alarm clock

The season is almost on us. You can hear spring creaking its way through the door. Clean the fly lines, organize the boxes, get the oil changed, take the snow tires off. In this yearly ritual I find my sanity, finally it IS all going to be ok again. Sure there will be snow storms but they will not linger. Nymphs and streamers will be thrown but only in the morning. Gods great order will be restored to all its glory (at least in the trout world.) They will eat a dry and they will eat it with a reckless abandon not seen since hopper season. I think of the winter, and it wasnt all bad I managed to land the biggest Redfish of my life on a fly, caught up with the famdamily, and generally escaped northern latitudes unless it was necessary. It wasnt so terrible after all, but come March its on like donkey kong.............www.fivevalleysfishing.com

Tying.......

It always seems I never tie enough bugs. Take an average of 120 days x 2 clients per day, for the math impaired thats 240. Take that 240 and multiply that by 20 flies a day that comes out to be 4800 bugs! I may not need this many but you can't be too prepared. Then throw in the other 100 or so days I fish for fun, and dont forget those tarpon and permit flies, and you see where Im going with this. Thats a ton of flies. Those of you who have fished with me know I prefer certain styles of flies. I like to think outside the box and so far its treated me very well. There is a favorite fly of mine that is commercially available that just says bugginess, with a capitol B. When i run out of my own I am sometimes forced to buy them and I know of only one fly shop in the area that has them. The first couple of seasons the owner would comment "you're the only person that ever buys those things. Do they work?" I just smiled and said "they make a great strike indicator for your second fly." What they don't know won't hurt them..........Tight Lines, Brandon

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Spring Fishing only weeks away

When you hear the term "spring fishing" in most places out west it means it's finally warm enough to dunk nymphs or dredge streamers, without spending the majority of your fishing time chipping ice out of the guides. This is not the case in the Missoula area. This means Big Fat dry flies and the biggest fish in the river on the hunt for them. I have seen 2 ft. + browns absolutely crush a skwala dry. I am in the business of selling fly fishing trips, but I can honestly say if you want huge trout on dry flies there may be no better time than mid March to May 1st. It must be the fish waking up after just hanging on all winter. In most places its a Bwo hatch and we get that too. Here its a different critter, a big protein packed stonefly, and the fish go absolutely ape shit for them. Throw in March browns, grey drakes and bwo's and what you have is a buffet they simply can't turn down. When the fish Gods are smiling I have heard its "Stupid" "Sick" "Ridiculous" and a thousand other adjectives. I have always liked "epic." That my friends says it all...................