New Craig shop staff member Stephen with his inaugural MO River Rainbow.
Flows below Holter Dam: 4,030 c.f.s. (Normally 4,820 c.f.s.)
Lots of smiling faces and exaggerated fishing stories at Joe’s Craig Bar this weekend. With the warm weather and awesome obscene amounts of wind on the MO this weekend we still saw a lot of folks hitting the water and welcoming the spring by drowning some bugs and getting lots of fish to hand. Nymphing and hucking the bigger stuff is still your best bet for now that is until the wind decides to give us a break. However lots of talk of fish on the surface when the wind dies down even for a few minutes or isn’t screaming so much you can’t hear yourself think, sort of like my ex; just like her, when the wind leaves I wont miss her.
Unfortunately we may be waiting a little longer than we like. Weather for the week isn’t looking too friendly for much of anything, save some time at the vise and breweries planning for the next break in the weather. With cooler temps. in the forecast for the week and the normal amounts of wind blowing off the Front Range its pretty likely the surface game will fall back to less than exciting again for the foreseeable future, but I’m no fortune-teller. What I can tell you, at the risk of sounding obvious, is that the fish wont stop feeding because of the crap weather in our future. Humble fly suggestions below for all you planning on giving the wind & weather the one finger salute and hitting the water this week.
Nymphs: FB Sow Bugs, Rainbow Czechs, Tailwater Sow Bug, FB Rays, Green Machines, Purple Zebras, Mirage Nymphs, RS2 & Juju Baetis
Streamers: Sparkle Minnows, Kreelex, Skiddish Smolt, Jointed Urchin Bugegrs, Thin Mints & Black BH Wooly Buggers.
Dries: Baetis Sprout Emerger, Buzzballs, Griffiths Gnat & Miracle Midge
Freestone Cutty from the road.
Check back tomorrow for the On the Road Report: Lights Out Edition. I don’t throw that term around lightly either. If you’re looking for an excuse to take a drive and check out some local freestone with the potential (remember this is fishing and varies day-to-day) for an epic day of dries and streamers, you’ll want to read this one. Sorry, won’t be telling you the exact fishery but with some common sense, a little research and local knowledge, you should be able to figure it out. Hint #1 is pictured above, vague I know; I never said I would make it easy!
~Cheers, Chewy
