A Strange Year for Fly Anglers

It’s been a strange year for fly anglers.  A day of spring and a day of winter has given way to a day or two of summer, followed by a day or two of spring-like weather.  We’ve also been getting soaked lately and waters that were falling have been recharged and begun rising again.  Water temps have also been rising and falling, turning insect hatches on and off.  Conditions continue to fluctuate.

Not one to miss an opportunity to fish and to see the river in all its moods, I was out yesterday afternoon and evening to see what was happening on the Missouri River.  I usually fish the river closer to Cascade, but torrential rains were causing the Dearborn to puke mud again, so we started above Craig.

With a solid layer of clouds and some rain, we decided to throw streamers.  Good choice.  We were immediately rewarded by some aggressive browns and rainbows.  Black Flash N’ Grabs and a Black Galloup’s Dungeon seemed like the ticket until the PMD’s started coming off in swarms.  Then the streamer action came to a halt.

It was a beautiful sight to see all the PMD’s.  What was not beautiful was the lack of rising fish.  I was out on Friday and the water was just over 11K.  The fish were on the rise and it was looking like dry fly fishing prospects were going to build to epic proportions.  Then the rains came and the river bounced back to 13K.  Despite all the bugs, the fish were staying deep.

For two more hours, we kept throwing streamers to no avail, while we kept an eye out for risers.  Then it finally started to happen.  At about 4:30, the fish must have decided they could not pass up all the yellow protein blobs glued to the surface in the humid conditions.  Rises began and we switched to the dry fly game.

Conventional wisdom says that at the beginning of dry fly fishing season, the fish are dumb.  Well, the first fish I threw at ate my dun pattern like it was his favorite snack.  We figured we were for easy pickings, so we moved on.  We found other fish and tried duns, cripples, emergers and spinners to no avail.  The dumb fish were not eating our flies.  I know they were eating crippled duns because that was what was on the water.  Our spinner patterns were rusty and did not work.  We needed yellow bodied down wing flies.  Should have brought some.

When I was out on Friday, I saw lots of Yellow Sally’s flitting about.  Since I could not successfully match the PMD cripples the fish were eating, I tried a Sally.  Apparently, the fish remembered seeing Sally’s or it was different enough to draw their attention.  In any event, we got them to eat the Sally like it was their favorite snack.

While conditions have been a bit challenging this year, don’t be afraid to get out there.  When you go, make sure you have plenty of flies and don’t be afraid to experiment.  Fly fishing is really fun.  Especially when you find the fish’s favorite snack.  Even if you don’t, you just might learn something valuable when you are out there.