Fishing Reports

Had a great streamer fishing trip with Jamie and Jean in late October.  We floated the lower Bighorn for several days, commited to throwing streamers, and had too much success to change. 

River conditions are set up very well for good fishing.  At that time, the river was still in the process of cleaning itself, but by now the river is sparkling.  Can't wait to get back out there and experience the numbers of fish that can be caught on the Bighorn, that's pretty hard to match anywhere else.

I'll keep everyone up to date on the snowpack, and fish count as the numbers come available.

Tight Lines!

Jeremy

O.K., so it's been a long time since I've updated one of these.  I fell into a little bit of the fall burnout, and found some pretty cool fishing that I wasn't ready to put out there.

Last October, I spent several days on the Missouri in Eastern Montana targeting big fish.  I want to say a big "thanks" to Matt Lindley, Brian Bross, Jay Hanson, Paul Kanning, and Scott Kanning for the indelible memories.  We didn't catch amazing numbers of fish, but had a great time, and caught some very memorable ones.

Tactics were pretty simple...dead drifting streamers.  Did a lot of wade fishing, and sight fishing.

That's all I'm going to say about it, but felt like I owed it to them to report something.

Tight Lines!

Jeremy

Sorry about the lack of fishing reports.  Busy is good, though, right?

Let's get to it.  The flow is steadily dropping, and is reported to be at 5,400 cfs right now.  The plan is to drop to 5,000 cfs on Monday.  The river looks good, and the water is cooling down some with the drop in flow.

Hopper time!  There sure a lot of hoppers out there, but we've needed the grass away from the river to dry up, as well as harvest to come to completion to get the kind of days that everyone dreams of.  If you're lucky, you'll have a hot day with a brisk cross-wind, and you'll see those little buggers all over the water.

On a different note, I've been streamer fishing a lot in the mornings, and it's been fun the watch the hoppers on the bank panic every time the streamer splashes close enough to the edge.  Streamer fishing has been very good early, but not quite what it was in July.

Haven't nymphed all that much in the last few weeks, but when I have, I've been fishing a sowbug and a small light mayfly behind it (something that'll look like a pseudo nymph).

Hope that gets you up to date!

Tight Lines,
Jeremy

I was back on the Bighorn yesterday, and had a lot of fun fishing with Brian.  I keep telling him we're going to struggle some day to catch the numbers we caught this Spring, but that river's always got my back.

We floated from 3 mile to Mallard's Landing (19 miles) because the flow is at 14,000 cfs.  Bighorn Lake is now full with 18,000 cfs coming in, so it's hard to imagine that the flow won't be forced higher, but it's a wait and see game.  They still have the emergency flood pool to fill.

Nymphing was good early with a gray Ray Charles, and a Fire Bead Soft Hackle.  When fishing slowed down, we switched to the double worm.  We fished chennille patterns of bright colors, and were pretty successful until we threw some streamers.

Streamer fishing was surprisingly good, and is something I'm planning to do more of next time I'm out.  I've been fishing Rainbow frey patterns, and have been happy with the results.

Catching a fair number of small fish, but mixing in some nice fish on nymphs, but you always seem to hook one fish a day that just kicks your butt. 

I'll keep you updated on the flow as we learn more.

Tight Lines,
Jeremy

Catching up with a Missouri River report.  Had another fun trip on the Missouri with Tracey, and her brother Norm.  Fishing always consists of multiple 20 inch fish per day, so it's hard to complain.  The overall fishing was more difficult than last year, but was certainly a lot of fun.

Of course the river's high, and will probably be for some time (like everything else out here).  The flow was 17,600 cfs when we arrived, but had gone up over 18,000, and was rumored to be on it's way to 22,000.  No dry fly fishing to be had, needless to say. 

We did do a little streamer fishing which was productive, and a nice way to mix it up from the nymphing.  The streamer pattern was a little rainbow frey that I've been working on.  On the nymphs, we were able to catch a few on PMD patterns each day (early), then caught most of our fish on worms (red and wine), and tan caddis pupae.

As always, a big thanks goes out to Headhunters fly shop in Craig, and we had a great time staying at the Missouri River Ranch.

Tight Lines,
Jeremy

The sun is shining!  It's been a wet, cold Spring, but I can't help but feel like we've turned the corner into less of a soaker, and more of  a melter.

There is going to be lots of water all summer, as the Bureau of Rec stated that we have enough water to average 12,000 cfs on the Bighorn until July 31st.  Of course, we'll have a spike before that, then hopefully the water will begin to come down in the middle of July sometime. 

As of today, the flow should go up to 13,300 cfs and may climb higher (depending on how the snow pack comes off).

This high water is something to be aware of as only experienced rowers should be taking on the responsibility of handling the big water.

That said, the big water will quickly cleanse the river of the siltation that's occurred as a result of the Spring rains, and will clear things up soon.

Expect that the dry fly fishing is over until the water comes back down, but nymphing will continue to be very productive.  Expect that the "worm hatch" will take over the diet of the fish, replacing the midge and baetis portion, but sowbugs will remain an important part.

Don't forget about streamer fishing.  As the slack water (rearing habitat for young fish) disappears, you'll have predatory fish taking advantage of the fact that fish will be compressed into limited holding water until the water temp gets into the mid-50's.

Well, that's an overview of high water...be safe out there!

Tight Lines,
Jeremy