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.