Dam Temps: 45.5° 

Cascade CFS: 3,150 

Ulm CFS: 3,320 

Morony Dam CFS: 3,650

Fort Benton CFS: 4,040

As we enter winter, planning fishing days around the weather is key. Getting out at midday, on warmer days, will produce fish. For dry fly fishing on the MO, be thinking of occasional Baetis and midge action from noon to four or five, as the only winter top water feeding. 

Dries 

Underneath, running brighter colored sow bugs is going to grab the fish’s attention. I like running oranges at this time of year. As the water transitions to cooler temperatures, I find that the really bright colors don't hit as well as a muted orange. With a lack of definitive hatches, there should not be a deterrent to run a sow/scud with a small mayfly or midge nymph behind. Running the double nymph rig, sow/scud in the deeper water as temps drop can provide fish. 

Nymphs 

If dries and standard nymphs aren’t your thing, swinging larger, leechy patterns or soft hackles has found me fish. I’m targeting water that has transitional points (shallow to deep, deep to shallow, choppy water, or water dumping into slack). I’m throwing a Skagit head on our Saga 6122 and a Scandi on our Saga 4114. Fishing water appropriate to either system is key, or throwing heads that provide the correct assistance to the flies is crucial. I am running a 5-float x 5 sink or a 7.5 x 2.5 MOW tip on my 6-weight, or an Airflo Poly 10 foot 1.5 ips for my soft hackles. Flies I find effective: 

As you head further downriver, streamers are the name of the game. If I’m running streamers for a trophy brown below Cascade, typically I will be in a boat. Unless you have a jet boat to run, you’ll find Cascade to Ulm is a long float in a raft or drift boat. Staying lower on the river, down below Black Eagle, there are plenty of participants to be caught if you are not trying to stray too far from Great Falls — or, like me, you need a lunch-break hookup. Down there, I’m throwing on a floating-line and a streamer that presents great movement without a ton of weight. Streamers for Cascade to down below Black Eagle for trout: 

Fishing minnow patterns, or crawfish patterns have been putting pike in the net. Fish a heavy fly on a float or intermediate line, or a light fly on a heavy line. I have been hearing most reports coming from the 5–10 foot depth range on the river, so use your favorite combination of fly and line to get down to the desirable range. They are not super deep in the water column. Hitting those shallow back eddies or sloughs is what you want to do. We have a great selection of pike flies in shop, but online flies for pike include: 

For those going below Morony Dam, the smallmouth bass game has been popping. Light sink-tips and hitting runs where concentration points intersect seems to be the ticket. Bass are ambush predators and love hitting flies they think are in distress. Working streamers with the tip of the rod and articulating them in a way that shows they need to be eaten is important. Smallmouth flies: 

Stillwater 

Stillwaters are fishing really well and will continue to do so until they freeze. Getting out and fishing in the middle of the day is smart. Allowing the the sun to warm the water for a couple of hours will bring fish in close, and that warming water also gets the bugs moving. Target fish on drop-offs and depth changes. Reading stillwaters in a way is like a river. Instead of reading horizontally though, you are reading vertically. I have found great success finding publicly available depth charts online. The best way of doing this is just typing in “Lake Name, Location, Depth Map”. This gives you a better idea of what the water might be doing below the surface. 

 Flies for fall stillwater: