Missouri River autumn magic

Missouri River Morning

We spent the weekend in wonderful Craiglandia, Montana and it was fabulous.  The trout were huge, hungry, and acrobatic.  They even took my mind off my new carp obsession for the first time in months.

The Craig Bridge

The trees were hanging on to the last of their color, the weather was great, and the fishing was off the charts.

MO Brown

A couple of nice browns were hooked in between the onslaught of huge rainbows. We fished double sowbug short leash in shallow water and could not stop catching fish.  Then, I noticed some orange swimming around in the back part of a seam.  I threw a streamer at it and this happened:

Two rare occurrences, a picture of me on the blog and a huge kokanee salmon in the Wolf Creek area. 

So, I guess some kokanee occasionally make it over the dam and into the river.  This was the biggest kokanee I've ever caught.  We saved it from a lonely death.  He's going into the smoker!

Kokanee kype.  Look at those teeth!!

Nose to nose.

Fall is flying by.  Don't let it slip through your hands.  You've got months of football and cabin fever ahead.  See you in the field!

Browns and Brews Festival in Craig this weekend!

The second annual Browns and Brews Festival is this Saturday, September 3, 2016 in Craig, Montana. The party starts at 4 pm at Izaak's.  There is a live auction at 6 pm and music by Rocket to Uranus throughout the night. See you there!

"Dead Flies Don't Swim"

Dead Flies Don't Swim from scumliner media on Vimeo.



I've been all over the place fishing and working like a maniac all summer.  I hit the Baetis and early caddis on the Mo, the salmon flies on the Big hole, the traveling sedge on G-town, PMDs on the Saint Regis, got into a million grayling in a local mountain lake, and even caught some redbands in Washington State.  I just spent the last week in Craig fishing the trico and evening caddis hard.  Ten hour + days all by myself!  I needed that.

Anyway, check out this great video about fishing the tricos on the MO from Sumliner Media.  If you think you're a good dry fly fisher, you'll get put back in your place by hitting the tricos on the MO.  If you want to cheat and catch a million fish all day with a lot less skill, tie on a zebra midge or sunken trico nymph and rack up some serious numbers.

Browns and Brews Festival in Craig, Montana

"This event is our first brewfest which we hope will become as successful as our Craig Caddis Festival held each May.  This brewfest will have live and silent auctions, to raise money for the betterment or improvement of Craig.  It’s become a busy little town utilized by many people but with few actual residents.  This is the business community’s way of trying to give back to the community." - Montana Brewers Association

Look at the weather forecast!! Bring a raincoat, a box of streamers, and an appetite for beer.  I'll see you there!

Rain, wind, movies, bighorns, and some trout

Bighorn sheep at Holter Dam

Had yet another epic weekend in Craiglandia, USA.  This weekend brought a movie festival, some new friends of the "true local" variety, first-trout-on-the-fly for 2 people, and enough rain and wind to chill you to the bone.  Next weekend will hopefully be a bit warmer as we stay in the neighborhood and stick some Big Hole pigs.

Montana Fly Fishing Film Festival

Some trout are more willing to get the whole, "getting caught" ordeal over with...

2015 Drift Boat Drive-in and Caddis Festival

Looks like a solid weekend of fun in Trout Town, USA!!  See you there...

Western Montana - high water - fishing report

The large freestone rivers in western Montana are experiencing a nice, steady runoff.  It's looking like we are going to have a great summer and fall with full streams and fat fish.  The cool thing about Montana, especially now that true fishing season has started, is that there is always a place to fish, even during run-off.

Highway 434

You can drive over to the Missouri River which is fishing great.  You can also now fish the tribs here, there, and everywhere.

View of Craig, MT from the Craig Cemetery

RBM Chronicles thanks the people of ALL faiths, genders, ethnicities, abilities, and styles of fishing who have served our country on this Memorial Day.


Flint Creek below Phillipsburg is another great high water option.  Most of the flow comes out of a reservoir from the next drainage over (crazy!) so it has a tailwater aspect to it.  It is loaded with medium sized brown trout and the occasional rainbow and there are plenty of larger fish mixed in.  

Flint Creek in Six Mile Canyon with Pintler Mountains

Flint creek fished ok with small streamers in the sun last week.  They are brown trout though, so early morning or clouds are good to have on your side.  Nymphing with worms and stoneflies was productive lower on the creek where it carries more water and color.


Further up the drainage, Georgetown Lake is an amazing fish factory and will begin to fish like the Dickens soon.  The rainbows are in full on spawn mode which has slowed the fishing at the moment.  They will be done soon though and if you saw the pics of the east shore and Emily Spring from earlier this week, you know there are more than enough huge trout in this lake to make anyone happy.

Rare afternoon glass on Georgetown Lake

Georgetown fished best with egg and worms thrown to trout cruising the shoreline and rainbow trout or brook trout looking streamers fished the same way.


The Beaverhead River is a small tailwater in SW Montana.  It is one of my favorite streams to fish on the planet.

Christine on the Beav

Beaverhead Brown

Tailwater nymphs work here but that's not what I like.  The Beaverhead is one of my favorite places to fish streamers.  This last trip was no exeption.  We were lucky enough to get afternoon clouds and thunderstorms which made sweeping little Matukas through untouched side channels into something I have't stopped thinking about for the last three days.  I had mega chase-downs by mean browns and my fly had the effect of an electro-fishing wand where I could at least move, what seemed like, every fish in the river.  God, I love that stream.

The Beaverhead Mountains of SW Montana

Happy Memorial Day and happy spring fishing!

Nymphing still key for all day sucsess on the Mo

The Missouri River is fishing great but it's a bit more work than normal.  There are some fish up on dries in the evening but it is not really worth the time.  Streamers were also weak the past couple of days due to the bright-ass sun.  The fish are really hot on small mayfly nymphs though.  Fish them deep in the sun, even in the afternoon.  I did better climbing around on the rip rap in the canyon today than floating through it.  I was fishing winter-like water and fishing it deep.  I caught some great fish and my biggest brown of the year so far.  Tomorrow looks like it may be the day for streamers!