I was driving my pick up, with my skiff pulling behind me. I was driving up highway 15 north of Helena, and I was driving fast… I was 1/2 hour late to meet a couple guys from Simms Fishing, and six more from a company called Fly Fish Europe (FFE).
We were staying in Craig, Montana and fishing the Missouri River for the next three days. The fellas from Europe where really excited to fish the MO, as they are crazy about fishing dry flies.. and are VERY good at it.
I pulled into the Mountain Palace launch and spotted four thin, clean cut guys smoking cigarettes.. and I knew I’d come to the right launch. We all piled into three drift boats, and a raft, for an afternoon float.
To our disappointment, not a fish was rising. Roy Thue was fishing with me, and though he is one of the purest dry fly guys I’ve met, I twisted his arm into throwing a big streamer tied by my friend Doug Mcknight. Roy said that just retrieving the fly was like subduing a small trout.. it was a rather large streamer, but I knew he’d see the light when he hooked the biggest brown of the trip on it. That didn’t happen, but he did catch a very nice 18″ rainbow.
We had a “big fish” competition going on, with one of my giclee prints up as the prize. It always adds a little entertainment when there’s some competitive spirit running through the group.
After a great afternoon of fishing, we had landed a few really nice trout, and towards dark the heads began dimpling the rivers surface in every direction.
Day two found us floating down from the Craig launch, with high hopes of rising fish. I had two great fisherman from Switzerland, Stephane and Sasha in my boat, and neither one minded nymphing.. in fact they used 15′ long leaders, with heavy nymphs, and a tiny high viz indicator an inch from the leader/fly line connection.. it was weird, but it worked.
I found that the Euros like using their European techniques over here…  they love catching fish just like any of us, but to them how you caught a fish is more important then it’s size. I can dig that, though I have stints where I will stoop to almost any level to catch a truly giant fish!
Day 3, I asked if anyone might want to come out on a local Lake, near Craig MT, that we would have the opportunity to hit some very nice bows on leach patterns. I got two takers, and we left the group to spend the day hiking in on the Missouri, looking for that last chance at epic dry fly fishing.
As I rowed across the lake, I told the guys about some of my past fishing stories from this lake… they began to get excited. They where casting and slowly retrieving a double leach rig as I slowly rowed down the shoreline. It wasn’t long before one of the hottest bows of the weekend smashed Lars’s leach and gave him an great battle, jumping and running like only a lake rainbow will.
After what seemed like an hour went by, I checked the time and it was already 4 o’clock.. we’d each landed a few nice trout, and it was time to head in. Thanks so much to our friends from Europe for coming by and fishing some of our favorite water with us! It was a truly memorable trip, and we look forward to wetting a line with you next time.