We headed out in the afternoon to try our
luck with these.
We went to 3-mile access where we knew we could do some wade
fishing around the islands we fished the day before. Wouldn’t you know, we each caught fish on the
orange scuds.
Little Nick caught the
first one – a big carp.
Then we all
caught trout and the orange scuds seemed to do their magic.
Reading back through Steve Galletta’s Fly
Fishing the Bighorn River book, I do see mention of the importance of orange
scud patterns, possibly because they turn orange when they die or shed their
exoskeleton.
This snowy day actually ended up being our most successful day
with each of us catching at least one good fish, and we were only out about 2
hours in the afternoon.
The rest of the day we played cards, which lil’ Nick won,
watched the movies Jaws and Jurassic Park, as well the MLB playoffs.
The
accommodations from Bighorn Angler, the lodge, delicious meals, comfortable
beds and able to have a nice warm shower at the end of a day fishing sure made
an otherwise cold and snowy trip, a wonderful experience.
Thursday we decided to float from 3-mile Access to Bighorn
Access, a 10-mile float.
The weather was nice but cold.
We had to get out at times and have little
Nick stretch his legs and stand in the water that was warmer than the air, to
warm his feet. The orange scuds, however did not perform their magic. Nick was
the only one who caught fish on this stretch, including a nice rainbow on a streamer.
Friday had even better weather and we floated from Afterbay to 3-Mile Access
again.
We stopped at a small island that
looked perfect. Rocky riffles tumbling
into deeper water for long distances and another small fork of the river
dividing the island creating even more structure. Surprisingly we didn’t even
get a bite.
The highlight for me was when
Nick was rowing, keeping the boat at the perfect distance from shore to allow
me to spend time streamer fishing. In
the short time we were able to do this, I had three visible hits. Seeing these larger browns dart out of the
shallows and hit a streamer is unforgettable. We again spent time fishing at
the islands near 3-Mile Access.
Nick was
able to manage catching a couple nice ones here.
It always amazed me how the
best fishing of the entire trip was at 3-Mile where we could access the river
and islands without a boat.