This Is What I'm Into

It was brutally windy on Saturday; ditto on Sunday. It made finding surface feeding trout challenging. Then overnight into Monday morning it snowed. When I woke up the picnic table at the campground I was staying at was fully covered. I used my car snow brush to clean it off, fired up a propane burner and made a giant cup of hot tea. I had a half day of fishing left and then the five hour drive home, hopefully arriving before dusk to avoid deer on pavement. It was finally calm and the day looked so promising. I wish I had more time. I always wish I had more time.

leopard looking trout

There were some big RV's in the campground. Some were occupied by anglers with drift boats, most however, were hunters. At the campground entrance was a tent. When its occupant got up he walked over in my direction and said something from a distance which I couldn't hear. As he got closer I heard him ask me if I had been finding any rising trout. He said the last couple of days had been slow for him and he had to resort to throwing streamers. He had caught a lot of fish this way but said it was not why he drove all the way from the West Coast.

I shared that I had caught trout on dries but I had to hunt for them, that the conditions had been tough the past two days (wind) and that I wasn't finding a lot of risers. I told him that on this river if you keep moving around and checking different spots, often you could find surface feeders even when it seemed unlikely. I soon realised he knew this. As he talked it became clear he knew the river quite well. I told him that when it is blowing hard I walk island areas and hunt for fish on the lee side. I explained where I had spent the previous day and started to describe the location. He finished my description in great detail and clarity. I said, "Oh, you know the spot".  I described another place I had picked up fish on Saturday and also got to watch several large spawning Brown trout on redds. He knew it too.

shallow side channel with spawning browns

We talked about the river which we are both big fans of. He had been on it for a couple of weeks and clearly had fished it a lot in past seasons. I told him that in spite of it being the first weekend of November and cold, I had picked up some of my best trout by spotting them slowly circulating in shallow areas, and then casting a beetle near them...some takes, more rejections...but some nice ones. I also had some success with olives when a weak afternoon hatch developed. He shared information on how the river had been fishing down near the town of Cascade and explained how to access the water from the east side, something I had never done.

I found out he was from the Spokane, Washington area. I said, "Shouldn't you be chasing steelhead at this time of year"? He said, "I'm not into that" then looked out behind him toward the Missouri river and said, " This is what I'm into." I understood.

Missouri river near cascade