Springsanity

 

Wow.  I just realized it's been over 40 days since my last fishing post.  What the heck have I been doing?

Well anyways, here comes a very belated spring break (and then some, a lot of then some) roundup.  I guess some things fall to the wayside when you're buying a house (more on that later), moving, and trying to keep up with your professional and academic duties.  The blog is one of those such things.  Never fear. Moving done. Semester over. The bum is back in the game. 

Missouri River Gold

I've still been fishing during this blogging drought.  I'd have to be in the hospital, or jail, not to get out on the river.  So here we go, as I poorly attempt to try to cram a month and a half's fishing into a few paragraphs. 

Let us go back to the beginning of April and start our recap there.  Fortunately our spring break falls yearly around the first week of April which usually coincides with some of the best fishing of the year.  BWO's midges, skwalas, western march browns, and plenty of nice fat pre-spawn fish highlight this annual weekly fishing marathon.

Fellow Bitterooter Jay with a solid dry fly cuttbow

The first several days of break focused on my home river, the Bitterroot, and the action was steady with solid fish regularly eating the dry.  Most skwala seasons are so-so, with maybe a handful of days when it's really on.  By on, I mean multiple eats on every bank, multiple doubles, and the like.  This year however, thanks in large part to good flows, the hatch seemed to last longer and was more consistent than in most years.  Believe me, the skwala hatch on the Bitterroot is one of the most over-hyped and over-fished hatches out there.  but even so, when it's good, it's good.  But I digress... 

Doubled up on the Mo'

The latter half of spring break's events turned eastward, over the continental divide to the mighty Missouri.  The nymphing was off the charts, and once you got the boat online, the action was steady to say the least.

I actually didn't fish much to tell you the truth, just enough to satisfy my desire to play tug of war with those hot Missouri fish and tag a few on dries.  The rest of the time was spent rowing and de-facto guiding some friends who were new to the river.  To tell you the truth I had just as much fun watching them hookup and land fish as I would have been catching them.

This was the first trip of the year for the Fly Fisher's of the Bitterroot Crew.  Lots, and lots of big fish were caught by all those in attendance.  For several of our members this was their first trip to the mighty Mo.  I love the reaction of those who hook up with their first big Missouri 'bow, and soon follow that up with a 30+ fish day.  Welcome to Disneyland folks!  You'll never look at trout fishing quite the same way again.

What a great week.  Only 11 (yeah, that's how late this post is) 10 months to go before spring break 2014!  

Club Member Doug with a Mo' Two Hander

My last great dry fly day of the season occurred a few weeks ago.  Alec and I set sail in the gray whale under threats of possible blizzard conditions.  The snow held off for most of the day (good for us), and apparently the forecast had everyone other angler in the valley spooked (also good for us), as we never saw another boat all day.  The action was consistent all day long with the fish eating exactly how they're supposed to, crushing big dries.  All we needed was a single Skwala dry.  It would turn out that this would be my last Skwala day of 2013.  What a great way to say goodbye to the spring dry fly season.

Love Those Colors