Bighorn river report warning picture heavy!

[Eric Weller]

I have returned from my trip to the Bighorn and this is the first opprotunity to post my report.
Here it goes;

DAY 1

We arrived in Billings Montana and after being up since 245am it was nice to just take a breath and head to Ft. Smith.  We quickly did our grocery shopping and had rental car in hand and started the trip southeast.  We arrived at the Bighorn and decided to get a little fishing in before dark.

Charlie who ened up being our drift boat pilot/guide/cook and all around camp director hooked up first.

We arrived back to the Cottonwood, grabbed dinner and fell asleep.  I was wiped out after the time change and the early morning wake up.

DAY 2
We were eager to hit the water and drift/wade fish the next three days.
The attack craft set for the more assault

we started fishing and it wasn’t long before everyone started hooking up.  I was last of the bunch, started thinking I didn’t know what I was doing.


DAY 3
The rods ready for the trip

we floated another day and even though it was considered slow fishing, we were having a blast!

We threw a lot of streamers on this trip.  If anyone remembers my previous post about the sage rod breakage and the lack of proper line for the 7wt rod I borrowed from my bother-in-law, you know I was blessed with Tim Pommer and Scientific Angler.  Tim sent me a loaner line of exactly what I had for my 6wt.  The Kelly Galloup Streamer express line worked magic for me.  I could throw a ton of line at the banks without a problem.  Here’s one of my streamer finds
I thought this was my best fish of the trip.  Here are some more of our catches on this day

We stopped for lunch and then continued our float

DAY 4
Our last day of floating.  We hit well over of 21 miles of river, alternating our put in points each day.  

We hoped for some BWO hatches but it never really happened.  But the nymphing and streamers worked for the entire trip.

Auggie and I hook up on a double

We stopped for our trip photo and continued our drift

My aresnal was mainly self tied streamers, the cliff box works best for me.

At the end of our float this day, it was just about complete dark and Auggie and I were still throwing streamers in hopes of grabbing a decent fish.  Well it happened and here was my best fish of the trip
I’ll try and get a better size photo but this is the best I can do at thsi time.

[shane cavitt]

Very nice Eric. Looks like you had a wonderful trip. The Bighorn is on the top of my list to visit and you have just stoked the fire even more. Thanks for the post.

[Eric Weller]

Shane,

[Joel Thompson]

Great report Eric! Looks like you and the boys had a great time! Bummer about the BWO’s not coming off. It really never happened on the MO this fall either. I guess that first hatch in the spring should be killer…No?

Joel

[bill heffner]

I was there is September and had a blast.  We left from Philly and started out at 2 in the morning.  I know how you felt.  I’m hoping to get out there again and fish the other side of the state.  
The guy that aranged our trip goes there at least 3 to 4 times a year.  He did a slide show for our TU chapter on fishing MT.  Really good information.  

Thanks for sharing you trip and Happy Thanksgiving to you and all the other members of IA.

[Mike Cline]

Eric,
Looks like you had a great trip.

[Eric Weller]

Sorry to hear that Mike,

[Tim Pommer]

Looks like you guys had a great time.

[Kelly Glissmeyer]

Eric, a most excellent post.  I had to chuckle when I saw your pics of the Hyde boats lined up at Cottonwood.  I was in the truck that delivered those boats to Cottonwood from Hyde this past spring.  That was my first trip to the Horn and I can’t wait to get back.

Here are a few pics from when we dropped off the boats.  We were with the man himself, LaMoyne Hyde for the trip.

Thanks for the great post and photos.  Glad is was such an eventful trip.

Kelly.

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