Posted By roger on January 9, 2012

The Bighorn River by Fort Smith in MT is simply fantastic.  Year after year, winter after winter, spring, summer and fall, this river fishes ridiculously great.  Rarely do I have a day on the Bighorn that the fishing is not at least good.  Good meaning that a fisherman catches at least 10 fish.  Yes a 10 fish day is spoiling to most fisherman.  However regulars on the river are sometimes disappointed if they catch fewer than 20 fish per visit.  Yes we are ultimately spoiled with the Bighorn with this type of thought process, especially when the average fish is 14 to 16 inches on most every visit to the river.  I don’t enjoy keeping track of how many fish I catch, but it is a necessary Evil for shop personnel.  Simply people what to hear how many as part of how good the fishing is.

The true greatness of the river has come from the tail water and afterbay construction that gives the Bighorn it’s supreme consistency that is hard to rival anywhere on any other water inside the US.   Only a few great waters around the world completely rival the Bighorn on every aspect that makes the Bighorn great.  At least at a minimum when anyone looks at a given waters attributes on a year round basis, yes 365 days a year, the Bighorn is hard to beat.  It never seems to fail a fisherman with any good level of fishing skill.  Like all waters that are great, using the right fly at the right time makes all the difference, but the Bighorn is exceptional along fly selection also.  Once you figure out the 20 or so patterns needed for the water, you can catch fish all year round in most all weather conditions.  Stop by my shop on you way to the horn, and we will gladly explain the simplicity of the river and its fly selection.  All you need to do is fish the river enough to figure out the presentations of the needed flies and you too will be amazed at the Bighorn River’s greatness.

I am sorry if this sounds like a Bighorn love fest, but if you are a fly fisherman who truly enjoys fly fishing perfection, you to would sing the wonders of the Bighorn River.

Have fun and don’t bother counting.  Just enjoy all that is fly fishing.

Roger

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Posted By roger on December 9, 2011

I went to the Bighorn river on November 29th with two friends for a day of fun.  In the winter months, you can only hope for a day of 35 to 50 degree weather.  We found a day that was about 48 degrees for a high and it turned out great.  My friends and I got a late start to the water, but that does not matter much in the winter months.  I prefer fishing in the middle part of the day in the winter.  We put the boat on the water at After-bay around 10:30 a.m. and floated a short way down the south bank to one of my favorite spots.  One the way John caught several fish on a white bugger pattern.  When we got to the spot, got out and began to fish the area.  John caught several more fish on the bugger.  Bill caught several on nymphs and I was looking for a beatis hatch.

I saw some small beatis and midges hatching and a few fish were rising to them but not very regularly.  I managed to catch a few fish and I decided right then that I was only going to dry fly fish the rest of the day.  It is a great treat to dry fly fish outside of the typical summer months.  As we all should know, the winter insects drop back to mainly midges and beatis.  When I get a shot at dry fly fishing outside the summer months, I take full advantage of the fun.

One of the many things that sets the Bighorn apart from other tail waters is the After-bay.  The After-bay area keeps the consistency of the river year round.  Both the water temperature and flow are two of keys to the success of the Horn.  Both of these greatly affect the quality and type of fishing that are available.  I tested the water temperature and found it was still about 48 degrees this late in the season, which is perfect for beatis to hatch in great numbers.  I knew I would have a great day if the clouds would stay over the water.  As I am very lucky and educated on what to look for in the weather and water conditions I found just what I wanted in the day for fishing.

We drifted down stream a short way near the old Suck hole area and came across a nice couple fishing the north bank across from the suck hole.  As we drifted by looking for heads I saw hundreds of heads sipping beatis.  It was only about a hundred feet down from the couple and they had not noticed the activity.  I drifted about two hundred yards down stream and cut across some of the feeding fish to get to shore.  This made the dry fly feeding activity up and down stream from us as far as I could see with out bothering others.  I tied on my favorite Yellowstone Fly Goods fly for this hatch (the CDC BWO) and began a fantastic fishing day.

I told my friends to switch to dry flies, but it took them a few minutes to decide to change.  I caught about 10 fish in the first 30 minutes and I missed about 10 more in that time.  John and Bill changed to dry flies and started catching a few on drys as well.  We fished the area for another 30 minutes catching fish every couple of minutes.  The sun came out and the dry fly fishing slowed down, but was not over by any means.  The guys wanted to move downstream to a different shelf to try more nymph fishing.  I could not believe they wanted to move, but I knew I would find more risers just about every there was slower water so we left.

