This is what we were lucky enough to witness last week. When you land the biggest brown trout of your life after it jumps out of the water three times right in front of you during an epic battle, the drive seems like nothing.

It doesn’t matter that you have to drive over two hours from Missoula one way to get there. Thousands of tourists, local Montana fisherman, and fishing guides flock to the river each year for one reason. The epicenter of Missouri River fishing is the small town of Craig, MT. the Mighty Mo has been giving up large numbers of hard fighting fish since early March. This is truly a spring runoff to remember, but there is one place that has remained fishable throughout this entire spring.

Trout were easy to come by, and the accesses along the Bitterroot were actually open (and not flooded). At this time last year the rivers were all running relatively clear, and big golden stone flies seemed to fill the sky. We all continue to search tirelessly for a place to wet a line.

As July approaches faster than any of us can imagine, the Missoula area rivers rage on.

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