The Mo, the Mo, the Mo is on Fire
The fishing was so hot on the MO yesterday, it started a fire. Emily kept her rod bent for several hours.
Will managed to fish around her running and jumping fish and still stay in the game.
On Sunday morning, before the fire blew up, the fishing was very strong. Thankfully the winds held off giving us a fantastic fishy window. Size 20 and 22 Black Zebra’s and Tufted Zebras were on the menu. Many of the fish were hot and landing them was challenging. I’d say it was about a 50/50 on most hookups. I kind of like it like that. You can’t take any fish for granted. You’ve got to focus and have some skill and some good fortune on each hook up. When they take off jumping and running, you’ve got to let them go and then quickly chase them down before they dive into the weeds. When they head into the cabbage, you’ve got to find the right angle to slide them out. This can be really interesting when two fish are hooked and running in opposite directions. I like those challenges.
After lunch, it was like a new day. We started seeing smoke and flames and helicopters and the fishing got really spotty. I think all the sirens from the emergency vehicles must have alerted the fish. Maybe it was lack of attention on the part of anglers who were watching the smoke and the helicopters, but something changed. It might have had something to do with the gusting winds which made boat control, casting, mending and everything needed to sell our bugs to the fish very difficult. Maybe it was the lack of afternoon hatch activity. Not sure about the correlations, but those are the facts.
According to local news sources, the Bray Gulch Fire is burning above Holter Lake and was approximately 100 acres last night. Just as smoke was finally clearing out yesterday, another fire pops up in the back yard. Hopefully this one will get contained quickly. As of now, the road across from the Wolf Creek Landing up the river to Holter Lake is closed.
Will salvaged the afternoon with some streamer eaters. He was tossing a Montana Mini Intruder. He hooked up a hot rainbow pretty quickly and instantly got the streamer addiction.
I told Will to keep working it right into the landing at Craig and he got ripped as I was digging for shore. That led to a chase over the rip rap under the bridge in flip flops. I do not recommend you try it, but I managed to pull it off without major injury. I think Will busted his shin pretty good, but at least he will remember his last fish each time he feels a twinge today.