Missouri River

Pouring out of the Gates of the Mountains, the Missouri River below Holter Dam winds past sage studded buttes and vertical cliff walls before spilling across the Eastern plains of Montana.  As a tailrace, the Missouri runs consistently cold and clear year round like a giant spring creek,  creating a veritable trout factory. Rainbow and brown trout in staggering numbers and size call this water home.  This is classic tailwater fly fishing with a Montana flair.

The prolific aquatic nature of the Missouri is unparalleled in this portion of the West.  Caddis, mayflies, and midges make up the bulk of hatches here, enhanced with a smorgasbord of scuds, sow bugs, leaches and crayfish. Trout are not lacking for food and grow at ridiculous rate.  We keep saying that the Missouri is reaching a threshold on a bell curve plotting the number and size of fish but year after year it continues to surpass expectations.

What is more, the Missouri offers up a surprising variety of water to fish.  Riffles extending across the river for hundreds of yards, bottomless cliff side pools, foam covered eddies, grassy undercuts, expansive knee deep flats and riprap banks – pick your passion.  As a big trout river, even by Western standards, float fishing affords the greatest access but wade fishers need not be intimidated as plenty of water can be covered by foot.

Most anglers here employ nymphing techniques with great results but the real joy of the Missouri is casting small dries to big sipping trout.  These fish are wary and even intermediate anglers will be tested.  Expect to settle down casts exceeding forty feet and in lanes the width of a clip board.  Those up to the task experience line ripping runs and tippet snapping leaps from some of Montana’s most powerful, energetic trout.