20/20 Trout and a May River Update

Greetings from the Canyon! Spring is Springing in our slice of the world. Typical Montana stuff lately; highs in the low 80’s switching to highs in the low 40’s in 4 days. Little pops of moisture here and there, a couple puffs of wind in the transition days, and a whole bunch of hungry trout. Spring is always a great time to be here, and this season is no exception. So far this month we’ve seen some really consistent fishing. Exceptionally good nymph numbers, lots of rising fish in the afternoons eating BWOs and caddis and finding some chunks stripping streamers. It's hard to complain right now.

A Healthy Lower River Brown

Spring fishing on the Missouri is like a fly fishing buffet. You want to strip streamers and look for an aggressive, ambushing Brown trout? On it. You want to throw a nymph rig and put a TON of fish in the boat? Let’s do it. You want to hunt heads and present a size 18 BWO to a perceptive spinner sipper that's over 20 inches. Me too. Spring has it all, and sometimes, you can do it all in the same day. An ODL Missouri Slam is when you catch a fish on all three techniques: dry fly, nymph, and streamer. While most people have one approach they like to focus on, we enjoy branching out and trying lots of different styles throughout your visit. Getting a slam is a great achievement, and we’ve seen some already this season. 

In addition to the Slam, we also have our 20/20 Trout. We love the technical dry fly fishing here, and the ultimate test is landing a fish over 20 inches on small dry flies. If you can fool a big boy on a size 20 dry fly and then win a battle on that itty bitty dry fly hook, you’ll land yourself a 20/20 Trout. We have had a good amount of 20/20’s this season, so that's been fun to celebrate over the last couple weeks. On your 20/20, you keep the fly you used and need to take a river shot of Fireball (we can arrange a non-alcoholic memento as well). While we can try and make fish eat bigger flies usually, the size 20’s add a bit of suspense to the scenario and are necessary for certain fish. We won’t see as many 20/20’s in June with PMD’s around the corner (they are size 14-16) but any fish in that size range on a dry fly is what it’s all about. I had an angler land a 20/20 on his second dry fly cast last week, so that’ll be hard to beat this year.

A Caddis Crunching Brown

Last week I had a cool moment at the head of the Canyon. After days of higher temps, and great fishing, we were facing an incoming front around 3:00 that afternoon. We had spent the morning shallow nymphing and saw some really nice fish hit the net. After lunch, we decided to switch to a deeper technique until we saw some rising fish. We did well with the deeper rig, and the fish seemed to be perking up. Looking behind us to the south, I could see the edge of the front. This front was widely covered by our local meteorologists for bringing very high winds, thunderstorms, and possible hail. These types of pressure changes happen but are not the usual. As the front approached, the fish became more and more aggressive. 

We got to a stretch that usually sees rising fish, so we decided to throw dry flies. Our normal approach on dries is anchoring the boat and fishing downstream to a targeted riser. We decided to fish blind down the banks and test our luck. On our fifth or sixth cast, Bob in the back of the boat presented a BWO to a head he saw sipping and got the eat we were looking for. While he and I celebrated his hookup, Pat in the front also got his fly in front of a nose and got a sip. Dry fly double! We spun the boat around a couple times, keeping each other's fish from meeting. We got Pat’s to the net first, and then eventually got Bob’s to join the party. Not only was it a dry fly double, but it was also double Browns! On a normal day on the Mo’ you’ll catch one brown to every 10 rainbows.

After this really neat moment and a quick picture to remember it, we were greeted with some serious weather. As soon as we released both fish, the front made its way to us. The wind kicked up to well over 40 miles an hour, and the glassy surface we caught the fish on turned into waves that lapped against the edge of the boat. We rode the downstream wind as far as we could go, then waited out the thunder and lightning under a high bank until the first front cleared. After the sky lightened a touch, we threw streamers and got a really nice rainbow before we hit the boat ramp. A perfect ODL Mo’ Slam.

Pat with a streamer eating rainbow

We’re in the meat of the season now; No sleep till November! A full lodge is good for the soul, and we’ve been loving every second of this first month of the season. We still have some slots here and there throughout the year, so don’t be afraid to reach out about availability. Spring gives us a good outlook on this season’s fishing, and it will surely be a memorable year. Don’t miss out, we'll see you when you get here!