Missouri River – Below Holter Dam

January 30, 2009 back to Fishing Journal

A long, grueling work week and the prospect of working yet another weekend on projects led me to bail from the office early in the afternoon. Temperatures in Helena were in the mid-40’s and winds were mild, though showed much less so in weather reports for the other side of the Bear’s Tooth. A day or two of temperatures above freezing were all that could be expected. I was determined to try my luck again on the beautiful tailwater below Holter Dam.

Water

The river was cold and gin clear, to borrow a phrase. I’ve never seen the Missouri is such beautiful condition. This section of the river below the long, deep Holter Reservoir was largely clear of ice on the edge. If it wasn’t for the rough surface caused by strong winds coming more or less right over the dam, visibility was many feet. It looked nearly like a spring creek in its clarity.

Flows seems gentle. USGS records (below) show the river was actually 5% or more below normal and temperatures weren’t much above freezing.

Fishing

Any reasonable man would bet it would be the dead of winter here at the end of January, but a week or two of temperatures above freezing and some strong Chinook winds ahead of a light storm brought temperatures well into the 40’s. Surprisingly, there were very few other anglers on this popular stretch of the Missouri on a Friday afternoon. As Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks records show, fishing pressure dropped in 2007. It probably dropped again in 2008 with high gas prices, reduced tourism, and a declining economy.

Source: Montana FW&P

A couple other fly fishermen were on the east/south side of the river where I fished, but upon getting above one fellow fishing down near the last parking area below the dam, I had a mile of prime Missouri River shore to myself from getting on it around 3:00 until after 6:30 – an hour after sunset. Constant 10-20 mph downriver winds led me to this side of the river. While I didn’t have a lot of tangling troubles, I did struggle to get the line out without a huge downstream (downwind) bow and couldn’t see the strike indicator most of the time while nymphing because of the rough surface and glare looking into a low sun.

The winds did die down quite a bit around sunset when I started working back downriver. Despite trying various types and sizes of Hare’s Ears and streams, both with and without added weight in the form of sinkers and a sinking leader, I didn’t get a discernable bite the whole time out. One nice rainbow did roll up over the surface right in front of me when I was as close to the dam as I dared get. It was funny because I was struggling to be stealthy between the wind, low sun, and a river bed in this area rough for wading. In the middle of wondering if I’d scared every fish out of the run I was working 40-50’ away, this trout bubbles up less than half the way out to it. Oh, well. It was a beautiful day!

As I haven’t figured out the river, yet, these days on the Mighty Missouri provide a good opportunity to practice casting. For the hour or more after sunset that I managed to fish (cast), the fading sunset was at nearly a perfect angle for quartering casts upstream. Gradually, almost indiscernibly, I relied more and more on feel. The lack of light might allow me to fool myself, but it did seem like I was laying out straight, direct casts and dropping the heavy streamers about as lightly as they could go into the water. With a quick mend and pulling in slack, the streamer was touching bottom on and off by the time it past straight out from me.

Now, if I can get those darn fish to cooperate!