Blog

The Mo is high (15300cfs as I am writing this).  The freestones are dirty.  Lakes get boring quick.  I've been getting a lot of questions recently concerning how to get into fish consistently this time of year.  To be honest, it's kind of a day to day crapshoot.  The first thing that you need to determine is where the fish are at (that is kind of obvious I guess).  I like to think of the analogy of standing in a 100mph wind.  Its not comfortable for you and takes a lot of energy to hold in one place, so you are going to do one of two things; either find cover from the wind or lay down flat on the ground.  This is what fish are going to do as well with exception to fish in faster moving freestones because they're use to fighting tougher flows.  So look for fish to congrigate tight to the banks, behind structures within the river, and along seam lines.  Now that I know where the fish are (suppose to be) at how do I catch them.  9 times out of 10 nymphing is the most successful technique, but this also a great time of year to fish big, weighted streamers patterns on sinking lines (my forte).  For the Mo, the go to nymph setup is 10-12' to 2-5 split shot, then 18" to the first nymph.  Rio's indicator leader is great for this type of nymph setup.  My favorite nymphs this time of year on the Mo include: red SJW, A's purple wild thing, bottom rollers, spaced out bobs, and red copper johns.  For freestones any type of big, rubberleg stonefly pattern is a must along with princes, SJWs, mr. rubberlegs, copper johns, and oversized hare's ears.  For streamer setups, I like to run a 250 grain streamer express line on a short leash (18"- 3' of 12lb maxima or p-line) on a 7 wt. rod.  Patterns that I like include: peanut envy's, Silvey's sculpin leech, big gulps, JJ's, platte river flash fry's, sculpzillas, skiddish smolts, Coffee's sparkle minnow, and many other personal creations of mine.  It is necessary that these are fished deep and tight to the banks.  I generally use the 6 strip rule.  Slap the bank strip 5 to 6 times and repeat.  I also change the color of my fly every 15 minutes until I find a color that works.  Its an experimental process fishing during high water.  There are many different techniques that work just as good, if not better, but these are a couple of techniques that I turn to when the fishing gets tough during high water conditions.  As always have fun and be safe on the water.