As sure and the Horn is long, I found more rising fish all along the way to third island.  When we  arrived I walked to the slow water and found heads.  I made two casts and caught a rainbow that was about 18 inches.  The rainbow was sipping beatis about 35 feet across the side channel behind a small brush pile.  I made my cast a couple of feet above the fish and when my drift crossed his path perfectly, the bow had no choice other than to sip it down.  The take was perfectly beautiful.  The rainbow was completely surprised to have a hook in his mouth.  He fought with fantastic thrashing all over the place coming out of the water dancing across the surface followed by a nice run up stream then down.  The water being nice and cool gave the bow extra long energy to fight.

I like to fish 4x or heavier tippet I knew I could to apply heavy pressure to land him quickly.  I observed that beautiful fish in full detail and locked in into my memory for future recall.  I caught a bunch more fish over the next hour all on the same small dry CDC BWO.  I had to get home by 6 so we left the Horn by 4:30 p.m.  I was a few minutes late getting home, but it was all worth it.  This will be one of the great days to remember for a long time.  By taking the time to remember all the details, I am able to recall fond memories years down the road.  This is after all a great part of the many reasons we all go fishing.  If we don’t remember the details of each and every fish, why are we taking the time to fishing.

Tight lines, have fun and remember the days.  Some day that will be all you can do!

Roger

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Posted By roger on November 10, 2011

The water in the area is starting to freeze the edges  every night.  Some smaller ponds are freezing across only to open in spots on the warmer days.  Water temperatures in the creeks are in the low 30′s in the morning and rise on warm days to around 36 to 38 in the hottest part of the day.  The warmest time is between 12 and 4 pm this time of the year.  This will change as the winter grows longer.  In general the time gets shorter towards the hottest part of the day.  When the water temperatures are below 40 degrees, you will generally get midge hatches or very small beatis.  Around 42-44 degrees you may see more beatis hatching.  The Bighorn river is one of those exceptional exceptions to beatis fishing this time of year.  The tail water keeps the water temperatures higher all winter.  Our local creeks and streams are not consistent with water temperatures like tail waters, so our fishing is harder to figure out the hatches.  The lakes and ponds will fish better longer with more stable water temperatures as long as they are not frozen over.  Get out on the warmer days and catch a few more fish before the freeze for winter.

Have fun.  Roger

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Posted By roger on November 5, 2011

I went to West Yellowstone for some fun October 28th and 29th.  I met my friend Mike Brady and we fished for two days and had a great time.  We started in West Yellowstone on the Madison River throwing Streamers and sink tip lines.  I caught a nice 19 inch Brown around noon on a bright sunny day.  The sun made it very hard to get the big fish to move to streamers so we changed our approach and watched for some heads rising to size 20 beatis. We had decided earlier that we would not fish nymphs because that is the easiest way to catch fish.  We wanted to challenge our skills to see another side of West Yellowstone fly fishing.

For the style of fishing we were doing, the warm bright sun was not a help.  The beatis hatch is always better with cloud cover or light snow fall.  We were fortunate to get some cloud cover that brought a few fish to the surface to sip for about an hour and we caught quite a few.  Many times you have to be quick for this type of fishing.  You should be set up and waiting for the action.  Quite often the hatch will start and end before people can change flies.  This is largely why people get frustrated and avoid fishing this way.

I caught a half dozen on size 20 beatis on 5 x tippet that set the day on a better pace.  The sun came back out and the beatis fishing slowed to a stop.  We went back to some deeper waters and threw streamers again, even though nymph fishing was clearly the best option for the weather for catching fish.  We wanted to go for the big 20 + fish on a streamer instead.  We worked hard and I caught a nice 19 inch rainbow just before dark that ended the day with a bigger fish.  The numbers don’t sound great, but I missed about 10 fish and landed about 10 fish total, so I thought a 50% day was great for such a bright sunny day.

The second day we went down the Madison to look at the water between Hebgan and Quake Lake.  The water looked great, but again the sun was shining and the wind was blowing hard.  Again not the best for beatis dry fly fishing.  There were also many fisherman that were thinking the same thing we were thinking.  Mike knew we had other options, so he took me down river to a couple of bridges that everyone fishes.  The difference was there were no people fishing so we looked for heads again.

