As you can see by the pictures of the Lodge, it has been a bit on the chilly side for fishing.
However, if you don’t mind a little snow and cold, you’ll find that it is still great fishing. I went down to the river after work today around 5:30 and fished until 8:30, and was quite satisfied with my decision to tuff it out! Tore it up… Period! 22 fish landed in that time, 6 or 7 of which were rainbows, one big whitie, and the rest were browns. It seems to me that the snow coming down just turns the fish on. And boy, was it on! I was using a Delektable Olive Hurless Stone size 8, no flashback; and my dropper was a size 14 Delektable Pheasant Tail Lil’ Spanker. The first fish was on the second cast, and it kinda went like that the rest of the evening 🙂
I didn’t use any weight (wading the edge and fishing a little shallower water, I didn’t feel any need to put any on) and had my dropper about 25 inches below my top fly. I worked the edge upstream little by little and did very well that way. Working from the edge and fanning out with my casting pattern just kinda creapin’ up the river slowly working the pockets and holes. The water color is getting clearer; I would say 2 to 3 feet of visibility right now (above Cameron, MT). It was a little windy at times but not too bad. Taking breaks warming my fingers up in my neck and breaking ice off guides, my father would say “‘builds character”. It was way cold, but I was catching fish.
Anyway, I had no reason to change flies, because what I had tied on was just working too good (and it was too cold to). I also threw a streamer for about 10 minutes before I got back to the truck, but no luck there. Streamers I’m sure were probably a great choice in the snowy weather, but my fingers and brain were too cold, so I went home. Overall, it was a beautiful snowy evening and I went home very satisfied. Happy fishing!!!
Dan
