Two years ago I went through the disappointment of losing my favorite river. A combination of irrigation withdrawals, government stone walling on fixing pumping stations and deep snow levels resulted in what looked like a total winter kill. We lost a river full of big bluegills, crappie and channel cats. Not to mention the pike, drum, mooneye, goldeye, sauger, walleye and many other species the river supported.
This year we had long term high flows and the river seems to have repopulated, at least with some of the early season migrants that traveled up from the Red River during the spring thaw.
Best of all was that caught most of these fish using a new 1 wt fly rod and the rest with my trusty 2 wt.