We found the heads we were looking for and methodically picked them off one by one.  I don’t remember exact numbers, but my percentage of landed to missed ration was much higher somewhere around 70%.  I landed a couple of bigger fish up to about 17 inches that were thick, healthy and beautiful.  The ultimate fun we were going for was in the skills we used to catch the fish.  A light flexible rod, light tippet, small dry flies, stalking the fish to within 9 feet some times, a perfect presentation and ultimately a skillful and quick fight on light tippet to limit the stress on the fish were some of the skills we were honing.

I did not take any photos the entire time I spent in West Yellowstone.  I was having too much fun to take time for a photo.  All the photos I took, I took with my mind.  I took the entire two days and just turned on the recorder inside my head.  I locked many memories in my thoughts for the future use and remembering.  I will look back on this time when I’m 80 and smile.

Needless to say, My time in West Yellowstone was fantastic.  Along with Mike, I was lucky enough to talk with John Juracek for the second time in the last year.  John is an exceptional photographer and writer.  Watch for his name under fantastic photos and great articles.  John also happens to be the best fly fisherman I have ever fished with when it comes to the complete package angler.

I have fished with a over a thousand good to very good fisherman and watched thousands more in efforts to learn everything I can to become a great fly fisherman.  All of these people have exceptional skills for some of the techniques and or general knowledge of aspects of fly fishing.  But of all the people I have watched and fished with over the past ten years, I have never seen anyone as complete as John.  He has fantastic skills with both hands and he has incredible knowledge in seemingly every aspect of fly fishing and stream management.  On top of all that he is just a great person.  I hope to fish with him again sometime soon.  When I get the chance, I hope to learn much more from him.

As if this was not a great enough trip, I also got meet Craig Mathews at his Blue Ribbon Fly Shop and that was a great treat for me.  I feel especially lucky whenever I get a chance to meet exceptionally knowledgeable and skillful fly fisherman but when he is a great businessmen, that just is the toppings.  The quality of his experience and depth of his knowledge shows through in his 32 years business in West Yellowstone along with his books, photos and videos.  If you get the time to experience West Yellowstone or any event that these guys show up at, glean any information you can get from them.  Their information will help your fishing where ever you go.

Thanks for indulging my fantasy camp trip to West Yellowstone.

Tight lines and fun fishing.

Roger

P.S. On the way home to Sheridan, I stopped and fished the Yellowstone River for about an hour, but there were no beatis hatching again.  I drove out of the park and fished the North Fork of the Shoshoni in a couple of places along the way.  I stopped in Cody and caught a few nice cutthroats on the same small beatis dry fly.  I thought to finish off I would hurry over to Shell Canyon and fish Shell Creek.  It was getting dark so I tied on my favorite bugger pattern and caught a couple small browns and rainbows.  What a way to finish my short vacation.

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Posted By roger on November 3, 2011

October was a fun and busy month.  Not busy from a business aspect, just busy from a personal recreation time.  I went to Oregon with my family for a short week vacation.  I got to see the Cannon Beach, Portland and Seattle.  The drive time was about 4 days out and back, but it was great seeing the scenery of the trip.  When I got back I had a few days to the following weekend where I went to the Platte River through Casper to fish with my great friend Henry.

Henry and I met with Greg Mueller from the Platte River Fly Shop in Casper.  The Platte River guys are a great bunch of Guides.  They float hard and fish hard for great quality fish.  We floated through town and caught some good quality fish.  The numbers of fish are greater out of town towards the reef, but we were expecting 50 mile per hour winds so we hoped the city would shield us a bit.  Our in town float paid off because we received little wind and the experience was totally new to me.  I think it is extra cool to catch fish inside any town limits.  These types of waters are often overlooked.  The thing to remember is fish numbers are not the goal.  Fish quality is what I look to achieve.  Here are a few photos to show some of the fun. Check out the wind sock in the background of the bottom photo.  The wind was blowing strong, but our in town option paid off big to keep us out of the wind.  Henry was able to throw a size 16 dry fly to some gulping fish like the one he is holding while the guide was keeping us in position with the ores.    Thanks Greg for a great day with fat rainbows.

