MT Tailwater Tour

Here in SW Montana we anglers are fortunate to have a number of high quality tailwater trout fisheries to play on during the winter months. Last weekend I sampled two of them, the mighty Missouri River and the infamous Bighorn River.

When the alarm went off Friday morning I was questioning my sanity for rising early to go fishing in temperatures that weren't forecast to exceed 30 degrees. None the less I got myself out the door and on the road for a day on the water with Josh, Brady and Clay.

Our destination was the Missouri River at Beaver Creek, below Hauser Dam. This was my first time fishing this stretch of the Missouri and I was immediately impressed. The river flows for 2-3 miles between reservoirs here, through a steep, roadless canyon...my kind of place. Brady quickly set the pace for the day, hooking into a big, beautiful rainbow that measured 23". Over the course of the day we battled high winds, heavy snow and some nice fish.

There was no rest for the weary after getting back to the Bozone Friday night. Duty called and I had to be in Billings early Saturday morning on business. I reloaded the truck, picked up Matt and made a caffeine fueled drive to Billings. I'm a big proponent of mixing business and pleasure at every opportunity and was sure to schedule a day on the Bighorn to round out the weekend.

We wasted no time in getting over to Ft. Smith on Sunday morning. We pulled into the Afterbay boat ramp at 9:30am, rigged up, launched the Clacka and hooked up right off the bat. My bro-in-law from Billings joined us for this float and with his knowledge of the river we were into fish all day. At about 10am we saw our first risers, midges were coming off heavily and some sizeable fish were keying in on them. It turned out none of us came well prepared to fish emerging/adult midges, the midge clusters I had on hand got nothing but refusals. Fortunately there were plenty of fish eager to take an assortment of soft hackles, scuds, annelids, shrimp cocktails and streamers. No huge fish were boated, but the numbers of fish per rod was good and the average size was 15-16"...tough to complain about that in February.

Dusting off the Fly Rod

February is a slow time of year for sportsmen in Montana, or just about anywhere for that matter. Waterfowl season has closed, we're still two months from spring turkey season and an ice auger is needed for most fishing endeavors. I've been spending a good deal of time tying flies in anticipation of spring, but all this tying and talk of fishing makes my cabin fever even worse.

After a bit of a fly fishing hiatus during December and January, I decided it was high time I dust off the rod. It's difficult to be self-motivated about getting out on the river at this time of year. Fortunately a couple of my friends have no qualms about bundling up and wading icy rivers in an attempt to shake the winter doldrums.

A recent afternoon outing on the Gallatin River with my buddy Matt was an exercise in futility. Much to our surprise, by the time we fished our way downstream to our destination (a run known as "Hog Alley") we found a couple of other anglers had beaten us to it! This on a weekday in February! Doesn't anyone work anymore? I know, I know, it's the economy, stupid. As the smell of skunk intensified over the course of the afternoon, we lowered our standards a bit and proceeded to target whitefish...with no luck. Regardless, it was a beautiful winter afternoon in which snow flurries and golden shafts of sunlight intermingled in the Gallatin Canyon.

Last Friday I got out yet again for a few hours of fly fishing on the Lower Madison River, a Bozeman area tailwater. On this trip I was accompanied by Josh Bergan, the fly fishing columnist for Montana Sporting Journal, and his friend Brady. Brady was into fish almost immediately and continued putting on a clinic throughout the day. I was a little slower to catch on, landing a couple of rainbows on an egg pattern early on before hitting a serious dry spell. Fortunately Brady eventually took pity on me and furnished a fly he calls, the "Lower Madison Special". As it did on this day, it never ceases to amaze me when the fishing goes from ho-hum to great after simply changing fly patterns.

Winter fly fishing...it's not all bad.