Missouri River Report 8.12.16
This past Tuesday, I enjoyed a great evening of fly fishing on the Missouri River. After releasing a fish, I glanced at my cell phone and noticed 9 missed calls from my wife. Great Falls was flooding and there was water coming into our basement. Nothing I could do about that, so I kept on fishing.
Sam was riding the front of the boat intending to fish dry. I handed him a rod with a hopper ant combo. He whined that hopper fishing blind was like throwing strike indicators. "Why don’t you throw a streamer until we find some risers?" I said. "No."
It didn’t take long for a fish to eat Sam’s hopper with a big swoosh. Sam set and left him with some jewelry. "What the heck! Was that 5X?" It was, because I kind of just tied the hopper onto a Trico leader. "Try not to set like you’re bass fishing I said." "Friends don’t set friends up to fail." He replied. He kind of had me there, but I countered with, "Jake’s sister just started fly fishing and she landed a big brown on 5X the other day." Sam ignored me and asked if I had another hopper.
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We set out on Tuesday evening to see if we could find some fish eating on top. At least Sam did. I kept myself entertained by throwing streamers from the back of the boat. There was a lot of banter back and forth regarding the purity of dry flies and the dirty nature of streamer fishing. "I can’t hear you Sam. I’ve got another fish splashing back here."
To be fair, Sam did stick some fish on the dry, including one rainbow that we watched inspect both flies and then finally eat the smaller caddis on the back. "Nice work, Sam." "Now can we get moving again, so I can rip some flash?"
Current flows below Holter Dam are 3840 cfs. That’s a drop of 280 cfs since yesterday. Looks like water managers will be running the river below 4000 for the fall period. The good news is the water temps have been holding in the mid-60s. The days are getting a bit shorter and the nights a bit cooler. The fish are going to stay happy.
Want to know how the river is doing? Check out the most current river flows here
While there is nothing stellar to report, fishing conditions are not bad. The Missouri River is an amazing fishery. You can’t always catch a ton of fish the way you want to, but there is always good potential out there. Right now, you can find some pods feeding on Trico’s in the morning if you land on the right water. If you can’t deal with a single spinner, try dropping a drowned spinner behind a small caddis or ant that you can see.
On the Nymphing side, drop any small mayfly or midge off a Purple Weight Fly. I like a size #20 Tufted Zebra. I had a guy come in this week and pick up two Tufted Zebra’s. He came back the next day and grabbed a hand full.
If you dare to fish a streamer, fish will eat it. Move it quick. You are going to fight some floating weeds, but it’s worth the battle.
Want to try out some new flies? Check out our fly selection here
If you are willing to fish dries blind like Sam, you can find some players on hoppers, ants and caddis. We found a few caddis in the air on Tuesday evening and we found a few fish eating them. Actual rising fish to cast to. Not a ton, but enough to make for a good outing. Having a fish eat your "Party on Top" Caddis is better than pushing cars on a flooded street in Great Falls. Or mopping up the basement.