Autumn Weather and Fall Fishing are the perfect combo at the Missouri River Ranch!

Sep 24

3 min read

September 24, 2026

September has brought in cooler temperatures, great fishing, and even better guests. We've had the pleasure to welcome old friends back to the ranch and new groups that left feeling like family. While we take our angling very seriously at the Missouri River Ranch, we've found the fish count is quickly forgotten but the memories and stories you share between the bow and stern of a drift boat are ones you carry with you for a lifetime...but it also doesn't hurt for some of those tales to include big brown trout. River temperatures are continuing to cool coming out of Holter Dam with charts reading in the low 60's and flows around 3300CFS.

Tricos are still the name of the game in the morning and evening with Hopper patterns being the go-to mid-day. Our fishy guides have been known to track down pockets of rising fish throughout the float, but it has seemed like the dawn and dusk hours have been the best for targeting fish on smaller Trico patterns like Hi-Vis Trico Spinners and Midge Clusters. Be prepared to pick your spot with the small dries, but when you do get into rising trout, we have seen quality fish pinned by experienced anglers and novice alike in recent weeks. To maximize your dry fly chances while still covering the water in the most effective manner possible, tie on a trusty Chubby Hopper with a dropper fly to cover both levels of the water column. Royal colorations along with the Montana standby of black and purple have been seeing the most love from trout eating in the high sun.

You can never go wrong on the Missouri with a Sowbug in the mix! Crawfish patterns like the Zirdle that has been so popular amongst trout and anglers seems to be tailing off. Still not a bad option to try if the day is getting slow, but the safest bet to start your drift is with a worm and sowbug. Tying on a Wire Worm pattern with an unweight sowbug trailing has been a great base to work from. The heavier Wire Worm helps sink your rig quickly to the feeding zone and the unweighted fly flutters naturally behind the larger fly. This combo of a fast sinking lead fly with an active imitation in the rear is turning some heads. Another tip for your dry/dropper setup is sizing up your dropper fly. Since it is tough to add extra weight to a dry/dropper rig with split shot and other techniques, sizing up your nymph pattern (very high on darker perdigon patterns in this instance) allows you to get your fly down quicker and maintain a lower ride through shifting currents. The extra weight keeps a more vertical orientation allowing more fish to see your fly and making the most out of small pockets and holes that larger fish tend to occupy.

Streamer junkies...it's your time! While never a bad option on the Mighty Mo, streamer fishing is beginning to pick up drastically. Fall brings on an attitude adjustment for the resident brown trout. Fish that would be more likely to hide beneath an undercut bank are now starting to get bad intentions and acting on aggression with the Fall Spawn coming into form. Water temperatures are cooling but still on the warmer side, so start with a slower retrieve then pick up the pace if you are not moving fish. We recently had a guide see a brown trout with guests in the boat that had everyone questioning exactly how big brown trout can grow in this river...after a few seconds of awe-inspiring interaction along the skiff, the monster took off in hot pursuit of a foot long rainbow trout. The fish of a lifetime are out there...and they are hungry. This time of year, I can't pass up a promising hole without at least one swing through with an oversized streamer anchored to the end of my line.