Missouri River Trout

The Missouri River figures heavily in the journals of Lewis and Clark.  From St. Louis it was their highway west to the Great Divide.  It is at St. Louis that the Missouri joins the Mississippi to form the longest river system in North America.  Much of this river system is suited to warm water fish species such as bass and cat fish.  However, in Central Montana, around the small town of Craig, the Missouri is one of the most 

prolific trout streams in the western hemisphere. The Missouri is formed near the town of Three Forks the  by the confluence of the Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin Rivers (all famous trout streams).  Then a series of giant man made reservoirs tame the river and turn the free flowing sections into a giant spring creek complete with a bottom carpeted with trailing weeds that produce blizzard hatches of tiny mayflies and caddis. Hatches come off year round.  In the thirty miles from Holter Dam to Cascade there are about 3,500 trout per river mile.  There are both Rainbow and Brown Trout, neither of which are native to the  

system.  Average trout caught by fly anglers are 12" to 20".  Some brown trout have been landed to 32".   Patty and I were invited by the  Rio Products Company to join 

identical Rio Selective Trout lines in camo green color.  The weather is over-cast, cool & calm.  It was toward the end of a Baetis Mayfly hatch.  There are just a few fish rising to duns.  Lately we had been fishing mostly for steelhead and saltwater fish and it has been awhile since we have done any trout fishing. We both missed several nice fish during our period of adjustment.  The remaining risers fell for a #20 Blue Wing Olive Loop Wing Paradun.  Few came to the hand.  A 19-incher is released just before all the trout stopped rising.  The next morning we eat breakfast in Craig and join our guides at The TroutShop. Four drift bats were provided for our group.  The plan is to float a different 6-mile section of river each day.  Much of the fishing is to be 

streamers from the moving boat.  Patty and I each landed several nice Browns.  A white Zonker proves to be the best evening fly.  We arrive at the take-out frozen stiff but very satisfied.  The next day is more of the same but much mellower weather.  We start out stripping streamers and the Browns are really on.  The Best fly is a #6 Conehead Western Bunny Streamer, presented with an Aqualux tip line.  Later in 

of the day.  The trout were very picky  however. Emergers and cripples proved to be far more effective than dry flies.  Right after lunch Zack Dalton, Rio's customer service guy, loaned me his Sage 590 XP to try on a back eddy full of rising trout and whitefish.  Tied to the end of the tippet was a trailing shuck Baetis Emerger pattern tied by John Harder, Rio's hard working general manager.  The next hour was the best dry fly fishing of the trip. It made me wonder what the days might have been like if I had had this fly sooner.  We finished our last day fishing dry flies into the dark.  Montana can be proud of it's Missouri River trout fishery.  We will be back; possibly during the same time next year.  No doubt Rio will get rewarded for showing us such a great time and by educating us about some of their

Where we fished on the Missouri River, the Rainbow Trout inhabit the main flow and feed mostly on aquatic insects.  The Brown Trout live in the edge water.  One of the fun ways to catch Brown Trout is to cast streamers toward the bank from a moving drift boat.  Each stretch of river has its own character and Brown Trout adapt to many different types of water from under-cut grassy banks or  bouldery edges of rapids or glassy ankle deep glides flowing over weed beds.  They seem to like holds where they can capture a variety of aquatic and terrestrial insects and some larger specimens like to kill a smaller fish now and then for desert.  In October most Browns display brilliant colors.  These fish are putting on weight so 

they can survive the rigors of spawning which will happen in November.  This means that they are looking for big bites.  We tried all manner of flies.  The best ones were 2"-3" long.  We varied the weight of our flies to match the depth and speed of the water.  Dark colored flies produced best in the morning and the best evening fly was white, seemingly the opposite of steelhead.  We only fished with sinking tip lines.  However numerous Browns were spotted in very shallow slack water and looking back, I wish I had tried a floating line and light weight fly rigged with a weed guard.  Listed below are some of the flies that worked well for us.