The fishing report from this crawdad to yours on a Father’s Day weekend on the Missouri River

The flows are going up a bit, 3110 cfs a wee bit below the median of 7970 cfs.  This is causing the fish to be a little more stacked up towards the middle of the river in most places.  Canyon Ferry is 83% +/- full and going up. What is the forecast for our flows the rest of the week? Who knows…There are plans to let more out, but plans are just that. Only time will tell what happens to the flows here around Craig. You can check out the flows, Canyon Ferry levels, weather and snow pack (when we have some) on our Streamflow page.

The fishing has been pretty darn good to fantastic.  There are more Caddis out now and fish are looking for them. BWO’s are still around and you’ll see a few PMD’s as well -and Midges of course. A good searching set up is a Caddis Dry (Elk Hair, Parachute -whatever will float well and you can see) in about a size #14 or #16 and drop a small nymph off the back (Lightning Bug, Pheasant Tail, Soft Hackle, Zebra Midge, etc) in about a size #16-#20. The “deep nymph” rig will also get you into trout but keep in mind the river is not that deep so 4′-6′ fly to indicator is about right. Play around with that as you fish spot to spot. We are finding fish in some pretty skinny water (8″-24″) and they are feeding well in those riffles. A great fly to fish after all these rains is the nasty ol’ San Juan Worm. It’s not bait fishin’ if you’re matching the hatch -and worms are the “hatch” after a rain storm! They actually do wash into the river and trout love them -especially big trout -so don’t go dissing the SJW. Our favorite worm right now is the Squirmy Wormy! A crazy, stretchy, wiggly thing made out of children’s rubber toy. Another good technique now is streamers. Clouds always make for good conditions for streamers.

Stop by either of our shops before you head out and we’ll help you get the right stuff for the rivers.