Western Montana fishing report: What would we do without the Mighty Mo? (copy)

This week’s fishing report is inspired by a darn-near perfect day of driving next to, wading into and pulling trout out of the Missouri River below Holter dam.

Saturday marked one of the first days of 2023 when folks holistically agreed it would be a crime to stay indoors.

My wife and I drove from Butte to Great Falls for the afternoon and there was hardly a moment when the views along I-15 weren’t picturesque.

It would probably be a mortal sin to drive through the city of Craig twice without getting a line wet, so on the way back we parked our car, slipped on our waders and trudged down river a bit until we found some fishy-looking pools and bubble trails.

We were greeted with an incredible amount of midges and blue-winged olives. Unequipped for these hatches as we don’t frequent the Missouri very often, we tried to make due with a parachute Adams hoping to entice a trout looking up for mayflies. We quickly realized this method probably wasn’t going to produce many bites, as our flies were being used as surfboards by real bugs looking for a lift downstream.

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