Big Horn River Fishing Report - Wedding of the Waters - Thermopolis, WY

I'd like to say that fishing isn't any good, and some days it may not be, but other days it's been pretty fantastic. Still getting some hopper action, fish up on tricos when the wind isn't blowing, and dry/dropper and/or nymphing has been very consistent. Flows remain steady around 1200cfs and the weather is looking great for the next couple weeks.

Here are some highlights from the last week of fishing with clients...

Cheryl caught this big ol' brown on a hopper with Alyssa

and then they found this big ol' carp

Larry came out to fish with us on his first time fly fishing

and he caught these beautiful browns on hoppers with Chris

Tina scored this big brown with Alyssa 

Our longtime client Gary K. enjoyed some excellent hopper/dropper fishing for a couple days and was rewarded with this colorful brown trout

Another AWESOME brown trout from the Big Horn River in Thermopolis, Wyoming

This was the view from my rowers seat all day with Ben hooking up consistently 

    

....and we had a great couple days with Chris & Paul and their crew

Have a boat or two available for the next couple days, the big fish really seem to be eating right now. Also have have September 8-17 open and we can get you in a boat pretty much any other day except Sept 21-23. Time to start thinking about October and pre spawn browns...

HAWGust

Long time no update... sorry folks. Fishing and flows have been an absolute roller coaster ride from June thru July, but somehow we remained busy working on the river. Fishing now is really really really good.

big cutty on a hopper from a small local creek

Flows are down to 1200cfs, the clarity is great, and the water temp is good. And despite rather mossy conditions the trout seem to be super hungry.

Joe was able to entice this beautiful brown to eat a grasshopper

There has been a grasshopper infestation in the valley this year and across most of the state it sounds like, Dry/dropper combinations seem to be the most effective and we are starting to see pods of trout chowing on tricos in the morning.

Big Horn River brown trout, Thermopolis, Wyoming

If you want to get in on some incredible fishing, we do have some available dates between now and the end of the month.

We've been seeing A LOT of rainbows like this one. Dick landed this feisty specimen on a hopper

Lot of dates open in September too. I anticipate the fishing is going to stay consistent and it should even get better as fall approaches.

Summer fishing at its finest!

We hope to see you in our boats soon!

Bighorn River, Thermopolis, Wyoming - Fly Fishing Report Update - August 2018

weekend update

Flows are still around 3,000 cfs. Lots of mixed reports coming in from other fishermen, but most have not been doing very well. Our guides however are consistently catching fish both nymphing and with dries. Lots of fish in the 18-22" range... I can count on one hand the number of trout under 17" I've seen this year... lots of fat clean trout to be had if you know where to look and what to tie on the end of your line.

Larry with a nice big brown from yesterday's float trip

Still have a few days open for April... weather is finally looking nice. Alyssa and I will be out of the country May 1-9... back to Bajahaha..We have a couple guides covering for us during then and can definitely hook you up if ya wanna go fishing... Shoot us an email as we will have spotty coverage while we are traveling... bighorndrifters@gmail.com 

Bighorn River Fishing Report - Thermopolis, WY

 Flows are now up to 2500cfs. Screwed the fishing up for a couple days but this week in fishing has been excellent with return clients and new friends. Our total trout population this year has suffered from last year's high water, but we are still catching plenty of fish, and plenty of big ones. Nymphing is still the most consistent way to catch fish right now but yesterday saw our first real hatch of BWO's and lots of trout up eating em on the surface. Streamer fishing is super spotty but ya might get a chance at a big one.

Even I get to catch one every so often

Josh out-fished his father with Alyssa on the oars and found this chunky Bighorn brown

Megan with one of many solid rainbows on her first fly fishing excursion

Ken played backseat clean-up 

...while Tim did his best to make sure the fish didn't make it past the front seat. 

And Mike hammered big bows all day

another awesome day on the Bighorn with Paul & Chris. Sunshine and rainbows

March is winding down, have a few more trips on the books. The first week of April has our boats empty, but not for long I'm sure.... dry fly fishing has begun!

Bighorn River Flows Update

Talked to Bureau of Rec this morning and their guy in charge says the river will drop to 1500cfs today. Their goal is to have it down to 1100cfs by the end of the month and keep it there all winter.

