Joe and I worked a few days on the Missouri out of Craig the last few days. We had a dad and his adult sons who had limited experience fly fishing. They picked it up quick though and quickly stuck a ton of mo bows under the indicator and had an awesome trip.
We finished up a little early the third day with our guests wanting to drive back to Missoula in the early afternoon. They had their own rig and were driving away from the boat ramp when Joe said, “hey, you want to wack some fish”? “No I’m driving to Helena to take care of a couple of things” I stated not really wanting to fish but pondering the idea. “All right lets row out here on this flat,” I grumbled, we still had one drift boat in the river. “But I am going to nymph fish” I blurted out. “Really,” Joe says and looks at me in disgust “trout are rising, and you are gonna bobber fish. We’re gonna stick em on dries, I can’t believe you are putting on an indicator” Joe snarls.
Actually I just wanted to see if I could set the hook like I’d been screaming at my clients to do the last 3 days. I knew the nymphing would rock, but Joe guilted me into taking off my indicator, and tying on a size 22 bwo/midge dry. “They aren’t rising for shit, these one timer, popcorn rising, in a blanket hatch eating every 53rd midge” I scoffed.
Joe shot some line at a handful or so of these inconsistent rising trout. He made some slick casts that I wish I could, but the results where what I expected. I shot at some to no avail. These fish are the one time, splashy, no rhythm bastards that I usually hope my clients don’t see rise. If my guys see them we usually waste an hour or of our day, laced with frustration and the client always telling me “It must be the wrong fly, as he piles his leader into the water and drags a wake in front of a scared trout. Most guides know the difference in rising fish that can be readily caught, and those that can’t be. It was just as I thought, no hookups!
So Joe says “the hell with it I am going to stick some fish under the indicator”. He then sets up his nymph rig, hops out of the boat and wades this flat. Talk about contradiction, I’m thinking, Mr. never nymph. I was stubborn though and was determined to get a fish on my dry fly. In a matter of 15 minutes Joe hooks and lands 10 or so trout and I’m still casting to these ghost risers. Finally a real colorful brown sips my tiny dry and I catch one to Joe’s 10.
Trout fishing is still fun as hell. We are out so much and we work so hard to get our guests fish that sometimes we might forget how much fun trout fishing, and hanging out with friends on the river can be!
“Smile any time you are on a river in Montana, because there are a lot of people that aren’t, but would like to be here” Brooks Jessen