Fishing Montana’s Missouri River

Decent weather, plenty of water, lots of Caddis, a river full of big fish and I had the worst run of the summer. People who know the river will no doubt wonder about about my fishing abilities, and indeed I am too. It may take weeks to get my game back on. Nothing like a little humility to put you in your place.

We were catching fish but it wasn’t stellar by any means. The fish we caught were typical Missouri trout- big, burly brawlers- they were just not coming to hook easy.

Most of the fishing was nymphing, caddis emergers and pupa patterns size #18 and smaller. We also used a San Juan with a Zebra midge dropper which fooled this one.

The Tricos were coming on but we didn’t see the pods going for them like we did at this time last year. But it looked like they were just starting and there are a LOT of Caddis around to keep them busy in the meantime.

For diversions we fished for Walleye at night. The Missouri just below the dam and Holter Lake have Walleye up to several pounds. While we didn’t catch any big ones we had fun going after them and caught several nice Rainbows as well on the lake side of the dam.

And even a Carp that proved to be a worthy opponent. So, all in all, lots of fish were caught, unfortunately not enough of the Trout variety.

Not all the education came along the river at the expense of persnickety trout. While escaping a cloudburst and camp cooking doldrums we retreated to the Oasis Bar and Cafe in Wolf Creek for an easy meal and refreshments. Our waitress reeled off a list of tap brews and last on the list was something new, unique, a very distinguished sounding concoction- Pigs Ass Porter. With a name like that, we had to give it a go and I must say that it was very good. It was with great restraint that I didn’t go for a good wallow.

And finally, the place where fishing daydreams begin- and end.