Fly Fishing The Missouri River Near Craig, Montana

21 Inch Rainbow Trout & Professional Guide Jake Hensley

 

With the rivers in and around Missoula rising and turning to chocolate milk, the only game in town, was to get out of town.  Today, we headed to The Missouri River near Craig, Montana.  There are a number of small towns near Craig, and it seems that they all have an equal number of bars and fly shops.  The Missouri is big water, and we chose to hit a nine or ten mile stretch called The Canyon.  This was an absolutely gorgeous place.  The only real issue we needed to contend with was going to be the wind.  It was blowing twenty to thirty miles per hour, with some gusts pushing forty.  It’s not easy to hold a boat in position or throw a fly in winds like this.  

 

Boats lining up on The Missouri River, Montana

 

My friend and guide Jake Hensley, AKA MissoulaFlyGuy on Instagram, was up for the challenge and did a masterful job of keeping me in the right spot on the water in his drift boat. 

 

The Missouri River Canyon

 

There were an absolute TON of people on the water, it seemed that with all of the rivers near Missoula running so high and dirty, that everyone headed to the Missouri.  We observed many boats nymphing in the same general area.  They would drift through a hole, get a hook up, and then row back up and do it again.  The drift boats were lined up doing the same stretches over and over again.  We chose to try a different program.  In the morning, we pounded the bank with big streamers hunting for the big browns that help make this river famous.  The angler throws the streamer angled a bit down stream from the boat so when they strip the fly out, it’s swimming almost perpendicular.  I rigged up El Jefe in eight weight, which is my go to streamer rod, and 2X Tippet.  We worked the banks for a couple of hours, and only moved one fish.  Moving a fish is when your streamer provokes them to follow.  It’s great to see follows, because this can be a good sign they are on the hunt for a big meal.  

 

El Jefe in Eight Weight on The Missouri River, Montana

 

Our morning resulted in no fish, but that’s the way it goes sometimes when you hunt for the big ones.  We weren’t discouraged.  One of Jake’s colleagues followed us down the river, and we met up around lunch.  They also struck out in the morning, also throwing streamers.  We decided it was time for a change of plans, and pulled out El Jefe in six weight, and built a dry and dropper rig with a chubby Chernobyl up top, and a jig head pheasant tail dropper about two and a half feet below.  We were not targeting the same runs as the other boats, we were targeting the big fish hanging just off the banks, the same fish we were trying to work with streamers.  Funny enough, we hooked up with a rainbow thirty feet after we left the guys at lunch.  We knew it was on.

 

Jig Head Pheasant Tail Fly

 

The afternoon was crazy good, our first decent fish that taped out at nineteen inches was a healthy rainbow.  It was great to put the gear to the test.  Then we landed a twenty one inch rainbow.  This was a powerful fish that took the dropper around five feet from the bank right behind a little seam.  We chased this one down the river a long ways before we got it in the net.  

 

Big Rainbow from The Missouri River, Near Craig Montana

 

With the afternoon heating up with fish action, the wind also picked up pretty drastically.  At one point, the gusts were so fast that I needed to take a seat while casting.  I don’t really like sitting down while fly fishing, but it’s better than taking a swim in this cold water.  When you wanted to get the fly two to three feet off the bank, it took a bit of skill and some great gear to make the cast.  I managed to toss our flies right next to a giant rock wall, right when the water turned shallow, the dry pulled under, and I hooked into a beast of a fish.  It came clean out of the water on its first run, and we knew we had finally hooked into a big brown.  After a handful of powerful leaps into the air, the brown was in the net.  It’s always such a relieve when you are fishing barbless hooks when the big ones make it to the net.  You need to know that if you lose tension just a little, that could be it.  This brown measured a bit over twenty inches, what a beauty.  

 

20.5 Inch Brown in the Net, on the Missouri River Near Craig, Montana

 

 

Jeff Ditsworth with a Missouri River Fly Caught Brown Trout

 

 

Professional Fly Fishing Guide Guide Jake Hensley with a Missouri River Brown Trout

 

The afternoon was not over, we managed to land four trout over twenty inches in just a couple hour period of time.  How amazing is that?  We also landed a dozen or so great looking healthy fish in the fourteen through sixteen inch range.  

 

Jeff Ditsworth Owner of Pescador on the Fly with a Big Montana Rainbow

 

The Missouri River is big, beautiful, and definitely worth exploring.  If you are ever in Missoula, and the water conditions are not looking good, this is a great option.  It can also be easily accessed via Bozeman.  

Until next time my friends, tight lines!

Jeff

 

Jeff Ditsworth with another solid Missouri River Rainbow on the Fly