The Mighty Missouri
Friday i had the good fortune of fishing the missouri river, a truly amazing piece of big water with big fish close enough to bozeman to be able to get in the water after a 45 minute drive, depending on were you access. First i tried the go to Delekta sex fly in size 14(killer bug all over right now) trailed by midge pupas(red and grey twinkles size 18 and zebra midge size 18). A fairly standard pattern for the missouri which produced a couple decent trout then i noticed fish rising to the incredible adult midge hatch these sunny days have been bringing out. So i switched up to a griffiths nat size 18 with the high visibility orange post on the top, otherwise i just can't see them at all, and slowly picked a few fish on the surface. In many parts of the river the missouri moves so slowly you really have to be patient and time your set right. I found that when i hesitated just a hair longer than usual after the take and then set was the key to keeping them from shaking the hook out and laughing at me as they swim away. After moving to some spots with huge boulders creating deep and fishy looking holes i switched to an olive wooly bugger (size 8) with a sex fly dropper (size 16). Let me just say that this sex fly pattern by Dan Delekta is an absolutely amazing looking and performing pattern from Delekta. It's a bead head pink fly with just a little flash and slight bit of soft hackle and they catch fish from spring creeks to huge tailwaters. Caught one 21" rainbow on a dead drifted sex fly and solidified it as my new favorite bug. Finished the day just as the sun was setting by slightly twitching the wooly bugger through the holes and hooked an enormous rainbow hen getting ready to find a nice place to spawn. By the time i got her in my hands were shaking too much to get a great picture but still got some random pics of this beautiful fish sporting deep red colors. Released the beauty and hiked back to the truck in the dark. Thank god they put flashlights on cell phones nowadays otherwise i still might be wandering the banks of the river, come to think of it that doesn't sound like such a bad thing after all. Fish on!
-Peter