Cooling Weather and Hot Fishing!

Aug 27

3 min read

August 27, 2026

The dog days of summer are looking to be in the rearview for us in the Missouri River Valley of Montana with a cooling trending on the horizon. Days are beginning to get shorter and the fishing window is getting longer. While our expert guides can undoubtedly track down trout on the Mighty Mo regardless of the season, the crisp mornings are a pleasant reprieve for both the anglers and fish alike. This has led to more intense morning hatches and bringing on our nightly swarm earlier and earlier in the evening. We have also been fortunate to have an immense amount of wildlife work their way down from the mountains surrounding the ranch offering scenic views that pair incredibly with Chef Justin's exceptional evening feasts. We have also welcomed a new morning chef to the ranch. Chef Gavin, originally from South Africa, has continued to impress guests with his culinary prowess and assortment of breakfast pastries that seem to be getting better and better each day. River flows have gone up slightly since we last reported, coming in at around 3600 CFS and water temperatures in the mid 60's.

Clouds of Tricos and swarms of Grasshoppers are keeping anglers at the ready on the Mighty Mo. Even with temperatures beginning to cool, it is still paramount to strike early with the adage of "the early bird gets the worm" still being in full effect. Varying in intensity, Tricos are still the main hatch in the mornings on the Missouri. Whether it is smaller hatches (that still seem unreal to anglers that have never experienced the Mo) to clouds of Tricos that make you wonder if you can row through them, the morning bug life is consistently Tricos. Cripple Tricos and Midge Clusters are solid dry flies to get a feel for the fish. Focus on the size of your fly and do your best to match it as close to the prevailing hatch that you can. We've seen size 18 flies get no love then the same pattern in size 22 get demolished by rising fish. So stay patient, trust your guide, and get ready for the ride. Once the day begins to warm and the Tricos slow, switch to your favorite Hopper pattern. Henneberry Hoppers and Micro Chubbies have ended up in the lip of many rising trout over the course of the last few weeks.

Trout are eating crayfish at a rate that would even make a Cajun blush. Crayfish, Crawfish, or Crawdad, depending on your particular dialect, are the big meal of choice for the fish on the Missouri at the moment. Dead drifting can be effective, but we have found that giving the fly a little action or slight twitch on your mend can be the difference in an eat or refusal. There's not a steadfast method, so experiment with different cadences till you find the one that the trout can't resist. The traditional Zirdle (weighted or unweighted) and TJ Hooker patterns are getting consistent looks. Unweighted variations can be used under a foam Hopper patten without pulling down your dry fly, so keep that in mind when looking to utilize both levels of the water column.

Thin Mints aren't just Girl Scout cookies, they are trout catching machines! With warming water temperatures, trout aren't looking to exert a ton of energy chasing small meals. Your crafty and generally older, bigger trout are keying in on the larger meals to get the most bang for their buck. We had one of our regular guides trick a healthy Brown Trout out of the weed line with a few twitches of a Thin Mint fly. Thin Mints have been a favorite around the ranch, but any Bugger pattern or crawfish imitation is liable to get a tug this time of year. General rule of thumb is that when the water is warmer, slower and less eccentric retrieves work better so start with a smooth, lethargic pace then work your way up to a quicker more sporadic retrieve if you're not getting much action. As we've said in the past, streamers aren't always a numbers game, but the ones you do get tend to fill up the net.