Tag: Missouri River

Summary:

It’s been just a stellar week here in Craig, Montana on the Missouri River working with Headhunters Fly Shop.  The fishing has been good to great overall this week even with the lack of dry flies.  We’ve got another 2 days up here and then it’s off to the Yellowstone River where the reports we are getting is that its about to start happening!

Hatches:

PMDs in the morning and some caddis in the afternoon – although the hatch was pretty weak yesterday.

Weather & Water Conditions:

As we mentioned the weather has been pretty much perfect.  If you’ve been following the blog at all you’ve probably seen that the river has dropped to 16,000 cfs, which is still big and there have been several sunken boats over the past 7 days!  If you come up be very careful of the strong eddie lines.

Best Technique:

There is really no dry fly action so its all nymphing. Your rig should be about 7 to 9 ft to the 3/0 split shot (big).  You have to find the softer water which is on the insides  or backs of the islands or the inside bend of the river.

Best Bugs:

You should be running the Brain Buster wire worm all day.  In the morning our best trailer fly was the Hot Head Scud or the Hot Head PMD nymph in a 14 or 16 size.  In the afternoon our best trailer was the same, but we also had luck on the beaded diving caddis.

Summary:

It was probably the prettiest day in Montana this season and we were fortunate to guide with Headhunters Fly Shop in Craig, Montana.  Fishing was great though the dry fly action was lacking.

Hatches:

PMDs in the morning and some caddis in the afternoon.

Weather & Water Conditions:

As we mentioned the weather was perfect.  If you’ve been following the blog at all you’ve probably seen that the river is at 18,000 cfs, which is HUGE!  If you come up be very careful of the strong eddie lines.

Best Technique:

There is really no dry fly action so its all nymphing. Your rig should be 10-13 ft to the 3/0 split shot (big).  Oh yeah you better have a long handled net if you want to land any of the fish you hook!

Best Bugs:

You should be running the Brain Buster wire worm all day.  In the morning our best trailer fly was the Hot Head Scud or the Hot Head PMD nymph.  In the afternoon our best trailer was the Humpback Scud or the Cat Puke caddis emerger.

Summary:
We just got back from a 5 day Missouri River fly fishing bonanza.  Obviously, the fishing was great but we also caught a 20″ fish every day.  The dry fly fishing is just starting, but the nymphing was spectacular for the first several days.

We are heading back up this coming weekend so we’ll keep you posted.

Best Technique:
Nymphing is still the most effective technique until the water temperatures come up a bit.  However we did see some Baetis, PMDs, and a few caddis are starting.  Your rig should be 6 to 7 feet deep weighted heavy.

Weather & Water Conditions:
The weather was mostly over cast and gusty winds through out the week.  Water temps were in the low-fifties.  The water was flowing at 4,600 cfs and have started bumping 500 cfs every day for the next few days.  The water color is great until the Dearborn River which is kicking up some mud, bug still fishable.

Hatches:
Light Baetis, some PMDs and a few Caddis.  All starting around 11 AM.

Best Bugs:
Our flies were a small orange San Juan worm (sz 14), Bett’s Micro May (sz 16 18), and a Zebra midge (sz 18).