Looking Back at our October Dry Fly School

Greetings from the Canyon! We finished up our Dry Fly School with the Wet Fly Swing Podcast about a week ago. It was a very rewarding trip for us and a nice change of pace towards the end of our season. We had a really great group of people that were all about throwing dries. We had some absurd weather which made the trip a little interesting but it panned out to be just what we were looking for.

In the days leading up to this trip, we were watching the 10-day weather forecast like hawks. While the Pseudo fishing had been super consistent for dries, we had not seen our hallmark Blue-Wing Olive hatch. Blue wings in the fall need falling water temps to go, and the magic water temp number we’re always looking for is 56 degrees. Once you hit that number the bugs really go. We were having a very mild fall up until this point, and water temps were around 58 degrees with a couple days left until the Dry Fly School. But the forecast showed a little hope for the BWOs. 31 degrees for a high on the first day of the school, with sleet, snow, and 20 mph gusts of wind. Just gorgeous conditions. While the first day looked downright nasty, the following two days were primed for perfect Blue-Wing conditions. Low to Mid 40’s, slightly rainy, dead calm winds. We just needed the water temps to drop a bit.

The first day of the school, we saw the writing on the wall, and decided to do a very late start, and spent the morning talking about the techniques required to fish dries on the Missouri. My Dad and I set up a little presentation with some videos I made on how to read fish, picking the right bugs, and how to set up your cast and drift to get the big fish to eat. We spent the morning in the fly shop talking fishing and doing lots of BSing until we all gained the courage to get out there. I do pretty well in nasty conditions, but this day was especially bad. We waited out the worst of the weather, so we didn’t have the terrible winds or nasty sleet storm, but it was downright chilly. The feels like temp was 19 degrees, so we used lots of HotHands and thermoses of coffee to warm up. But man was it worth it. The Mo’ is a large river, so it takes a huge change in air temp to affect water temps in a meaningful way. This shot of cold weather dropped the water temps right into the sweet spot, and we had our Blue-Wings.

We floated from the town of Craig down the first day, and when we put on around 1:30, the river was alive. There were noses up everywhere, every fish in the river looking for the newly hatched BWOs. Everyone's first day on the Missouri is a big learning experience, as it reads and fishes much differently than most western trout fisheries, especially when throwing dries. This was the perfect day to learn, as it became a very user-friendly river. My duo had a lot of fun throwing to pods of rising fish, but the cold got to us pretty quick. We boated our fair share of fish on dries, and made it to the boat ramp just before the sun dropped behind the mountains. While we all had a kickass day, the whole group was really looking forward to some warmer weather the next two days.

On Day two we all went into the Canyon. The Canyon section is my favorite on the river. The average fish is a little smaller in the Canyon, but they are not nearly as picky as the upper river. There are also massive Browns but that's a different discussion. We chose this stretch hoping to get bigger numbers of BWOs, as the further downstream you go the cooler the water gets in the fall. It was the right call and we had plenty of bugs and rising fish.  I had two different anglers this day, and they were both on the trip as solos. It was cool to start the day as 3 strangers in a boat and end the day as 3 buddies that shared a day on my favorite piece of water in the world. All three boats on the water this day had a ton of fun and learned lots about presenting dries.

Day 3 was approached with a lot of anticipation. We were hitting the upper river, which is kind of a litmus test for the Mo’. The average fish up here is 18- 20 inches and full of piss and vinegar. Breaking off and bending hooks is not a fear, it is an expectation. The pace of water is a little slower as well, so the fish can be a little more picky. Every fish caught on a dry on the upper river is earned, and it takes a lot of skill to connect and land one of these 20 inch rainbows. We hit the water around 10:30, a late start to try and time up our float with the BWO hatch. I had the same duo from the first day, so we were all excited to get back at it on the last day. When we put on, we had some midging fish in the slow water, but no signs of the blue-wings. We fished to some midge eaters for a while, and landed 1 14 inch rainbow in the first hour. While I was certain we were going to see some BWOs, I was starting to wonder when. And then it happened. We started seeing them everywhere. The river slowly became coated with the blue-wings, and the fish started feeding accordingly. We found a corner with a pod of about a dozen, and started throwing some shots. No joke, in 5 casts, we hooked 3 fish, broke one off, bent a hook, then lost another one right after the set. It was totally on. I moved us down to a favorite spot of mine, and we found one of the biggest groups of rising fish I’ve seen during a blue-wing hatch. It could have been 50 fish. We started fishing towards this group, and started putting some fish in the net. All the techniques we worked on started coming together, and we were capitalizing on an epic hatch. After around an hour, we moved downriver, and met up with my Dad’s boat in a stretch of water with tons of rising fish. We hung around each other for around two hours. My anglers would land a fish, then we’d turn around and watch the other boat in our group land a fish. There were plenty of fish, plenty hit the net, and a lot of laughs were shared. We spent so much time in this spot we had to push out to the ramp.

On the way to the ramp, I had to check out one last spot before we called it a day. My front angler, Dede, is an unbelievable angler. She’s been fishing hard for her entire adult life, and it really shows. Anywhere you tell her to throw she’s always on the money. She also fishes all day long, non-stop. But the best part about her is her attitude. She is always positive, doesn’t complain about anything, and is always looking to learn new techniques and skills. We see it over and over again here at the lodge, but the best anglers are always super optimistic on the water. Anyways, I rowed us into this spot, looking for a fish to put an exclamation mark on our day. This piece of water is extremely shallow and slow moving, so precision is of the utmost importance. The fish in here are spooky, picky, and kind of a pain in the ass to fish for. If you throw a bad cast, you’ll see half a dozen fish wake past your boat, giving you the middle fin as they dart by you. We landed a nice 16 inch rainbow at the start of this stretch, and we were pretty satisfied. But as we cruised along, I saw a nose that made the 16 incher look little. The fish was pacing left and right with its rises. It would eat a bug, then move over 3 feet to the left and eat another bug. This type of feeding, mixed with skinny, slow water, makes for a nearly impossible target. I spotted him from about 80 feet away, so we had some time to gameplan. We went over his rising pattern, how close we could get to him in the boat, and the right lane to get him to eat. We had one shot at this fish given the conditions, so we had to hit it just right. We scooted down, got within range, and started the cast. He had just rose on the right side, so Dede put the shot 3 feet to his left, upstream about ten feet so it had some room to float into the fish. The air went still, and we all watched as her fly drifted down to the zone, praying we had the lane right. The fly went into the zone, then a little past it, and I started to believe the drift wasn’t quite right. Then he crushed it. The fish waked over to her bug, inhaled it, then went airborne about 4 feet out of the water. We all went nuts. After a little chase in the boat, we got him to the net. Three days of learning and practicing culminating into one unforgettable rainbow. It was the perfect cherry on top to end an awesome trip.

The dry fly school was such an awesome experience for everyone involved. Fly fishing is about learning new skills and bettering yourself. Dry fly fishing the Mo’ is the epitome of that. It is hard at first, but so rewarding once you get everything to click. It takes a lot of practice to get it right, and it is worth it. For my dad and I, we really appreciated having a group of people where we all were bought into just throwing dries. When you commit all your efforts to that technique, you will get rewarded, but you need to be all in on it and have the right attitude. When it all comes together, there is nothing like it. We are planning a couple more dry fly schools next summer, so if that’s something you’re interested in, let us know. We’ll send out a flyer with some more details later this week, so be on the lookout for that. If you and a buddy are looking to learn some stuff and just throw dries, that’ll be a perfect trip for that. I know I’ll be looking forward to it!