Game On – Photo by Jim Murray

We’ve seen an uptick in traffic these last few days with people taking advantage of the nice weather to get out and enjoy the last days of 2016 on the Missouri.

I wouldn’t call it busy by any means but if you’re coming out today or tomorrow expecting to have the river to yourself that’s not going to happen.

Those runs you like to fish in the winter, they aren’t a secret. Others like to fish them too. Expect to find folks in most of those places and be prepared to share. There’s plenty of water for everyone.

Give it a few days however and you can probably have the whole thing to yourself as it appears as though we’re heading into a prolonged arctic blast, the likes of which reportedly hasn’t been seen in 20 years.

From KBZK.COM

An Arctic cold front is expected to drop through Montana on Sunday. Pacific moisture will also move into Montana producing widespread snow. Gusty winds are likely as the Arctic front drops through Montana. This will bring dangerous travel conditions to Montana Sunday into Monday. Snowfall of 2″ to 4″ is possible with heavier snow in higher elevations, wind will be increasing Sunday into Monday 15 to 30 with gusts to 40 mph, wind chill values of -15 to -30 are possible, considerable blowing and drifting snow is also likely Sunday and Monday.

High pressure will build into Montana beginning Monday night clearing skies and settling the gusty winds down. However, the combination of valley snow, clear skies and Arctic air digging into most valleys forecast lows will be well below zero beginning Tuesday morning. National Weather Service office in Missoula is predicting a low of -41 below for Butte by Tuesday morning and with a light 5 mph NE wind the “Feels Like” temperature could be closer to -60. Bozeman area could see lows drop down to or lower than -25 below and possible wind chills down to or lower than -30 below zero.

It’s been about 20 years since the last long duration extreme cold event, according to the National Weather Service, the last time temperatures were this cold and for over a week was back in 1998.

We won’t see quite those extremes here on the Missouri but it’s definitely going to be bitterly cold so our advice would be to get out and fish today and tomorrow if you want to fish the river because it may be a while once the Arctic Blast arrives.

While the fishing opportunities on the river may be diminishing for the time being things are really starting to heat up on Holter Lake for the hard water anglers judging by the amount of calls we’ve gotten for lodging over the last few days. We are full for the weekend and have already booked a few rooms for next week. If this keeps up we may just need to think about opening some additional lodging units as demand is definitely exceeding supply at this point. We’ll keep you posted.

We’ll be in the shop today and tomorrow for all of your Missouri River fly fishing needs. We’re closed on New Year’s Day and will play it by ear for next week. As has become our mantra this winter,  if we’re looking at single digit temps and/or hazardous travel conditions the shop will more than likely be closed but we are open for lodging EVERY DAY.