Bighorn

The Bighorn River is one of fly fishing's most fabled rivers, a place where the sheer number of trout per river mile (not to mention the average size of the fish) is enough to boggle the mind. This is no secret of course, so you'll not be having the river to yourself in August any time soon, but rest assured that on this river, you'll have your chances at fish.


There was some very brief discussion at the beginning of the day about the "fly du jour." It is afterall August in Montana and if I know anything about trout fishing, that should mean hoppers. Coupled with the fact that our "guide" had said the hopper fishing was on, we started our day throwing big foam...

We didn't have to go far to find out that we were on to something.

W dropped "anchor" for a quick river lunch...

Then went back to harassing the locals.

A wicked Thunderhead began chasing us down river around mid afternoon. With the cloud cover, we switched over to streamers and had fast and furious action on just about every bank we fished.

And managed to coax one more specimen to the dry fly.

Things got ugly for a while as the rain started coming down in sheets and wind gusts were blasting upwards of 60 mph. As we approached the boat ramp with a steady 40 mph wind blowing us downstream and across river I started having flashbacks to that fateful day on Lake Erie last December. But all's well that ends well...

Not a bad view driving home either, but the traffic was lousy...

The following day would be our last in The Bighorns and our first chance to get the micro rods out.