Scott Jolley and Mark Scheatzle joined me for a float on the Missouri. It was a gorgeous fall day with temps in the high 50s sunny and calm. We had good fishing and enjoyed the fall colors.

Local hockey legend, Erik Wooden and his boss, Joe Smolen had second thoughts about floating the Yellowstone today. The weather forecast looked rough with rain, wind and snow in the mix. Their outfitter Dave McKee told them to suck it up and go. We did and saw, rain, sleet, wind, hail, and about 15 minutes of sunshine. We also had amazing fishing with a great baetis hatch getting the river boiling. The boys caught fish all day, and Erik tells me the feeling in his toes came back after just a day or two. Those hockey guy’s seem a little soft. How about that Labatt’s hat!!

It couldn’t last forever, sunny and windy today. It gave us a chance to concentrate on Tim’s nymphing techniques and rowing fitness.

Another “as good as it gets” day on the Missouri with Tim and Barney. Wet cloudy weather with little wind. Entire banks lined with rising fish.

The weather continues to have all the ingredients for baetis soup, cool, calm, rain, sometimes snow and sleet. Barney Scollan is back in town and he brought his buddy and fishing legend Tim Mosolf with him. Tim has guided in the Dillon area for over 35 years. He’s the master of the Beaverhead. He hadn’t fished the Missouri since the late seventies or early eighties. After all it is a 2 hour drive. We had a good day chasing rising fish, telling stories and watching Tim slay the fish with some inovative nymphing techniques. I just wish we had more flies and rods with us.

Just when you think it couldn’t get better, the clouds roll in with a some cold air and …it’s baetis soup time. Blanket hatch, incredible pods. Patrick and I spent 3 hours at dead duck island. Not a bad way to end the season for Patrick. Hard to beat as good as it gets.

After a week and a half of moving, it felt great to get back on the river. No better person to spend the day with floating the MO than Patrick Eisenhaur, here for his 4th and final trip of the year. Boy did he hit it right. We had calm weather and good fishing. Here he is in a familiar pose. Showing off in front of his buddy Dan Goble’s future home.

High wind warning for the Livingston area today wind 40-55mph with gust to 75mph. Perfect for spring creek fishing. Hoshina got his elk and joined Kojima, Takao, and Ryuichi on Depuy’s today. It was blowing so hard driving over the pass, it was hard to keep the car on the road. We stopped in Livingston to stock up on beer, thinking the fishing would be a bust. It turned out to be very interesting, the wind was howling on the creek, but when the baetis hatched in the afternoon, there were fish rising along the banks where then wind was pushing the bugs. The fishes feeding lanes were tiny, one inch from the bank was too far out in some cases. The boys were up to the task and caught a bunch of fish.

Weather always dictates the fishing, and the most dreaded is the wind. Fall fishing in Montana always involves some of it. Today, it was blowing 20mph when we put the boat in, and built to 30+ as the day went on. Not great for rising fish by any means. We found a few, and blew on back to Bozeman in the afternoon.

I woke up to horizontal snow at my house this morning. It turned to rain by the time I picked up the gang for 3 days on the Missouri. We launched the boat in Craig in a drizzle, but calm…perfect pseudo/baetis weather. The river did not dissapoint. It was as good as it gets with some impressive pods of fish rising to a great hatch of mayflies that were glued to the surface from by the periodic rain. Ryuichi, Kojima and Takao gave me plenty of excersise walking up and down a riffle netting fish for hours.