Bighorn River

Just got back from the Bighorn at Fort Smith and can say that the river looks good.  Good flows (2750cfs) and lots of happy fish.  Fish were plentiful and eager to take nymphs and dries.  There seemed to be more fish feeding in fast shallow riffles than during the drought years.  The black caddis hatch was outstanding and really brought the fish to the top and hoppers to grassy banks or edges of side channels was hot for big fish and aggressive takes.  Nymphing with caddis pupa, ray charles, and soft hackle sow bugs provided constant action during the day.  The cdc black caddis with frogs fanny floatant scored the most strikes and when I tied it on with 6x the action really heated up.  On our final day we were sitting across from 3 mile access waiting out some rain when it went off!  The rain stopped and the clouds held drawing over 100 fish to the surface to feed with reckless abandon.  The whole slick seemed to be boiling at times.  You could choose the fish you wanted to catch and the fish were so turned on that nothing could put them down.  We stayed in that slick for over 3 hours catching brows and rainbows pushing 20 inches.  Some more aggressive takes on the hopper point fly by bigger fish but the cdc caddis #18 was the right groceries.  I had not been to the Horn in over 2 years and it was good to get back,  maybe come during duck season for a cast and blast.

Road Trip Part 2 (Dust...Look Around You, What Do You See)

We were very tired after the float on the Platte and our next destination was over 200 miles away, so we treated our selves to a hotel room in Rock Springs, just over an hour from our next destination, Fontanelle.  The Green below Fontanelle Reservoir is a river that I have fished with mixed success, always catching at least a couple but never the elusive 10 pounder.  This river has a ton of food and some big fish but not a ton of them.  Maybe some  restrictions on bait use and bag limits would help the fish count.  We met a good friend at the Fontanelle Store, (everything comes with a side of dust), and headed out to launch boats and set shuttle.  The sky was a mix of thick clouds with just a touch of sun to take the chill out of the air.  This could be good. 

   The first fish was a huge Cutty about 4 pounds or so and the second fish came minutes later.  This big boy was a brown well over 20 inches and much fatter than the Cut.  Both fish taken on a chubby chernoble, which continued to produce big fish all day.  Other effective flies were Noble Chernobles and different drake patterns as well as streamers.  With the mix of high clouds and sun we set up on several groups of fish and caught several out of each group.  This was the best I had ever seen this place fish.  I have had some hard days here so a good day was welcomed.  We floated almost 18 miles that day, trying to average 20 per day, and saw only three boats right at 6am.  Heading north to Big Piney, and the Green again.