I fished the Missouri River in Montana for the first time over the last few days. What a great river with great numbers of fish and lots of really big fish.
This trip was hosted by the folks at RIO and me and a two other fly shop owners had the pleasure of getting to know a few of the main guys responsible for the sales, marketing and manufacturing of RIO lines.
Not only did I enjoy time on one of the world’s best trout rivers, but I also got a chance to take a very detailed look at what makes RIO such a successful company in the fly line, leader/tippet, and accessories markets. In summary, I learned quite a bit about why RIO rocks. They are serious about their products, their customers, and their fishing… and they aren’t too shabby at ping-pong either!
We fished three and a half days and floated various sections of the river. We primarily fished streamers and dry flies in the search for big fish but the nymphing was crazy good when we decided to go that route. Some of the hot flies were the Sheila's Sculpin, Sculpzilla Jr., and Morrish Anato-May in Olive.
The largest fish landed for the group were in the 21 to 22-inch range. All of the fish were in great shape, pulled very hard, and were certainly well-fed. I lost one that would have been a contender for the largest fish of the trip. We had the net on it a few times but eventually it buried in the thick weeds and I broke it off trying to pull it out (too anxious, I suppose). It may have gone 23-inches or so and it would have been nice to get a picture with that big fella!
We were guided by Mike Kuhnert of Evolution Fly Fishing and Mark Raisler of Headhunters Fly Shop. I couldn’t recommend them higher if you get a chance to fish the Mo.
Thanks again to RIO for such a great trip!