Missouri River Report 9.23.16

Nothing out of the ordinary to report this week. I got out on the water three days and one evening. No criminals, no bananas and no hooks in my hands. Some pretty darn good fishing was all I witnessed. I did get to participate in helping Lori land her very first trout on a fly rod. I always love doing that kind of thing.
As the water continues to cool, tiny mayflies and midges will dominate once more. There has been some great dry fly fishing this week on the tiny olives, BWO’s, Pseudos’ or whatever you want to call them. Our little mayflies love cool wet weather.
Check out the live flows for the Mo right here
If you want to catch a few more fish on terrestrials or large foamy stuff, you don’t have much longer to fish them. You might also find a few larger mayflies out there and caddis are making a brief resurgence. I found a #16 caddis pupa to be a great top fly while fishing in the Canyon section last Sunday.
Nymphing is going strong with tiny mayflies, midges, scuds, sow bugs and worms. Midges dominate in the morning. Mayflies are on the menu from late morning through the afternoon. Scuds and sow bugs make a great top fly above Craig. Caddis pupa can work quite well further down the river.
We got the gear to tie all those up and online here.
You can’t go wrong fishing streamers on the dark days, early in the morning or after the sun goes off the water. You can even fish them all day if you want to. The usual flashy suspects are working. If you lean toward a larger brown trout, try swinging a Bald Eagle or stripping a Galloup’s Barely Legal. If those two don’t do it for you, we’ve got over a hundred other streamer options to put fish on your line.
Many Montanan’s who are outdoors oriented are into hunting season. I love hunting season. Especially when I choose to go fishing and find most of the rivers and streams wide open. As far as I’m concerned, its prime time fishing season-pretty much always, but particularly in the fall.
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