By: Warren DeMark

It’s 9 pm in the middle of August. The sun just started setting and you haven't started dinner yet. You woke up at 5:30 am today to hit the Trico hatch and stayed on the water for way too long. You had the time of your life squinting at size 20 bugs all day and repairing 5x leaders. A couple of Missouri bruisers were fooled in the midst of the hatch, and lots of fly line was seen leaving your reel when they went on their screaming runs. It was a successful day, as is any day you can fool some trout into sticking their noses out of their aquatic home into our warmer, dryer domain. But you’re tired and dehydrated now, and if you wake up tomorrow at the break of dawn, there may not be enough coffee in the world to prevent you from taking a nap in the river. If only there was a way to wake up at noon and catch fish on size 4 dry flies. Enter Grasshoppers. 

Looking for great dry fly fishing (sometimes with unlimited targets) with light traffic? Then you are going to want to fish the Baetis (a.k.a. Blue Winged Olives) on Montana’s Missouri River. For this article we’re going to talk about the 35 or so miles of river between Holter Dam and the town of Cascade.

From April to October, the Missouri is a trout fishing mecca. Every month has something different to offer, and it is a head scratcher to figure out when to come. If you have any questions, give us a call. But rest assured, whenever you come, the fish will be here. 

As October opens we look towards true fall fishing. While we are still seeing the last of the Tricos, Pseudocleons, and Hopper fishing, the signs of fall fishing are in the air. That means Baetis AKA/BWO blanket hatches, October caddis and awesome streamer fishing. Right now we are hunting heads while we run shallow nymph rigs on sunny days and throwing the streamers on cloudy days. Fishing has truly been spectacular.

October is looking to be a truly special time to be on the Missouri. We still have some mid to late October dates available. It would be our pleasure to take you fishing.