A Week Fly Fishing the Bighorn River in Montana, The Rest of the Week

Wednesday we floated the stretch from the dam all the way to Bighorn Access. 

The last couple of miles I was able to streamer fish.  

This was great looking water but, as the guide said, it was just too cold of water for the fish to be interested in chasing a streamer. 

It rained hard for about a half hour in the afternoon and we could see one of the feeder streams muddying up the right side of the river.  

Because of this, on Thursday we floated the first 3 miles below the Yellowtail Dam twice.  

We stopped and fished one stretch of river, which is particularly good for wading.  

I caught a couple nice trout and then Ron caught a swallow. 

It wasn’t known if the swallow was going for the nymph during the cast or if it got caught in the line.  

Scott was able to unwrap the line tangled around the bird and then take out the fly.  

He and Ron placed the bird on shore in the grass and kept an eye on it until it wasn’t there anymore and must have flown away.  

This was a great river for bird watchers. 

Ron was able to find two species he had never seen before.

The river was noticeably less crowded the second float through in the afternoon.  

Scott noticed risers in the afternoon and had me cast to those.  

This was probably the most fun part of the week for me. I caught both risers right off the bat.  

It had been a year since I had fished a dry fly and this gave me a sense of accomplishment, that I had not lost my touch.

 On Friday, we planned to float the entire 13 miles from the dam to Bighorn Access. 

We started catching a few trout on nymphs but at lunchtime, Scott noticed risers in the calm water just before the 3-mile access.  

We decided to take turns fishing dries while the other ate lunch.  The good dry fly fishing continued until it was late in the afternoon. 

Scott texted the shuttle company and had them move the truck to the takeout at 3-mile access. Excellent dry fly fishing was a great way to end the week. 

Overall, we ended up catching 10 to 15 trout (rainbows and browns) each per day between 14 and 20 inches long with many in the 18 to 19 inch range. 

The more overcast the day, the better the fishing.    

We caught five species of fish, including suckers and white fish. 

Something I learned was that suckers have a slime that gets on anything it touches. 

You have to physically scrape the slime off if it gets on the leader.  

It will not just dissolve or come off in the water.  There is also a lot of moss in the river.  One method to remove it from your flies is performing the “Bighorn Slap”.  This is where you twirl your line in the air and cause the flies with the moss to hit the water several times, thus removing the moss.

The guide, Scott, showed us all the aspects of an excellent guide.  

Super experienced on this specific river and understanding all the nuances the river and fish go through. 

He was very personable and a joy to spend time with, even able to discuss bird species with Ron.   

Besides being knowledgeable, he was always willing to try something different and continue to change flies.  

He put in extra effort by continuing to put in one more row back up the run and pass back through even if it was after 4:30 and cold and windy.  

You could tell he was genuinely interested in us catching fish.

All in all, this was a great trip that I would highly recommend.

A Week On The Bighorn River In Montana

Fly-fishing the Bighorn River has been on my bucket list for several years.

It is the river of legends, from the Gary Borger video “The Fabulous Bighorn”, articles in Fly Fisherman and American Angler magazines to Steve Galletta’s “Fly Fishing the Bighorn River” book.  

The Bighorn Angler’s all-inclusive guides and lodge package deal has always appealed to me.  

My friend Ron and I decided to make it happen.  So around Christmas when my wife started asking what I wanted for Christmas, this was definitely what I wanted – a 5 night 4 days all-inclusive guided trip to the Bighorn.

May seemed to be the recommended time of year although since this is a tail-water, the river is fish-able year around.  Last year’s trip to the Bitterroot River in April seemed to be a little early in respect to the weather and it felt like a month later would provide better weather.  This year, however, the weather seems to be a month behind and temperature and precipitation ended up being more like April anyway.

Fort Smith, Montana is a nine and a half hour drive from Salt Lake.  Checking with Bighorn Angler’s they said there would be someone at the shop until 7:00 and dinner was at 7:30.  Leaving at 8:00 AM would put us there about the right time.  A fly fishing murder mystery book on CD made the travel time to go by fast. 

I had seen the Bighorn Mountains years earlier on my trip to Mt. Rushmore and recalled how rugged these mountains looked.  I was excited to see them again.

 The accommodations ended up being wonderful - a two bedroom lodge with big screen TV, Wi-Fi and a kitchen.  

A hot shower after a day on the river was so relaxing and having dinner prepared for us each evening made us feel like we were being pampered.

At least for us anglers who were used to tents and cooking dinner over the fire. 

Since the forecast predicted that the week would be unseasonably cold and rainy I had checked the fly shops next to the lodge and found a pair of Simm’s Outdry gloves that worked wonderfully for the week. 

I had brought a wader dryer that not only worked for drying the condensation from the inside of the waders but it also had an adapter for drying gloves.

The first morning after breakfast we met our guide, Scott.  Ron and I were fortunate to have one of the most experienced guides there is on the Bighorn.

Since it was unseasonably cool, we rigged up for nymph fishing deep.  

The water was so cold the fish wouldn’t be chasing streamers, and insects would most likely not be rising.  

The flies selected were size 14 pink sow bugs and size 18 quill nymphs to imitate midges or blue winged olives that we hoped would rise during the day. 

The first day, Tuesday, we put in at 3-mile Access to do a 10-mile float to Bighorn Access.  

The first hour or two we fished right by the put-in where we immediately started catching many 15 to 18 inch brown and rainbow trout.  

Scott continued to row us back upstream several times while we would hook a fish on most every drift through the deep section of water.  

It was on one of these drifts that I hooked into a fish that really put on a fight.  It took out line and remained deep.  It ended up being the biggest fish of the trip – a huge carp!  Golden color and around 10 pounds, it barely fit in the net.