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Posted By roger on October 2, 2011

The summer has ended and fall fishing is in full swing.  The North Tongue is fishing good with small beatis and midge patterns.  On hot days stimulator patterns, hoppers and nymphs will catch some fish.  I talked to a couple of guys that caught more than 20 fish each with some in the 14 to 16 inch range and they thought the day was kind of slow.  That always cracks me up.   A 20 fish day like that is always a great day.  The North Tongue just spoils people from reality.  When you catch 20 + fish and some reach 16 inches and that is a moderately disappointing day, ones opinion of a water must be skewed for good reason.

The fishing has slowed down some.  Most waters are getting cold over night making mornings slow and afternoons the time to be on the water.  October is looking to be a great month for finishing up with some great days still to be had.  We are expecting a few colder days, but as a whole, the weather men are saying we are going to be warm all month into November.  That is great news for me.  I love fishing this time of the year.   Number go down, Skills go up and satisfaction of accomplishment abounds.

The lakes and reservoirs are turning on for their fall fishing.  Browns are starting spawning behavior with the colder waters.  The last few browns I saw on the 29 and 30 of September were beautiful.

Have fun.  And fish this October.

Roger

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Posted By roger on September 15, 2011

Hello all,

We have been enjoying good fishing the past few weeks.  The full moon phase has been a slight issue for some of the trips, but in general most people have had good days depending on location.  The mountain is fishing great.  The mountain waters are cold in the 40′s in the morning and heating up through the afternoon.  Some waters are getting back to the low 50′s by afternoon.  The hatches are smaller now that the water is chilled off.  Small beatis and caddis are the general answer on the North Tongue.  The beatles, ants and hoppers are working on hotter days.

The canyon waters are nymphing good and streamers are catching some bigger fish.  The canyon waters are colder and stay colder due to the lack of sun light reaching the water.  The fish are eating,  but numbers are slowing.  Most are still catching 10 to 20 fish per outing.  The Browns are staging and getting ready for spawning in most areas of the mountains.  Depending on the water temperature this fall, the lower waters will see the Browns spawn in early October.

As always the lakes and reservoirs are starting to come back and will get better through september and into October.  The still waters will fish better and better until they freeze over for the winter.   Thanks for stopping by.

I will ad more later.

Roger

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Posted By roger on August 23, 2011

The NFT is fishing ridiculously good.  Hopper action was epic the past couple of days.  A good friend of mine caught 75 fish on Monday.  He was only outdone by me on Sunday by a few dozen more.  There is some drake action still, but it was minimal the past couple of days.  There are good tan caddis and yellow PMD hatches that are producing better than the Drakes.  The grass hoppers and beetles are the hot flies for now.  The average fish is still 13 – 15 inches with some bigger fish mixed in for variety.

Come fish the Bighorn Mountains for a few more weeks this year.  There is an abundance of fishing available all over the Mountain.  Believe it or not, fall fishing is just a couple weeks away.  September fishing should be some of the best you may see in a long time.  Even with the long run off and a short one month of great fishing so far this summer has to be remembered as a great summer for bigger heaver fish.  Don’t let the last week  of August and all of September 2011 slip by with out you getting out to enjoy the fun.
Have fun and be safe.  Hunting season is here in two weeks. Rifle season starts in less than 6 weeks.  That’s when I go have my fun.

Roger

Average size fish about 14 inchs.

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Posted By roger on August 17, 2011

The fishing has taken off.  With the exception of the Little Bighorn, Tongue Canyon and Shell Canyon, the creeks and lakes are fishing great.  The three mentioned waters are very fishable, but the canyon waters are just a bit higher than normal still.  The mountain waters are fishing great with dry flies although some are reporting spots that are not fishing as good as other areas.  As far as I have been fishing, numbers are high and fish quality is better than I have seen in more than a decade.  I have been catching many fish every where I go all through out the Bighorn Mountains.

We are getting some afternoon rain showers in the mountains, which occur some time between 2 and 5 pm several days a week.  Many people leave when the storm rolls in, but the fishing after the storm can be great.  The big questions are how long is the storm and how cold is the storm.  When the water chills, the hatches shut off and change to smaller flies.  You have to be on the mountain to figure out what the hatch changes are.  The skills of the fly fisherman control the success rate of the fishing.

This morning I stopped by my friends house out at the Powder Horn on Little Goose Creek.  Red was wondering what hatch was coming off and what fly would work for the hatch.  I listened to Red describing the flies he was seeing, and I figured there was a small midge hatch or possibly a small trico hatch happening every morning.

