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Craig makes hay while the fish fly
CRAIG, Mont. (AP) The midafternoon heat is intense in this little town and the fishing is a little slow, but Mike Bushly is still upbeat.There's air conditioning inside The Trout Shop, an emporium loaded with cool fishing stuff fly rods, vests, waders, flies, ventilated clothing and a well-stocked deli offering drinks, sandwiches and chilled salads. Even the thick fleece-lined jackets have a perverse retail appeal.And Bushly has plenty more reasons not to sweat. The shop and the small community that surrounds it are awash in anglers ready to spend cold cash chasing big trout.This is our Christmas right now,'' Bushly said.While the stretch of the Missouri River between Holter Dam and Cascade lures plenty of Montanans through the year, the summer months bring anglers from all over the United States and around the world to the broad, cool river.A group of anglers from France just wrapped up seven days of fishing on the Missouri.
Trout on the Upper Mo. need a helping hand
If you ever float the Missouri River between Toston Dam and Townsend you'll surely enjoy a delightful float away from major roads and have the opportunity to observe the area's abundant wildlife. You'll probably see many species of birds, including the majestic bald eagle, and if you're lucky you may see an osprey plunging into the water after a fish. Muskrats and beaver are common along the banks, as are whitetail deer, and you might even see a family of otters. The one thing that probably won't distract you on your float is the quiet slurp of a brown trout rising to a grasshopper under the overhanging willows, or in late October the crash of a hook-jawed male brown during his spawning ritual.It wasn't always this way. If you talk to a trout fisher who frequented this beautiful stretch in the early 1980s you will hear stories of huge brown trout trying to leap the overflow of Toston Dam, or of landing an 8-pound brown hooked on a streamer stripped through a fast riffle.
Angling for change
When are anglers more likely to catch trout, and with what success? According to the commissions study, anglers caught slightly more stocked fish after opening weekend than during the first-day crush. The catch rate was 1.0 trout per hour opening weekend and 1.13 fish per hour afterward. On wild trout streams, fishermen caught 1.76 brook trout per hour on small streams, 0.51 brookies per hour on large streams, and 0.56 brown trout per hour on large streams. Ken Undercoffer looks at the state's wild trout and sees enormous potential. "Devoted trout fishermen pursue them from early spring well into the fall, and sometimes even into winter," said Undercoffer, a former Greensburg resident who lives in Clearfield and serves as president of the Pennsylvania Council of Trout Unlimited.
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