Well our last day in Montana was upon us as we slowly crawled out of our sleeping bags on Friday morning. After a week of blowing and going, everyone was really slow to get fired off and it took us a little longer to get loaded up. I think expectations and motivation were pretty low for the day as the Missouri is known for being a super technical fishery and, on top of that, the fishing the past few weeks had really slowed down due to rising water temps.
Most boats were heading up to the dam to do the row-around hot laps as most of the fish were concentrated in those first few miles below the dam. We wanted to avoid the boat show as best we could so we decided to do Wolf Creek to Craig for our float. We were first to the parking lot and started rigging up in hopes of being the 1st ones on the water. That hope was dashed after 10 minutes as trucks w/ drift boats started to pour into the parking lot, it was a circus to say the least. Guys were drag racing down the boat ramp to get on the water first, cutting each other off, and it was just total chaos. We didnt get in any hurry, finished rigging up, launched boats, and started our last float trip for the journey...
Now this is where I would love to tell you how we found pods of big rainbows sipping bugs where we slayed them on dries or how we caught some nice browns against the banks with big bushy hoppers...but that would be lying and fisherman don't lie. (I mean, wait...what?) No, but seriously, we got our ass kicked on the Mo' that day. The river lived up to its reputation for us and didnt give it up to us. I caught 1 small rainbow on a bobber rig, we got a few half-hearted swipes on the foam, and Cole turned a nice fish on a streamer just before the take out. That was it. We did find 1 nice bank that had 3 small pods of rainbows looking up and sipping tricos off the surface. We setup on 2 of the pods and Chris did his best to get an eat but we didnt get any love. The Mo' reminded me a lot of the White River when its rolling 12,000cfs or higher....just 1 big, wide, flat seam lazily working its way downstream. There was only 1 riffle that we found and thats where I caught my fish, right off the ledge. It was a tough day for us which nobody really was surprised so we just pushed on down to the take out.
Now, I'm not gonna down the Mo' at all as we have all heard too many stories about how much of a freak show that place can be. We got a small taste of it with those small pods of fish we found, totally cool to see. We probably couldn't of picked a worst time to try our luck on a such a technical fishery. I think, if I ever return to the Mo', I will fish it with a guide to maximize my time on the river. Or come back in Sept or Oct to streamer fish the river when the browns start to move up. I will return one day to the Mighty Mo'...
We got the boats loaded up and started up the process of stowing gear away for the road trip back home. What a depressing time. Usually after a few days of fishing hard, even I'm ready to go home but not on this trip. We got the trucks loaded up and headed out of Craig around Noon with our next destination being Helena where we would stop for lunch. After filling our bellies, we put the proverbial hammer down and headed for home. We stayed the night in Casper, Wyoming so everyone could get a hot shower and a good nights sleep before our final push for home. The drive home was pretty uneventful minus a stop in Cabelas in Sydney, Nebraska to check it out. Totally let down for my 1st Cabelas experience but I have heard the other stores are better. After that, we grabbed some lunch, and then pointed the trucks for home. After a long day, we made it to my house about 2:00 am. We were home...what a trip...
To sum up our journey, I have never been to a place so amazing as Montana. The fishing, the landscape, the wildlife, the people, the lifestyle up there...everything about it, I absolutely loved. It lived up to every expectation I had, even though we had some tough fishing a couple of days. I have been to some cool places in my life (Australia, New Mexico, Colorado, California, Tennessee, and even our Ozarks are nice) but none of them hold a candle to Montana. We only just scratched the surface of what the state has to offer too, I cant wait to go back. For 1 week, I can honestly say that we didnt just chase the dream, we lived the dream...
We will return...
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