izaak's.
Day two is a day surrounded by rumor, speculation, and controversy. One thing is for certain, it will live on for some time to come. After a breakfast sandwhich and a cup of coffee we drove back up to the dam early so we could have our pick of the water. I rowed up to one of my favorite spots on the river and Herb hooked a trout on the first pass. After that it went quiet and I made several more passes and a couple of bug changes with no luck. I was a little concerned but we moved over to another little shelf and quickly boated three rainbows on a couple of passes before a gaggle of wade fisherman pushed us out of there. We made our down to the inside riffle from yesterday and doubled up on the first pass. Since no one else was around I was able to row all the way to the top today and we hooked at least two fish on each drift. Since the river is up a little from earlier this spring, this spot is a tough one to row back up and after the second pass I wasn't feeling quite right. On the third pass I felt like I was going to heave right in the boat, and on the fourth pass I had to stop the boat and take a walk. Without getting into the gory details, I'm sure some critter was able to enjoy a slightly used breakfast sandwhich on an island of the Missouri. After that I felt great! I jumped back in the boat and we made several more passes and landed nice healthly rainbows on each drift. Eventually I started feeling a second wave coming on and knew I needed easier water to row so we floated down to the next island. As I started rowing up that channel we could see dozens of big bows just laying on that shallow inside. We started fishing and it was a near instant double where Herb landed a 20" bow and Jim an 18". The first several drifts we hooked at least two fish and sometimes three or four on a single pass, and they were all 17+" rainbows. The predicament was that the fishing was absolutely awesome, but I was feeling like death. After the first few passes I had to go get rid of the last of the smoked bacon and english muffin, only this time it brought no relief. I was light-headed, could hardly talk, and barely able to row the boat. To their credit, the boys offered to bail out on the day and head back, but I wanted to stick it out for as long as I could. I did change my shuttle from Craig to Wolf Creek so we could get out of there in a hurry if need be. The fishing was just too good to leave. It was big fish after big fish with Jim tagging a bright 19.5" bow and Herb landing a giant 21" rainbow. We'd hook a couple nice fish, they'd ask if I was OK (the looks on their faces was that of a 10 year old just hoping to stay a little longer at the county fair), and we'd go do it again. At one point I was seriously debating asking Jim to row my boat to the take-out, but about that time we took a break so the guys could eat. Not long after lunch the fishing slowed to where we were only hooking one fish each drift and it started getting crowded with other boats so we looked for new water. Our next spot proved just about as good with a double right away and multiple hook-ups on each drift but the last one. That's when the wind really started to blow and since I still wasn't feeling much better we started making our way toward to take out. We still hooked fish in each of the last two spots we fished, but I was awfully glad to get my boat on the trailer and into the air-conditioned truck. The guys had wanted to fish till around 4 so they could make it to Hamilton at a reasonable hour, but I was only able to last until 2. In hindsight, it was actually a blessing because the wind blew 20-30 mph all afternoon which would have made for pretty miserable fishing conditions to finish out an otherwise great day. We made it back to Missoula and I hit the sack at 5:30 that night and didn't twitch until 9 the next morning.
Now here is the fun part; well, fun for Jim and Herb...not so much for me. I know I am going to catch sh#$ for years about this day. It's to be expected, I certainly would have a lot of fun with it if I was in their shoes. So, for the sake of full disclosure here are the facts of the trip. After dinner the first evening I had a night cap with Herb and then a few drinks with some other guides (sleeping, eating, fishing, and drinking are the only 4 activities available in Craig). I would rate the alcohol consumption as moderate to slightly above, but I was in bed by 12:30 and woke up feeling fine. Still doing good after breakfast and coffee, and the party in my stomach didn't start until 10:30. The effects of which lasted until Wed. evening. Some may claim the brown bottle flu as the culprit, others the salmonella special for breakfast, still others state the drinking water in Craig is akin to Tijuana, and a small faction assert divine intervention in getting us off the water before the guys found themselves bouncing split shot off one another in the 30 mph winds. Whatever the case may be, it's one hell of a story that won't soon be forgotten. Oh by the way, Jim and Herb caught a boatload of great fish, Herb described it as one of his best big fish days ever and I can't wait to go do it again........all but the puking part of course!
After a couple days of fishing early in the week I was stuck in Missoula catching up on things until Sun. when I took my Dad over to the Missouri. We were both busy this spring and didn't fish together once, so I wasn't going to let the chance slip away to get on the water with him for at least a day in the early season. We launched the boat at Craig hoping for some good dry fly fishing further down below the dam. Dad started with a nymph rig and it didn't take long to start catching fish. I think he hooked five rainbows out of one riffle in the morning and most of the other good water produced fish as well. I rowed up a little side channel looking for rising fish, but when we didn't find any I ended up tossing the indicator rig and landing three nice bows before switching to the streamer rod and tagging a fat 18" rainbow. The weather was perfect today, high 50's clouds and no wind and the fishing was very good. The only disappointment was the lack of dry fly fishing today. We had good bugs and clouds, but there weren't many fish up on the surface. It might have been the weekend traffic, but we did find three good pods of fish and managed to stick at least one fish on a dry out of each group. I caught a couple dry fly fish in the afternoon, but otherwise Dad did most of the fishing and he simply drilled them on nymphs. Most were rainbows in the 14-16" range, but we also had a number of fish from 17-19" and a handful of brown trout too. Fishing with my Dad is always a good time, but the perfect weather and easy fishing made today extra special.
Local Missoula rivers are all back on the decline after hitting record high flows for this time of year. If the weather stays mild we may get another shot at area trout before the real run-off sets in. Of course, the Missouri is fishing very well with nymphs, sporadic dries, and streamers and I plan to hit a few area lakes in the next week or so. There's still some great fishing to be had right now so long as you do your homework and are willing to travel a little.
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