Report: 4,280 CFS of 54 degree water is trickling out of Holter Dam today. It’s been busy out there at the boat launches with all the holiday weekend traffic. Most campsites are full and the river is filling up with boats. Most of that should die down tomorrow as the weekend warriors pack up their campers and head for the cubicle. The good news is that there are plenty of fish in the river and they don’t seem to mind all extra traffic. The fishing is still excellent and there are plenty of opportunities to catch a nice Missouri River trout on any method that suits your fancy.
Dries: BWO’s are everywhere in the river. Duns, spinners, and emergers are all working at some point during the day. Short leashing a small emerger pattern off the back of your dry seems to be the best way to tackle the tough fish that are sipping on top. Billy really likes Hoagan’s Sippper in size 18 or 20. Brock will go for a RS2 as his dropper. The Caddis are around in the lower river and people have been able to catch a few on top with their favorite caddis pattern. The fish are’t quite ramped up and eating those mothy critters yet. March Browns have been a pretty good hatch this year, larger patterns in size 14 and 16 are fooling the fish on top.
Nymph: Anything that looks like a mayfly and has a little flash on it seems to be the bug of choice. Lighting Bugs, Love Bugs, Flashy PT’s, Hare’s Ear, Mirage Nymphs, Golden Child, and MFGs. Just add split shot and a bobber. Try not to spend too much time chasing your bobber down stream, the dry fly fishing has been too good.
Streamer: Streamers have been fishing well throughout the river. With the water temps increasing, the fish are pretty active and are chasing down a more aggressively-stripped streamer. A big sink tip is less critical now with the low clear water and warmer temps. The fish seem to like lighter colors and will be on a better streamer bite when there is good cloud cover over head.
Weather: 60 degrees and raining for the rest of the week. Keep the sunscreen at home and bring on the rain gear! The fishing will be great and we could use the moisture.
