Bighorn Fishing Report

The fishing report has seen better days…

The water temperatures are getting warmer and fishing is good right at daybreak as the fish enjoy the water temperatures early in the morning. Hoppers have been a great attraction, mainly mid day, with some great fishing on the surface in the evenings on black caddis.

Nymphing in the morning is most productive with smaller sow bugs. The size 18 Firebead Sowbug in grey and pink have been the go to fly

The caddis pupae start moving in the early afternoon. Two different size Black Caddis Pupae or a firebead sow bug and a caddis pupae have been good combos for nyphing in the afternoon. Look for more fish to be moving up in the riffles and progressing up shallower flats throughout the afternoon.

Fishing a Hopper Mid River Has been Just as effective as the banks these days it seems like. Some good Patterns

FIREBEAD SOFT HACKLE RAY

SOFT HACKLE BLCK CADDIS PUPAE

We haven’t wrote in a while because the water is still right at 10,000 for over a month now so things are very clear and The Bighorn is fishing very well. Next week sometime they will be dropping the flow to match the outflow as the reservior is already 6 ft into it’s floodpool and expected to be at it’s maximum capacity very soon. What the outflow will be is anyone’s guess, but we are thinking it may be around 8,000 to 9,000 cfs by this coming weekend.

The fishing is still very productive with san jauns starting to be most effective at about the 5th or 6th mile of the river. Size 10 long Chocolate and Wine san juan’s have been best.

The upper half of the river has been best fished with smaller sow bugs in grey sizes 18 and 16. Our firebead soft hackle ray charles have been a great can’t miss fly.

The key right now is a long leader (11′ from indicator to lead fly) and lots of weight(3, 4, 5 bb’s) if it is not on the bottom they won’t see it.

We are starting to see some great pmd’s coming off, not a ton of fish looking up to them, but in scattered smaller pockets it has been very productive. The Bighorn to Mallards back channels have been most productive.

The fish are eating. It takes a few BB’s and a long leader to get down to them, but the fishing has been very good.

We have seen our water temperatures creep up to 47 or so at 3 mile which will help the fish start to move around. The river is beautiful though. all the grass and moss has moved out and it is super clean so long clean drifts are making it easy on the boat fishing. Wade fishing is tougher, but look for the fish to start moving up in to sight fishing territory now that the spawn has started to recede. 

There are lots of fish out there though and the best patterns have been some of the bigger ones like sz 14 soft hackles in pink and grey, firebead sow bugs in a 16 and the darker san juans in a large size. 

 The flow has been stable at 9,500 cfs for a few weeks now and we don’t expect any additional flow in the near future.  

We are running at 9,500 cfs and the water is gin-clear and the river is free of grass. It is fishing really nice especially from the boat. Flies are staying clean longer and fish are moving for bugs.

The water is still very cold at 43 degrees at 3-mile so they are not in summer form quite yet, but every day they are feeding a little more. 

Wade fishing is tough but there still are spots to catch fish. Focus on your Soft Hackle Sow Bugs and Ray Charles in 16 in tan and grey and your larger baetis nymps at 16. San Juans are working just ok. 

We’re running at 8,800 at the moment with increases likely. We’ve made up for our weak snowpack with a very wet May.

 A lot of people equate the high water with bad fishing. We have our biggest days in the biggest water. Our Grass is where all our invertebrates live and when the sow bugs, scuds, and worms start getting kicked out of the grass and start floating downstream by the millions our trout really go nuts. 

It is by far the most productive fishing out of the boat of the year and it is a great time for the beginner to experience the Bighorn for the first time as nymphing out of the boat gets pretty silly.

We will see what the flows do, but we do not anticipate limiting boat rentals or guiding due to high water as we saw no interruption last year when flows peaked at 12,000 cfs.

Flies: Sliverman’s Sparkle Worm, Firebead Soft Hackle Ray Charles pink, Red Midge Larvae sz 14, Bighorn Scud orange 14.

If you have any questions or want another update please don’t hesitate to call us toll free at 866-658-7688 or stop by the Bighorn Angler on your way to the river to get the most up to date info and bugs.

After a stretch of poor weather we are finally enjoying the sunshine for the first time in a week.

During the late morning we saw some decent midge activity with a couple pods that got going around 11 am, mostly single risers. The baetis were popping and the fish were on them right away when they started appearing at 1:30 or so.

We spent about half of our time fishing dries with good sucess, but the nymphing was a little tough as they are stepping the water up in increments. At the time of this post we were at 3,270 and they have been bumping the flows 250 cfs every 24 hours. we kind of wish they’d open the gates and get it over with, but the moss is still tolerable, especially in the upper 3. We hope the plateau on the water level is near, but welcome the more water in the river as it is good for everything, spawning rainbows mainly (please watch out for and stay off the redds/beds).

The best flies have been Cream latex midges in the morning in sizes 18 and 20, Zebra Midges 18 and 20. Red latex midges 14 through 20. In the afternoon they have been looking mainly towards Baetis Nymphs so the Killer Mayfly Black 20 and 22. Beerhead Baetis 18, Black Wondernymph 18 and 20.

We usually lead one of the above flies with a good attractor nymph/non-emerging bugs and the best ones right now are  Grey Firebead Soft Hackle Ray Charles size 18, Pink Soft Hackles size 18 and 20, Orange Bighorn Scud 16, Two-Tone-Hot-Head-Super-Micro San Juan size 16.

We needed this water, the fish needed some more room to spread out after leaving their winter depths and moving up to the intermediate water. The side channels are filling up and the rainbow spawning beds become less susceptible to tromping. We are starting to see fish expose themselves in some of the shallower water but the majority of them are holding in the 3-5 ft. of slowish water. The water temp is 40 degrees so it is not quite warm enough for them to get up on the riffles, but you can see they really want to. We have yet to see the best of the baetis (BWO) as we need the water temperature to rise just a tad for them to really go crazy. 

Give us a call at the shop with any fishing questions at 406-666-2258. For reservations please call our office toll free at 866-658-7688.

We still have the most affordable Lodging, Shuttles, Boat Rentals, Flies and Gear. We’ve got way too much stock in the shop and are looking to get a little breathing room in here so if you have anything in mind, I bet we have it and can give you a great deal! 

We had some cooler weather today but the fish were still eating very well. Just a few periods of rising fish today with some wind and constant drizzle drowning out much of the surface action. We saw snow here and there, but nothing stuck.

Still fishing the inside soft seams with midge larvae and smaller baetis nymphs. The fish were full of cream midges and grey sowbugs with a few of our very slender smaller black baetis mixed in.   

We are starting to see our rainbows color up just a bit, a sign we’re a couple weeks out from seeing some fish moving up to the beds.

Forecast is looking good though!================—-> 

We have been seeing some great baetis hatches the past few days. Today is looking perfect with a little lower temp and cloudy skies. Midges have kept angers busy on the surface until the afternoon baetis hatch which is best sometime after noon.

Your smaller baetis nymphs are best and a size 18 is about as big as you want to go when you are wade fishing. Midges have been a little tougher as they have been preferring single midges as opposed to clusters lately. 

When there are not a fair amount of fish rising the best nymphing tactics have been lighter nymph rigs and smaller indicators fishing to the soft mild-medium current water where these fish are holding.

The water is still right below 40 degrees and the rainbows have not started clearing any beds off yet. Keep a lookout for that in the coming weeks and please steer clear. 

Stop by the Bighorn Angler and check out our All Custom All New Fly Selection or call us anytime at 406-666-2233.