With the river running over 3,000 ft. per second and darkened with runoff, my youngest son Ryan, his friend Jasen and I fished the upper MO where the clarity of the water was a bit better than that of the lower river. The combination of high water and river temp at 37 undoubtedly contributed to a less than desired bite, but with sunny skies, low winds, singing birds seemingly everywhere, and the eagles soaring overhead, it was a great day on the water, nonetheless. Ryan showed us the way, hooking three steelhead, the largest of which, a dark, winter buck busted off when he when airborne. So, “The big one got away,” with Ryan managing to boat only the skipper shown below. Nice fish but not the Boga-stretcher he had hoped for. We also boated resident trout, rainbow and brown, the bellies of which were distended with forage to the point surely of nearly bursting. Reminded me of the 70’s and 80’s when football-shaped browns were the order of the day.
In sum, the steelhead run is building nicely. Stone flies hatch regularly now whenever the sun warms the water. All in all, we’re set up for what appears to be a promising spring steelhead season.
Captain Tom Kuieck
