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.