When I first got there about 7:45 a.m. The hatch was slow, but it had started.  I could immediately see the hatch was about a 26 to maybe 20 size.  I knew I do not carry flies under size 20 in my arsenal of flies, so I started to think I might not be able match the hatch, but I could get close.  The hatch looked like a small midge while it was in flight in a light color, so I decided to try a couple of midge and beatis patterns in black, grey and olive to get started.  I did not get but one half- hearted smack on the flies, but I know they were wrong.  I took another look at the flies in the air and started thinking light green to cream was probably the exact color so I tried to catch a couple bugs to see what colors I needed.

I finally caught  one of the bugs but I squished it so bad I could not tell what the fly was.  I did however, get size and color figured out.  I searched my box and found a 20 size spent wing trico black and cream in color that I thought was close enough to match the hatch even though size 20 was the big end of the hatch.  A couple casts later the fish were watching, but not biting.

I looked at the insects a bit closer and noticed the bugs had up wings like a may fly, not spent wings like a may fly spinner.  I decided a stream side modification was in order so I bent the spent wings up and smashed them together as best I could.  A couple casts later I had my first fish take the fly perfectly.  No hesatation, open mouth, close mouth and set the hook. Six nice fish and one LDR in 20 minutes later Red and I were very happy.

I was happy not only because the fish were nice healthy browns that I caught before work, but I was happiest because I figured out the hatch and the subtle differences it took to catch some fish.  I was happiest mostly because I helped my friend Red figure out what he needs to catch some fish on his daily fishing expeditions.  Thanks to Red I got to enjoy my day before work at 9:00 a.m.  That is a great friend.

Make your fishing fun and relaxing, it will be more memorable.  And when your fishing days  are no more than a relaxing day of naps and memories in your rocking chair, you can smile and relive those invaluable times.

Have fun.

Roger

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Posted By roger on August 9, 2011

The Bighorn Mountains are fishing great.  Dry fly season has arrived and the fish are rising to a large variety of flies.  Hoppers are thick in many areas on the mountain and the fish are responding to 14 to 10 size hoppers.  Stimulators, ants and beatles are also working well.  The typical grey, green, and brown drake patterns with PMD’s and caddis patterns are getting the job done.  Our waters have been fishing great for about 3 weeks now, so don’t wait any longer for your fishing excursion.  We look forward to seeing you at the Fly Shop of the Bighorns.

Trip updates:

Our last few guide trips have produced 20 to 50 fish per day, so our clients say they are pretty happy.  Our friend and client Len Cutter caught two huge fish yesterday on Piney.  One was 26 inches and one was 24 inches long and two of the heaviest fish in the water.  He also landed several 16 to 21 inch fish mixed in to the 20 + fish for the day.  Len has come along way with us and we have a great time fishing with him.  He clearly has become a great fly fisherman.

A little background, Len has done over 40 days of guided fly fishing with us in the past 2 1/2 seasons and he is now an exceptional caster, mender, drifter and overall great fly presenter in all three styles of fly fishing.  (Dry fly, Nymph and streamer fishing)  Len has become a better fly fisherman than many guides largely due to our great instructing and his determination.  I am not trying to blast our own horn, but when Len first contacted me he told me he wanted to learn fly fishing.  I asked him how deeply did he want to go.  Len said he was good, but he realized he needed help in refining some skills such as distance casting, fly selection, fly presentation, knot tying, stealth fishing techniques and a dozen other fine skills.  Little did he know just how much more fly fishing knowledge we have and can teach, but also just how much voluminous knowledge is out there for him to consume.

Len was a good fly fisherman when we met him 2 1/2 seasons ago, but now He is an exceptional fly fisherman that any guide would love to guide.  I would even use him as one of my own guides if he would be willing to work as a guide as hard as he works as a fly fisherman.

A new client for this summer named Richard Guthrie also fished with us yesterday.  Dave took Richard to the North Tongue below Bear Lodge on our forest service  permitted water and he had a great day.  50 + fish and one that was 16 inches.  Well done Richard.  Thanks for fishing with us this season.  We hope you enjoy the North Tongue  above Bear Lodge in the Catch and Release area and every where else you fished in the Bighorns.

Thanks for stopping by the Fly Shop of the Bighorns.

Game on in the Bighorns.

Roger

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