The Meandering Angler

Fishing with Lewis and Clark

 

Dottie and I, along with Sonoma friends, Tom and Katherine Culligan, Jeannie Montague and Chad Overway caught lots of trout and Rocky Mountain whitefish in the Missouri River in July 2024 where 119 years ago Lewis and Clark eventually figured out that the Missouri didn’t run all the way to the Pacific.

Our accommodations and food at the Hidden Canyon Lodge in Cascade Montana were also a whole lot better. In fact, you won’t find a better lodge west of the Mississippi.  And today, there are a lot more trout in the river than when Meriwether Lewis and William Clark passed through around this time of year in 1805.

They caught suckers and cutthroat trout back then, but no rainbows or brown trout, neither of which are native east of the continental divide. They were planted in Montana in the 1880s and have thrived ever since.  Strangely, Mountain Whitefish, a Montana native, wasn’t mentioned. They are members of the Salmonidae family that includes trout, salmon and char, and Mountain whitefish (Prosopium williamsoni) belongs to the Salmonidae family, which also includes trout, salmon, and char, and typically found in clear, cold streams and rivers with moderate to fast currents and gravel bottoms.

Today, whitefish thrive in their home waters alongside the non-native rainbows and browns. While the tens of thousands of anglers who come to this part of Montana to fish, come mainly to catch (and release) trout, they also catch a lot of whitefish, as we did this trip.

We, too, were after trout, the biggest of which can be found in what fly-fishers call “the Land of Giants.”  Lewis called this part of their journey west “Gates of the Mountains because of the towering limestone cliffs that he thought seemed to open like gates into a stunning canyon with massive stone walls rising from the water’s edge. 

After traveling through the wide open and flat great plains, these dramatic cliffs, some 1200 feet high and stretching for almost six miles, must have signaled a dramatic change in direction was imminent.  It wasn’t too much farther on that he crossed the continental divide.

Today, Hauser Dam, first build in 1905, almost exactly 100 years after Lewis passed through, blocks the passage he took. Holter Dam, built between 1908 and 1918, created a lake downstream from the canyon.  Together the two dams created and incredibly fish-rich section of river that is home to many of the biggest trout you’ll find in any western river. 

Monster trout dwell in the waters between the two dams and the best place to fish for them is deep into the canyon where the water runs swiftly over huge boulders that provide the kinds of shelter and feeding zones that nurture these enormous fish. 

While there are lots of trout downstream from The Land of Giants, most fly-fishers who come to these parts, book at least one day on this section, because it is where they’re going to catch monster-sized trout, most of which are bigger than they’ll catch any place they’ve ever fished. It’s only accessible by jetboat with a licensed Captain, like the guides from Wolf Creek Anglers that took us.

All six of our Sonoma group spent one of our days there. All of us had a great time and caught our share of very large trout, most over 20-inches long and some close to 24 inches. Because of the abundance of bugs on which they feed, when they get that long, their bodies begin to take on a football shape, which means they are also heavy and take a while to bring to the net.

No doubt our fishing there last month was a lot better than in 1805.

Later on in their voyage, Lewis and Clark would discover trout and salmon that would rival ours in size, but that was on tributaries of the Columbia River where the salmonoids can be truly anadromous and grow fat in the Pacific before migrating back upriver to spawn.

And speaking of growing fat, the cuisine at Hidden Canyon Lodge was as good as ever, thanks to Executive Chef and General Manager Madeleine Cantoni, who has been there since the lodge opened in 2017, which was also our first stay there.  Encouraged and supported by lodge owners Peter and Patrician Wooldridge, Madi and her staff, which includes Hospitality Manager Kelsey Rucker, who happens to have family in Sonoma, have created a family-like atmosphere for guests who come to fish, then return year after year because they enjoy it so much.

Dottie and I have already booked a return in 2025.

For more information go to hiddencanyonlodge.net.