Dry Flies on the Bighorn River in Winter?
November 25, 2013
Yep, this rainbow was so hungry it came right out of the water and tried to eat a rock by my foot! Had to take a picture. What else was I gonna do?
Very hungry rainbow!
Just returned from our biannual trip to the Bighorn river, me and 8 other guys. We have three drift boats and bring our own crowd. But the good thing is, due to the weather there are very few people.
15 degrees on the Bighorn. Caught the brown there on comparadun.
The fishing was pretty great, especially so with dry flies. The water temp was much higher than usual, around 47-50, and the big fish were taking dries in shallow water, 6-8 inches. Sometimes they preferred larger size 14-16 light body colored may flies to emergers. Pretty weird. Is it climate change? Whatever. I’ll take it. We did have one day of rotten weather: snowy, windy, cold around 20 degrees, which forced some of us less hearty souls in for homemade chicken soup and a bit of eyelid watching. There might have been some scotch. When the more hearty three came in before sundown, there was definitely some gin and tonics.
Heading into Last Chance Hole at dusk.
The rower’s view in the last mile at “Bighorn take-out”
Below is a dry fly no one should be caught without, and served me well on a 22″ brown. Why don’t I have a picture of the brown? A friend got the photo, and will soon send it to me, so you’ll just have to trust me. Fishermen don’t lie.
Comparadun.
