Average Missouri River Trout
Last week I had the pleasure of meeting Michael when he stayed at the River’s Bend Lodge . Michael, a Tennessee resident, was in Montana on business for several days and decided to stay a couple of extra days to go Fly-fishing. Michael took me Fly-fishing with him on Friday Oct 1st, what a great time we had, a drift boat was dropped off just below Holter Dam for us. As we loaded our fishing gear and beer in the drift boat the fish were jumping all around us. Michael tried several different Flies over the course of the next half hour without much luck . He said “this is the greatest frustration of Fly-fishing watching them feed and not being able to figure out the right fly.” Michael tied on a hopper and a nymph Pheasant Tail Fly he had tied himself and the fish taking began. Over the next 6 to 7 hours Michael would catch thirty trout only three of them were Brown Trout, 27 were Rainbow Trout, eight were over 20” long the biggest being 26 ½” long! Four of the trout three rainbows and one brown were about 12” long, Michael classified them as small!! The rest of his catch for the day were between 16” and 20” what a day we had.
We happened on a pod of Trout feeding on bugs on the surface or just below the surface of the river, their heads would just break the surface of the water and back down they would go. It was exciting to watch those heads and mostly large ones at that, come out of the water in a feeding frenzy. Michael caught his first 3 fish, all of them over 20” out of this pod of approximately one hundred and twenty five fish.
Micheal said " This was a World Class Fly-fishing Day!"
Did I tell you Michael caught all these fish while teaching me row the boat! I’m a little hard of hearing and he was facing away from me most of the time, so he developed these hand signals to tell me where he wanted the boat. Watching him up there in the front of the boat with both hands going trying to get me in the correct spot was a hoot.
Trying to keep that boat in sync with the current and get to the desired spot on the river while avoiding the other anglers is no easy task. I gained a lot of respect for the fishing guides that do it day after day.
We drank our first beer after the 3rd large Trout was caught (Michael’s rule “no beer drinking until after the first 20” trout is caught”). Michael didn’t get to drink much beer, that day, he was to busy catching trout, not to worry though I drank his share.
Michael has Fly-fished in Europe, South America, and North America but, Montana is still his favorite spot! He has fished more rivers in Montana than I have, and I am a Montana native living here for 58 years. As he was leaving on Sunday I asked him how his Fly-fishing expierence had been this trip. He said “Soren I have had two back to back WORLD CLASS FLY-FISHING DAYS I will be back soon.”
Michael's little piece of "Heaven" Fly-fishing the Missouri River in Montana
