The Bighorn Lives

Bighorn brown taken on a Pete's Carpet Bug.

Having finally made Montana our home this past summer, it was quite a disappointment when the news of the demise of the famous Fort Smith stretch of the Bighorn River  reached my ears. Are you kidding me? It's one of the reasons I cast my vote for Billings in the family meeting as our Montana home when we left Texas, again.

But as seems to be the case these days, the "Bighorn is dead" reports may have been a bit over exaggerated. I had the opportunity to attend my first meeting of the Magic City Fly Fishers on March 3rd where the condition of the Bighorn was the main topic of the program. The bottom line of the program is, the Bighorn is alive, well and kicking its way back. I won't go into the details, look for that report in a future issue of Northwest Fly Fishing magazine.

I had already determined to see for myself what I could find out with my boots on the streambed, the meeting just gave me a bit more incentive. So I made the trek, with 5 weight in tow a couple days ago.

My first Bighorn Rainbow, fooled with an olive Graveyard Midge.

With some very valuable intel, and bug suggestions from Pete Shanafelt of Bighorn Anglers, I got to sample exactly what the Bighorn has to offer today. Let me tell you this, the river may not be at the level of its greatest glory, but as a guy who has fly fished around the country, it is FAR from dead!

The fly suggestions Pete made were, his Carpet Bug and the Green Weenie. If you know my fishing habits at all, you know I'd rather fish dries above any other type of fly, but I also like to catch fish after driving 1 1/2 hours one way. Being hard headed but not completely contrary I rigged up to nymph (go ahead and scoff, I can handle it) with a Carpet Bug, but trailing a Graveyard Midge, a thread-body version of the Second Shifter, in place of the GW. Both the Carpet Bug and Graveyard worked well. For a look at the Graveyard Midge check the March edition of The Shaved Merkin, the recently started newsletter of East Rosebud Fly & Tackle. The Graveyard Midge is the Fly of the Month for the newsletter.

Damian is playing a nice cutbow, a pleasant surprise for both of us.

Now, I'm not one to kiss and tell all, but by the photo of my new friend Damian, some of you may know exactly where it went down, others will have to do some scouting. Sorry, blast a spot, lose a spot!

Having already landed my first Bighorn rainbow and a hefty whitie (sorry no pic on that one, whities leave a funk that doesn't easily wipe of my expensive Nikon), as is occasionally the case in this age of ever-growing pressure, I invited Damian, a longtime Bighorn angler, to join me and drag his nymph offerings through the run. Neither of us were disappointed. He got hooked up, I got some nice photos and made a new fishing friend.

A Bighorn cutbow taken on a Rootbeer Midge.

After we took turns catching more nice trout than we deserved, we sat on the bank and discussed the bighorn and what it has to offer. We agreed, it has a lot to offer even today. If conditions stay good it will have a lot more, in both size and numbers, to offer again in the near future.

Now that you know, it's time to go get you some!

Peace, Love & Fly Fishing........HECK YES!!!