Wow. No blog post since August. I apologize. We had a super busy end of summer and fall/winter. Fishing was good all the way thru November...most days... but August was probably the highlight of our season. But for now I'll expand on our recent fishing here on the Bighorn River. It has been okay. Definitely looking for warmer days following warmer nights to get the trouts active. Our hot bugs have been Ray Charles and midge patterns. The flow is around 1000cfs which is perfect. Slower, deeper runs and long leaders are the ticket. The bite window seems to be between 11am and 2pm. We are booking trips for the rest of January, but we will be heading to the coast of Washington for all of February to do some steelhead fishing. We are booking trips for March right now and it is starting to fill in... perhaps the best time of year to catch numbers of fish. Our snowpack right now is around 85%, so barring any late winter snow storms and/or major spring rains we should have normal flows for April, May and June.
In December we were fortunate enough to host some of our clients to Christmas Island for bonefish and giant trevally. We are already planning another hosted trip June 19-26 at the Lagoon View Resort. 7 nights lodging, 6 days guided fishing, all meals, $2400/person. If you can't make it for the summer trip, we will be going back in December. That is perhaps the best thing about Christmas Island... it fishes consistently year-round. Being as it sits so close to the equator it is constantly 85 degrees.
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| Chris & Alyssa hoisting one of many milkfish caught. These fish fight incredibly hard |
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| A very nice bonefish from the flats of the lagoon |
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| our guy Chris with a beefy GT |
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| Sunrise over the lagoon, running out to Huff Dam |
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| I have become obsessed with these fish. it's a tug-o-war when hooked |
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| this was the first GT landed... right in front of our clients as the boat came to pick us up |
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| Cigars, rum, and bitters after an awesome day of fishing with Georgie, Rand, Steve and Dr. Bill |
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| Traditional outrigger canoe and $10,000 worth of rods & reels |
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| Rainbow Runner, excellent sashimi. you don't have to go far to catch the bluewater species. |
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| Bluefin Trevally, perhaps the prettiest of flats species |
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| Chris hooked up with a milkfish |
We have 6 spots open for these hosted trips to Christmas Island, email me bighorndrifters@gmail.com or give me a call 307-480-8457 if youre interested.
Also as a side note... our rates for guide trips will be going up this year to stay consistent with area outfitters, so book now before we jack the prices up in April.
We'll see ya on the river!
