Quick Hit Fishing Report Montana’s Missouri River
Quick Hit Fishing Report today on the Headhunters Fly Shop Craig Montana.
Water Flows 3210cfs. 48F. Already been to 50F. Rain this morning. Average temps 60’s and 70’s for the coming ten days.
Nymphing good. Not great. Mostly sows and pheasant tail mayfly style nymphs. Euro Perdigon stylie is in favor. Water. is low. Fish ‘em where you think they live. Fishing all reaches. Olive and Brown Mayflies 12-22 along with Brown Caddis 12-14 and Mini Midge 22 to infinite.
Big River out there. No need to crunch others. Wide berth is the way to make all smile on this river. Floating 10 miles allows for giving lots of space for those wade fishing, parked in their boat, or otherwise.
Dry fly opportunities mostly daily. Sometimes finicky, or truly bitchy. Other times amenable to the fly. Cripples, duns, emergers, spinners all in play. Some days, none in play! Been speaking with a bunch of anglers who do not fish here as often as they wish the past 3 weeks. Many fish here a lot others not as often as they wish! Fishing he MO while casting and presenting, the presentation portion here requires adding slack at the front end of the line, the fly end of the line, and if you do not implement this imperative motion you will not be rewarded as often. Adding line at the rod tip end does not solve any drift problems. It exacerbates the issue.
The angler who can execute the slack line presentations coupled with shorter repeated drifts required on the Missouri River put themselves in a far better position to elicit a rise on the fly than those who value placement of the fly over proper drift of the fly.
Good drifts near fish>perfect placement shackled to tight line presentations.
The former wins the war. The latter wins a couple battles. You get to choose which approach is best for you.
See how I tiptoed around that one.
It is one thing to cast at the trout and get the fly close to the ring of the rise.
It is yet another to drift the fly as if there is nothing, like a leader/tippet, line and human element included in the presentation equation.
Stop by and we can dig deeper into this slack line nightmare at the shop if you wish. Slack line presentations with enough slack line, in the equation, to drift the entire 3’-6’ required in many rising trout situations.
Streamer and swing anglers report that one day is good, others not as good. Occasionally a great day. Read it just like fishing. Some days good, others not as much catching. We like it when the trout are bitey.
Come on in. Open daily 7am. Shuttles, river information, The Best Flies Under the Big Sky, rental rods, rental waders, rental boats, rental nightly properties, daily fishing guides, and more in downtown Craig Motnana. Closest fly shop to the river…Eastsiders.