{"id":594,"date":"2009-04-05T22:56:46","date_gmt":"2009-04-05T17:56:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wapiti-waters.com\/blog\/?p=594"},"modified":"2009-04-06T20:15:23","modified_gmt":"2009-04-06T15:15:23","slug":"philosophy-of-spring-fly-fishing-on-the-bitterroot-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wapiti-waters.com\/blog\/philosophy-of-spring-fly-fishing-on-the-bitterroot-river\/","title":{"rendered":"Philosophy of Spring Fly Fishing on the Bitterroot River"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_twjVsg9p-90\/SdjvJHib10I\/AAAAAAAAL0M\/cBpDiKDjwTU\/s1600-h\/IMG_0101.JPG\" rel=\"lightbox[594]\"target=\"_blank\"><img style=\"MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 309px; CURSOR: hand\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5321265899659581250\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Nice trout making a run with my dry fly - Bitterroot River\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_twjVsg9p-90\/SdjvJHib10I\/AAAAAAAAL0M\/cBpDiKDjwTU\/s400\/IMG_0101.JPG\" \/><\/a> No doubt the snowpack that has been laid down since the first day of spring will be welcome in late July. Right now, however, it\u2019s definitely caused a few cancellations as some of our anglers think it\u2019s too cold to fish. It is hard to argue with that. For sure these are some of the coldest water temperatures we have ever guided on! Yet, there has been good fishing <em>without<\/em> a lot of bugs yet.<\/p>\n<p>No, we have not resorted to the use of indicators and nymphs\u2026PLEASE! Spring angling is about finding a few fish \u201clooking up.\u201d It is about getting the rust out of your cast; reminding yourself that sometimes you need to mend downstream, not only upstream, in order to get the extended drift; and it is about making a slow, firm hook-set when a fish does happen to inhale your dry fly. You had better have just enough line slack to drift your bug just right but not too much line slack reducing your control and reaction time. Early spring fishing is about the joy of casting a single, buoyant big stonefly dry or mayfly pattern and observing the sights and sounds around you, the life that is teeming on the river and banks. So for me, it is not about hooking a bunch of whitefish or watching a bobber all day long\u2026 this is my philosophy. <a href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_twjVsg9p-90\/SdjuYgzALDI\/AAAAAAAAL0E\/ugT3hgAX7cg\/s1600-h\/IMG_9970.JPG\" rel=\"lightbox[594]\" target=\"_blank\"><img style=\"MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 247px; CURSOR: hand\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5321265064626367538\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Blue raft fishing a hole on the Bitterroot River - far right\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_twjVsg9p-90\/SdjuYgzALDI\/AAAAAAAAL0E\/ugT3hgAX7cg\/s320\/IMG_9970.JPG\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Yes, there are those that want to fish with droppers off of large dries or indicators in nymph rigs. Many anglers coming from a tail-water expect their guides to produce lots of fish and have lots of action. So be it. I do respect their right to lose as many flies as possible on all the woody debris that is found on the Bitterroot River. With that said, yesterday was the first bright sunny day in three weeks after clouds and snow, and it fished tough.  We found big fish tight to some cover and a few out in the open lanes. It turned into a good day despite the conditions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No doubt the snowpack that has been laid down since the first day of spring will be welcome in late July. Right now, however, it\u2019s definitely caused a few cancellations as some of our anglers think it\u2019s too cold to fish. It is hard to argue with that. For sure these are some of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[173,192],"tags":[11,8,6,95,163,9],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wapiti-waters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wapiti-waters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wapiti-waters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wapiti-waters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wapiti-waters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.wapiti-waters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":596,"href":"https:\/\/www.wapiti-waters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594\/revisions\/596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wapiti-waters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wapiti-waters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wapiti-waters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}