Missouri River Sardines

I think the Mo ( Wolf Creek to Cascade) is best known for large and
oft times numerous fish. During a good hatch groups of fish will pod
up and froth the water....

I ve fished the river almost daily from April to Dec for the last
5 years and I ve never seen anything like this. The big fish are gone.
There was no great die off, they were there a month ago tho maybe not
in the same numbers as years before. In their place are seemingly
thousands and thousands of little fish. Many in the 2-3 " range! A "
larger" fish is around 8". Another strange thing is the majority seem
to be Browns in a river heavily dominated by rainbows.

The only explanation I can think of is all the large rainbows
followed the Browns into the tribs for the fall spawn but this doesn t
make all that much sense either.

In years past if I saw a couple 8" fish a season it was remarkeable.
Thoughts that whirling disease had taken all the little fish were of
great concern. Any idea what could be going on now ? Trout are
endlessly mysterious....

MT