Overcast brings the Hatches

Today was a rare day in that it was overcast here in Missoula. It's rained only 2 times since I've been here and today actually felt really good. It was very cloudy and we even got some sprinkles of rain. At about 3 o'clock Chris and I walked upstream from campus to the run where I landed the 16 inch bow a few days ago. The rain really brought some hatches out and there were plenty of fish feeding. Hatches included Tricos, some PMD's, BWO's and Mahogany Duns.We fished first above the falls and I caught a small rainbow and small cutt on the pink panther pattern. Then we continued upstream to the run.

There was a good amount of fish rising and I had a nice fish on the Panther but the fish threw the hook when it launched about 3 feet out of the water. I fished up the run more and then saw a big fish porpoise right out of the water. I threw a small sized adams parachute and after he didn't take I switched to a small BWO pattern. I positioned myself directly downstream of the fish as I watched him crush something on the surface. I made a long cast past the fish. I couldn't really see my fly because of the glare so I was guessing where it was. A fish rose to the right so I waited and then I saw a big rise about 15 feet in front of me. I set the hook and it turns out that I guessed right. The fight was on and I called to Chris who was downstream because I knew it was a nice fish. I carefully fought the fish for a couple of minutes and then eased it into slack water. It was a beautiful cutthroat of about 17 inches. Chris snapped a few pics and then I released the fish.

The sun came out about 10 minutes later and the fish became less active. After both of us casted at a nice fish we called it a day and walked back to campus. it was a good few hours of fishing. I will be somewhere tomorrow and will possibly do a float on the Missouri River this weekend with Cody. stay tuned....