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Summer is Coming
July 2, 2018
Kootenai Canyon Anglers
Kootenai River Report Late August 2018
August 25, 2018
Published by KC Anglers at August 12, 2018
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  • Kootenai River Fishing Report
Kootenai Canyon Anglers

Kootenai Canyon Anglers

Our favorite summer game here in Kootenai Country, bar none, is fishing big single foam dries.  We love how visual it is, how violent, how it brings the bigger fish up.  The flies are no problem to pick out on the water with their quivering legs and garish colors, and the strikes are impossible to miss, with fish often doing backflips and coming back for a second smash.

After a good day of playing this game, the foam tops will be so full of teeth marks the fly starts becoming a sponge.  Our water is also crystal clear-and the depths we pull fish out of often quite deep- so that it’s not uncommon to witness the whole process from start to finish: the fish unhinging from the bottom and streaking up to breach the surface, some attacks quicksilver and some slow like molasses.

One of the more challenging aspects of this type of fishing is the hook-set. I think with any large surface fly, your ratio of hooked to missed fish goes down, regardless of skill. There’s more surface area for one thing: if the fish goes over the top of the fly and crushes its back-a common trout tactic on the Kootenai-setting the hook rarely results in a fish on.  And if you ‘re twitching the fly to elicit strikes, (which we absolutely endorse), there are more moving pieces in play, and more potential for crossed wires.

That said, we’ve picked up a few tricks along the way to help even the odds with setting the hook on big dries.  The first and foremost is good advice across the board: pay attention to the fish’s behavior and vary your timing accordingly.  A successful hook-set with a big dry is all timing, and the fish ultimately determine that.  Some days they are fast and require lighting reflexes, but far more often-especially with bigger fish-, they are slow and confident and take their time getting all that foamy goodness in.  It can be difficult to wait when you see them come up, but if you are consistently missing fish on big dries, wait a full beat until you set the hook and see if your odds don’t improve.

The second piece of advice has to do with twitching and skittering your fly.  The goal here is to make minute twitches that generally trend upstream, at least when fishing out of the boat.  It’s far too easy to over or under-manipulate your fly with zealous mending or not mending at all.  A fast swinging fly may elicit swipes from fish, but it’s rare they’ll get it in.

Instead, give them something that appears to be an alive and natural-but also entirely achievable- meal.  That means getting a good downstream drift and continually managing your line to produce an alternating combination of dead-drift (slack to the fly) and small upstream twitches (no slack).  A bit of a trick, but it absolutely will help the fish eat your offering instead of bat at it.  Fish behavior tells you a lot here too: some days they like the twitch, some days they want it still.  Play around with your dead-drift and twitch modes on the water until you dial it in.

The third trick is, if you miss the fish and don’t sting him, get back in there.  You’ll often see them waking around in the top of the water column looking for the winged meal they just maimed and ready for more.

These things have all helped us improve our big dry game.  Some days though, they are just plain suspicious of big dries however well they’re fished, and short-strike or bump the fly without opening their mouths. It’s important to recognize those days if hooking success is important to you, and go with smaller fare. Or keep playing the game, as we often do, and have a great day with more encounters than fish to hand.

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1 Comment

  1. da mr ed says:
    August 23, 2018 at 12:05 pm

    Nice webber, Hope you are doing well in Kootcountry. da

    Reply

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canyondrifters

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Kootenai Canyon Anglers

canyondrifters

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May 2

Open
Summer scenes, not too far away at this point.  Run off is in full swing now and will be ending sooner than later up here.  We are expecting a short tributary season and an earlier start on the Kootenai.  Give us a shout!  #getoffthecouch #getintheboat

Summer scenes, not too far away at this point. Run off is in full swing now and will be ending sooner than later up here. We are expecting a short tributary season and an earlier start on the Kootenai. Give us a shout! #getoffthecouch #getintheboat ...

61 8

canyondrifters

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Jan 1

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Is it time for our annual instagram post, already? Time does fly when you’re having fun!  Happy New Year’s amigos. Thanks to all who joined us for our 2022 season and we look forward to having you back. Snowpack is already looking stout, pre-runoff fishing in our sights.
#makeyourownalgorithmin2023

Is it time for our annual instagram post, already? Time does fly when you’re having fun! Happy New Year’s amigos. Thanks to all who joined us for our 2022 season and we look forward to having you back. Snowpack is already looking stout, pre-runoff fishing in our sights.
#makeyourownalgorithmin2023
...

61 7

canyondrifters

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Jul 11

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Sometimes you just need to drop anchor and get your feet wet.

#wadingisntjustforthebirds

Sometimes you just need to drop anchor and get your feet wet.

#wadingisntjustforthebirds
...

40 7

canyondrifters

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Jun 1

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Pre-runoff trips are in the books. Mid-late April Kootenai River fishing was outstanding and the May trips on the Missouri River were lights out with low flows. Thanks to all who joined us.

Snowpack sits at 210% on June 1 for the Kootenai River basin.  We are in full release mode out of the dam and tributaries are pumping.  We will now wait patiently for tributary flows to get fishable. 
#toobigtofish

Pre-runoff trips are in the books. Mid-late April Kootenai River fishing was outstanding and the May trips on the Missouri River were lights out with low flows. Thanks to all who joined us.

Snowpack sits at 210% on June 1 for the Kootenai River basin. We are in full release mode out of the dam and tributaries are pumping. We will now wait patiently for tributary flows to get fishable.
#toobigtofish
...

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