Easter Bow from The Mighty Missouri

[logs22]

I was in Montana over Easter weekend for my sisters Suprise 40th bday party and couldn’t spend 4 days in Helena without taking a few casts in the Missouri River. The original plan was to rent fly equipment from a place called Wolf Creek Angling and see if I could pick up the basics in a day. Unfortunately the weather on my one day to fish was not cooperative. Friday it was 55 and sunny and Sat when i woke up to head to the river it was 6 degrees, windy and snowing. I decided it was just too cold to try and learn to fly fish, so I headed to the local outdoor shop and picked up a new pair of waders, some hand and foot warmers, a cheap ultralight spinning combo that would fit in my carry on, some lures and a 2 Day license.

$150 poorer I headed into the mountains. It was near white-out conditions as I started my drive (which was unfortunate because it meant I couldn’t take advantage of an interstate with no set speed limit). I honestly felt like the guy in ‘The Revenant’ as I trudged through the snow and icy waters. All that was missing was the grizzly bear attack.

I fished the stretch of river downstream from the Holter Lake dam (which is actually north of the dam which I found very confusing). The scenery was spectacular, I met a bunch of real nice fellow anglers, and after about an hour I managed to hook a nice 20” bow on a husky jerk. The fish put up a great fight in strong current but I finally got it in the net. I never keep fish but I promised my brother-in-law I would bring home any keepers for him to cook (I suspect he didn’t think I would catch anything) so this fish ended up as dinner (for him I don’t even like fish). All in all a great (but very cold) day of trout fishing.

[AndyS]

Gotta luv them big rivers !! Great pics, nice fish, cool report, thanx !!