The Missing Link

I have been hiding up on the Missouri River waiting for dry fly fishing to start. We did have a sampling of great dry fly fishing for about 5 days when the river was dropped to 5200 cfs. The PMD and Rusty Spinner fishing was silly. There were 18-20" fish moving 3-4' to eat a dry. That almost never happens on the Mo. Then, they shot the river back up to 10,000+ and the dry fly fishing went with it. Now, do not get me wrong, I'm not a dyed-in-the-wool purist, but as a recovering nympho I was ready to fish dries, and not look at an indicator until fall. The nymph fishing with long leaders was and still is off the chart, with big bows and browns in the 18-20' class eating like mad. I even threw streamers several times and nailed some nice fish. So, with no heads up to dries I was content to row Pam, my wife, down the river for days, waiting to throw a small dry on long leaders. As you will see she landed some fish and hopefully it got me some browny points for later in the summer when things really get hot. There is some great dry fly fishing on Caddis on the Missouri between 8pm and dark with size 16-18 spent caddis, but I normally have a cocktail in my hand and am sitting around the campfire by that time of day. I would like to think that this is what they call maturity and not old age.

The fishing closer to home is just getting good with the Yellowstone River greening up and the visability getting better each day. The rest of the Bozeman water has been back and forth with the evening rain showers, but is fishing well over all. For what patterns are working or up to the minute reports just call The Bozeman Angler at 800-886-9111 and we'll be glad to give you the straight skinny on what's happening. Here are a few pic's of Pam's fish. More browny points!!!!!!