IT HAS BEEN SAID THAT AN UNKNOWN river has no friends. In the case of the Missouri River below Holter Dam near Craig, Montana, such a river has lots and lots of friends. “Maybe as many as 40,000 a year,” suggests Jerry Lappier, co-owner of The Trout Shop. As a tailwater fishery, the Missouri River produces some of the finest fly fishing Montana has to offer. With nearly 5,000 trout per mile, whose fierce response to being hooked causes reels to scream, leaders to break, and anglers to go wide-eyed and weak-kneed, there isn’t a soul who can keep the Missouri’s magnificence a secret, nor is there enough wax to block the ears from her siren call.
