Since the spring, the employees here in the shop have been saving all the discarded/forgotten flies that have been left in our rental Adipose drift boats. The picture accompanying this post shows the flies that we’ve accumulated thus far.
They offer a pretty good snapshot of how the fishing has been. There are rainbow Czech nymphs and sowbugs from the winter/spring. There are tungsten San Juan worms and wire worms from the spring’s high water period. There are purple comparadun and Stormchaser dries from the spring Baetis period. There’s a March brown in the mix as well. Then there are the pale morning dun emergers and rusty spinners of late spring/early summer, some caddis dries and emergers, a yellow sally nymph, a Buzzball, the ants of summer, the ever present Zebra midges, and some streamers in the mix as well.
If you look closely at the photo, you’ll probably recognize a pattern or two that you caught some fish on this year. Czech nymphs, Zebra midges, Little Green Machines, rusty spinners, pheasant tails, CDC and elk dries, Buzzballs, San Juans… These patterns are definitely mainstays here on the Missouri River. Maybe some of the flies in the picture even belonged to you once. A few of them look pretty chewed up…
While cleaning our rental boats in the next couple of months, we’ll probably find some more trico flies, a callibaetis or two, some baetis/pseudo imitations, hoppers, more caddis (hopefully some of the October variety), and the streamers of the fall. Maybe we’ll throw another picture up here on the blog as the collection grows.
What will you be fishing this fall on Montana’s Missouri River? Do you agree on the Boat Fly Review of the Year so far?
Make your own memories this fall here in Craig. Get on it and we’ll keep the coffee warm for you.