Team Zimmer on Root.

With Missoula’s rivers blown – I spent a couple quality days guiding on the Missouri this past weekend.  We caught plenty of fish but more importantly they came to every technique we used.  The bwo and midge hatches were as sustained as I’ve ever seen, plenty of small fish up on them but we found a few pods of good ones and were able to feed a few griffiths gnats on light tippet.  The nymphing was exceptional with the rainbow czech nymph doing the most damage early then they switched to lightning bugs and pt’s.  We finished up stripping streamers -  locking horns with a few browns that had been difficult to find… olive was good but white was more fun for the visual.

Fast forward to yesterday.  Expecting to drive over the hill again, an intimidating weather outlook calling for wind around 20mph with gusts to  40 got me looking at the flows closer to home.  The Root looked like the best option – dropping steadily from historical record flow just 5 days back.  The river clarity on the drive up promising, Team Zimmer put in at Hannon and  put a fish in the boat in the first 50yds.  The trend continued for the entire day.  Cutties made up the bulk of the catch but a few great browns and bows ate the – wait for it…. worm!

The real story is my pathetic preparation for the day. In my haste changing boats from drifter to raft I failed to pack a table and even my grill. Not good with pork on the menu!  Not to be denied- we gathered up fire wood and cut willows for grill sticks - voila – fire cooked pork tl and zucchini sandwich.  A first for all of us and highly recommended.

Fishing is great and grilling even better – go get you some.