Just yesterday another gentleman walked up to me at a fly fishing event and upon hearing I hailed from Montana asked me “so what’s so f**king special about the Missouri? I was there last August and it was terrible. Complete waste of my time…”
Electing to respond with a measure of politeness (there were children in the vicinity), I simply said that was arguably one of the worst times of the entire year to be on the river, pending weather and flows, that the Missouri fish counts and size have been stellar for the past four or five years, and that if he’d been there and didn’t get it, there was nothing I could say that would make him understand the mystic of the river.
He looked at me with one of the best deer-in-the-headlights expressions ever, called me a MF’er, and turned on his heel.
There’s Magic in the Missouri’s Numbers
About ten days ago Montana FWP released the most recent trout survey data (Fall 2015 collection) for the Craig section of the Missouri; as always, the data was impressive.
Near Craig, an estimated 4,073 rainbows (greater than 10 inches in length, a standard not followed in all states), the fifth consecutive year numbers have been above the long term average of 3,307 rainbows / mile.
Of note, 43% of rainbows surveyed were 18 inches or longer.
Brown trout counts in the Craig section were a bit lower at 433 per mile with the long term average 572.
Down near Cascade, rainbow numbers were up (1,862 compared to 1,600 per mile long term average) with trout less than 10 inches (again, not counted) “much more abundant” that seen in the several years prior. Cascade brown counts were 476, up again compared to the long term average of 397 browns per mile.
Can’t catch fish on the Missouri? It ain’t the river, Bub…
Image: One of my personal favorites, Duck on the Missouri from Jess McGlothlin Media
