GREAT FALLS AREA FISHING REPORT
July 9th, 2026
Lower Mo
Dam Temps: 63.9°F
Cascade CFS: 4,180 cfs
Ulm CFS: 4,080 cfs
Morony Dam CFS: 4,940 cfs
Fort Benton CFS: 5,800 cfs
Missouri River Pelican Point Down
The evenings will be most productive if you are looking to fish caddis. From about 4 p.m. on you will start to see caddis buzzing around the bushes on the banks getting ready to come back down to the water to finish their life. As the sun starts to set they’ll be on the water. This time of year, you won’t see big caddis. The fish will mostly be keyed in on size-16 and 18 tan or dark-brown caddisflies. Often, I will see size-20 or even a bit smaller black caddis coming off as well. There are Tricos on the river now. Tricos will come off in about the same timeframe as PMDs do, mid-day on into the afternoon. A Hi-Vis Trico Spinner is a go-to in sizes 18-20. As usual dry flies are preferred at House of Fly; try a 12-foot leader and 5x on the end. If that doesn’t work, dry/droppers with a smaller Chubby, or a hopper will work well. Then, if all else fails, a double nymph rig with a tan Zirdle and a Perdigon will do the trick.
Recommended Flies
Sam Wike’s Hi-Vis Spent Caddis size 14, 16, 18
Kris Keller’s Center Stage Caddis Tan size 14, 16 or Black in size 18,20
Fred Telleen’s Imperial IPT Pheasant Tail Purple size 12,14,16
Lance Egan’s Frenchie size 14 or 16
Tom Baltz’s MO River Killer size 16
Fred Telleen’s JZ in Tan
Cascade Downstream
Lately when I have been chasing pike, I have stuck to the surface. Trying to elicit a topwater eat, with divers and a few poppers. I have found that using flies like Tommy Lynch’s Drunk and Disorderly, that come to surface on the pause, and then dive back down on the strip, get eaten more successfully. Your standard popper that stays on the surface doesn’t get in the fish’s face enough to cause the kill reaction. It will work for the smaller pike but if it is the big guys your after, look no further than your local House of Fly shop or houseoffly.com for a selection of topwater pike flies.
Pike Flies
Tommy Lynch’s Drunk and Disorderly
Matt Grajewski’s Yardsale Black, Chartreuse/ White, Olive/ White
Satkowkis Devil Tail
Blackfoot
Large mayfly patterns, such as green drakes, or Kris Keller’s Tickle Cripple in purple, will do well if you are looking to fish single or double dries. The go-to-setup for this watershed will always be the dry/dropper, so tying on your favorite Chubby Chernobyl and a 14 or 16 Perdigon will be most productive. If the weather turns to a mid-summer rainstorm, small streamers like the Sparkle Minnow will turn some heads.
Clark Fork
The river above Missoula has been fishing well. The water has come down since the rain we got the last few weeks, and there has been a great selection of bugs to choose from. Try taking some golden stones with heavy droppers below them and fish the banks on your way down.
Creeks and Lakes
Our spring-like weather has kept the smaller waters in the area moving and those solid flows have filled up most of our reservoirs. If you are looking to fish the smaller waters, take a couple of Chubbies or larger stonefly dries and a decent selection of heavy nymphs. Fish them in the pockets. If you’re headed to the high mountain lakes for a hike and solitude, take a couple chironomids that you can hang under an indicator fly. On a warm day, the fish up in those lakes should be looking to take a dry as well, so being prepared with some attractor dries is a must.
Flies for the freestones in the area:
MFC’s Fool’s Gold Golden Stone size 10
Chris Conaty’s Chubby Chernobyl Gold size 8,10
Matt Bryn’s Front Stone Jig Brown size 8,10,12
Jeremy Davie’s Neo 20 Incher size 10
High Mountain Lake Flies:
Kris Keller’s Rocky Mountain Mint in purple size 14,16
Tom Baltz’s Hi-Vis Paranymph size 12,14
Jack Horner’s Humpy Red size 14,16
Frank Sawyer’s Pheasant Tail bead head size 12,14
Kelly Davidson’s Sno Cone Black and Red size 12,14
Other fisheries!
There has been decent walleye fishing down below town. Most people target those fish with a spin rod and a can of worms, but if you wish to catch them on the fly, take some small baitfish patterns or leeches and a sink-tip and strip at a slow, steady pace in slow moving water. Recently, I have been using my lunch hours to go and harass the carp right here in town. The day must be just right for it to work though--bright sunshine and little to no runoff from the Sun River coming in. If these two line up, using small crawdad patterns, or Mop flies fished right down on the bottom will work to catch those scaley, slimy, hard pulling fish.
Walleye Flies:
Jig Slum Lord Black size 6
Mike Mercer’s Short Stop Leech Thin Mint size 6
Nick Blanco’s Heisenberg Black size 6
Carp Flies:
Andrew Grillo’s Carpholio Brown or Olive size 4
Chase Smith’s Carp Nugget Olive or Craw
MISSOURI RIVER WEATHER FORECAST
OTHER REPORTS WE LIKE TO FOLLOW
Missouri River fishing reports aren't always the same. One stretch of the river may fish better than others which is why we like to check a number of different fishing reports from other shops in the area. We've gathered our favorite fishing report sources in the links below.