Missouri River Fishing Report – August 3rd, 2017
Fly fishing on the Missouri River in Montana continues to be very good right now. The Tricos are still pouring off in the morning, and our fish are still eating them. So leave your nymphs at home!
This late in the hatch, the bugs are much better in the upper reaches of the Missouri River. We would recommend staying above the canyon, if you want to see the most fish up and eating. There are still bugs all the way past Cascade, but nowhere near the numbers that you will see up higher. So we have been spending a lot of time floating Craig to Stickney and posting up on podded fish.
The mornings are still the key. 7am is about the right time to get the boat in the water these days. You will have some fish up right out of the gate. Although the bulk of the bugs will fall an hour or so later and really get the fish going. There still plenty of pods to target. And most are still eating so feverishly that you can pull a fish out and the rest will come right back and continue eating. But that doesn’t mean they are any easier. It still takes a good cast and a perfect drift.
A hackle stacker is the first fly out of the box for us. A size 18 to start, in hopes of being able to see it. The fish have no problem eating it, on the first drift or two. After that, they wise up pretty quickly. So be prepared to go smaller if they start acting like it isn’t there.
As you get into the lunchtime hours of the day, you will see the fish slow up a bit. There will still be fish up in the right spots. Eddy lines, toilet bowls and similar areas will collect all the dead bugs and allow fish to continue to pick away at them. Or, if you look, you will still find singles here and there in to the afternoon hours. But be prepared to do a little searching to find them. These fish will be a bit tougher and very touchy.
We’ve been doing the trico thing every morning lately, then rolling over to the hopper and trusting that to the ramp at the end of the day. The hopper bite has been… interesting thus far. Some days its great, other days not as much. But if you trust it, you will be rewarded. Also, we have moved some very nice fish on the big bug as well. As the tricos taper off more and more in mid August, we should see a little more attention given to our hopper and ant offerings.
As for the nymphing… who cares. I’m sure you can go up to the dam, row in circles and drag around zebra midges until you fill the boat with fish. Tis the season. We would rather trust the hopper and leave that to the rest of them.
All in all, the river is fishing very very well right now. We finally have a couple days out of the 90 degree range as well. This should keep the tricos rolling even further into August and the fish happily eating them. It is a much needed break from the heat, as July was rough on us. But things are looking good for the near future and we expect the fishing to continue to be very good as well.
Contact Us with any questions, for an up to the minute report or to book your Missouri River fishing trip or Carp fishing trip.
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Montana Fishing Reports by River:
Missouri River Land of Giants Dearborn River Blackfoot River Montana Pike Fishing
Texas Redfish Fishing Reports:
Fly Fish Rockport Report