Well, the day had come to say goodbye to the Missoula area, our cabin, and this part of our journey in Big Sky Country. I think everyone mighta been a little depressed when we packed up in the early morning hours to head to River "X" and then head onto Craig to fish the Mo'. The Missoula area had been an awesome experience for us all but it was time to roll...
We decided to head back to the back country to fish the same stream that CoreyD, Squatch, and I had fished on Monday so everyone got to experience it. We made the same trek to the east and arrived at the trailhead early to give everyone enough time to hike to different spots and fish till a set time. Everyone packed their gear up and we decided on letting DonnyB, Crik, and Cole to hike in the furthest while the rest of us just hiked in a mile or so to fish back to the parking lot....
I can't say anything about this place that hasnt already been said in a previous blog post. It is absolutely amazing up there. Am I over-exaggerating? Absolutely not. With the cooler weather we had that day, the dry fly bite wasnt as good as the previous trip but we were still able to pick a few fish up on dries. Some of us switched over, started chucking the bobber, and started picking up fish in all the likely holes. We saw a couple more nice bull trout as well, my god, those fish are awesome! One day I must fish a river where you can fish for them legally (cant fish for them legally in River "X"). Not much else I can say about this place...so I'm gonna let the pictures speak for themselves...
After fishing most of the morning and into the afternoon, we all happened to meet up on the main trail to make the trek back to the truck. After getting our gear stowed away, we loaded up to finish up our drive over to Craig, Montana to check out the Missouri. The first part of the drive over was pretty sweet as we made our way over the pass and into the foothills. Totally cool part of Montana...
We arrived in Craig around 4:00, just in time to see all the guides and clients arriving back from their trips for the day. For such a small town, this place was really busy as there were guide rigs buzzing around from the boat ramp to the fly shops to the bar. It was crazy to say the least. Craig is truly a "trout town", no denying it. There are 3 fly shops, a bar, a restraunt, a burrito stand, a mini storage, and a handful of houses....thats it! I have never seen so many drift boats in my life, it was absolutely nuts! We made a pitstop at the famous Headhunters to schedule a shuttle and pick up a few flies. Very cool shop for being so small. Several guides and fisherman out front on the porch enjoying some free beers out of the mondo huge Yeti cooler, BSin' about the days fishing. Lots of cool merchandise inside. Awesome fly selection, everything you would need for the Mo'. The crew at Headhunters were extremely helpful with picking out a float/shuttle for the next day, hooked us up with some flies, and gave us directions for our put-in. Awesome stuff...
We snagged up 1 of the last few camp spots at the famous Craig Trout Camp, pitched our tents, and then wandered over to Izaaks to grab some food. First impression of Izaaks when we walked in was "Wow, we are totally out-classed here!" as this was a high-end restraunt for such a small town. Wasn't sure if we would get kicked out as we were all in fishing clothes from the days hike and I cant even imagine how awesome we smelled. Thankfully, shortly after we turned in our order...guides and fisherman slowly started trickling in with the rest of the crowd. The place was packed before we knew it. The food was great. They had some really cool local brews from around Montana that the rest of the crew all tried out. Service was great. Minus the fact it was a little pricey, pretty awesome place to eat.
After dinner, we headed back to the campsite and pulled up chairs next to the Mo' to enjoy the rest of the evening. Kinda cool to be sitting next to a world class dry fly river with your buddies, watching fish rise randomly up and down the river, and seeing drift boats coming in from their late evening trips. As darkness set in, a few of the guys got a little restless and wandered over to Joe's Bar to check out the local watering hole. From what I understand, it was quite the experience. We all found our sleeping bags shortly afterwards and settled in for the night. Man what a freaking cool town...
The journey comes to an end with a float down the Mighty Mo'....hang with us!
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