High Water Happiness

Here's why high water is sweet.

1. For some reason larger fish are caught.
2. It's okay to fish the San Juan Worm.
3. Montana agriculture is prosperous
4. Encourages one to fish where they usually don't
5. The Smith and Sun will still be fishable in August
6. You don't see how many fish you actually are
missing
7. Feel less bad about having to work
8. Fewer crowds on the river (people think the fish stop eating?)
9. You may actually use the seat in the front of your drift boat
10. Besides the water being higher&hellip' the rest of the experience is about the same!

Recipes for High Water

a.) Deep Nymphing: Thingamabobber placed where fly line meets the leader' followed by 7.5 8 feet of mono tapered down to 3x' blood knot with one foot of additional 3x ' 3 split shots above the blood knot ' San Juan Worm (disco worm, wire worm, eggs n bacon, etc) ' 12-18 inches of 4x mono ' hot head ray charles (any nymph with an orange bead in a size 16, or a rainbow Czech nypmh, tailwater Charlie, flashy caddis nymphs like silvey's or LaFontaines, etc). Fish this set up in 3-5 feet of water, the additional leader and weight will get you down quicker. The Thingamabobber should be teasing you in to setting the hook often by ticking the bottom. If it's not ticking the bottom, you're not getting em.

b.) Streamers off the bank: this one is simpler. Just keep the drift boat 10-15 feet off the banks and strip streamers off of it by covering as much bank as possible. Yes, fish are the length of the river but in high/dirty water, in our experience, more of them are found on the banks. Once it clears however, the middle and ledges the length of the river are often overlooked. Especially by those who are used to fishing freestone rivers.

Are these the only ways to get em' in high water?... of course not...