These are a couple of videos showing the extensive flooding in Western Montana. As you can imagine, videos and news reports like these have led to a lot of calls from folks who have Missouri River fishing trips booked for sometime this month or next and who, understandably, are wondering what their options are.
Let me start by saying I don’t want to downplay the seriousness of the situation in any way. The flooding is a real thing which has affected thousands of people in Montana….fishing guides and outfitters included. The snowpack is still well above average for this time of year so there’s plenty more to come.
Some rivers are reaching, or have already reached flood stage and many are flowing at levels which haven’t been seen in some cases in over 100 years.
The Missouri is not one of them.
While the Blackfoot, Bitterroot and Clark Fork Rivers are all running dangerously high the Missouri, while bigger than we’ve seen it for some time, continues to offer a safe and high quality Montana fly fishing experience.
Like we saw with the wildfires last summer, national news coverage can be misleading. Just because the state of Montana is on fire (which much of it was) or western Montana is underwater (which some of it is), it doesn’t mean these things are necessarily happening in the places you are headed to and if you’re headed to the Missouri here’s what you can expect…
The birds are singing, the sun is shining, the water is relatively clean and well within its banks and most importantly the trout are eating. Conditions are great for fishing from a drift boat and while there are a few wading anglers around we wouldn’t advise it at this point. It’s spring time in Montana and the fishing is just fine so we hope to see you soon on the Missouri.
Once again, if you have concerns about your trip by all means give us a call and let’s talk about it but please keep in mind that there is a major difference between 13,000 – 15,000 CFS of run off on a freestone…
and the same dam controlled flows in a tailwater like the Missouri. It may not be exactly what you had in mind but not only is there great fishing to be had but these flushing flows are exactly what the river needs and it should pay big dividends when it comes to this season’s aquatic vegetation and next season’s bug life.
It’s Caddis Fest weekend so expect plenty of traffic in and around Wolf Creek and Craig and drift boats a plenty on the MO’. Stop in and see us for up to the minute Missouri River intel and the biggest and best bug selection ever assembled under one roof in Wolf Creek Montana.
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