Fishing is good. Weather is good.

We will be out of town Nov 18-26. Open dates on either side. If you wanna book a trip in the next couple days ill give ya a deal...

Fishing report - Bighorn River - Thermopolis, WY

Fishing seems to be picking up. Had a fun couple days pitching streamers with Ryan.. couple of nice browns, some solid rainbows and even a carp...

Flows are still around 2500cfs... the rumor mill says they will drop it mid November. Clarity is getting better, just over a couple feet.

Nymphing is spotty, getting em in a few holes. Streamer fishing is good & bad.... Good one day and bad the next. And there are a few risers when we have the blue wings.

Plenty of days open until November 18 when we fly down to BAJA!

Fall is in the air

Kipp with an awesome boat ramp brown. Ate a #20 drowned baetis

Cooler weather has the blue wings hatching and the fish feeding. River was dropped yesterday to around 900cfs. Water is clear.
Streamer bite has been decent, nymphing has been pretty consistent,  and the dry fly fishing has been awesome. Couple dates open for September and lots of dates open for October.  Celebrate fall and come fishing with us!

Crawdads and Browns

Had a fun couple of days with Mark and the boys from Tennessee

We caught quite a few rainbows, too.

Fishing report

Brie is all smiles with a big brown 

Flows are around 2200cfs which is actually about normal for this time of year. Nice to see the bottom in a few places. Clarity is still just a couple feet. Not much in the way of dry fly action yet, though we did get a handful of fish to eat the hopper. Fishing overall is OK... not very consistent.  Maybe 10 fish hooked one day and then 30 or 40 the next.... definitely a gamble. The plus side is there is no moss to contend with. In the meantime I'm waiting for tricos....

Bighorn River Fishing Report

Flows are down to 2500cfs. Still about 2ft of vis. Banks are looking good. But no dry fly action. Maybe some streamer fishing. Nymphing is good and some days very consistent.

We've been on the water a lot lately but we do have a few days open in August.

Bighorn River Fishing Report - Thermopolis, Wyoming

River is still high (8400cfs) and still dirty (about a foot of clarity) but the fish still have to eat... and they are. Fishing is okay. Boating 10 or 15 fish with many more hookups in 4 or 5 hours.  If you're in the area and wanna do a float we are recommending half day trips to beat the heat of the afternoon.

Double chin brown

For those of you that want to float on your own,  you will want to take out at 8th Street Bridge... you CANNOT make it under the LOW BRIDGE at McDonald's. There are a lot of inner tubes littering the trees as a reminder to be safe out there... keep an eye out for floating 6 packs.

Crick Fishin

Big bugs, big browns, small streams

The Bighorn Basin has dozens of small rivers and creeks that are full of trout... if you know where to look. Gaining access to these cricks can be difficult and/or expensive.

We now have access to some private water which will cost you a little extra dough and the public water requires a hike and an adventurous spirit.

Cicadas are thick right now and the trout are hungry and healthy.  Hike into some breath-taking canyons and explore some real Wyoming fly fishing without any other anglers, like how it used to be. Give us a call for details and we'll take you into our secret spots... 307-480-8457

Bighorn River Fishing Report

Flows are around 8000cfs and the river literally looks like shit but we're catchin some nice fish. Me thinks runoff has peaked but I'm no climatologist. Hopefully things start settling in the reservoir and the river drops and becomes clear before July.

We have plenty of open dates if you're passing thru and wanna catch a few fish.

On the water report

Fishing continues to be stellar despite busy and windy conditions. Nymphing is still really really good.  Sow bugs, scuds, midge and baetis and a few worms. Long leaders and a good chunk of lead. Starting to see more fish on redds and because of the higher water less people tromping on the gravel.

Still no dry fly action. But this warm weather oughtta get the things going hopefully by next week. Took a water temp of 45 degrees yesterday.

And streamer fishing isn't very good, but we're getting a few nice ones to commit to the big stuff.

Mouth full of meat

We have openings March 19-24 and April 1-10.

Fishing with Uncle Dave

Had a fun couple days fishing with Uncle Dave before the snowy snow hits us. Sow bugs seem to be the preferred food with scuds and midge on the side

Dave with a big bow

Dave with a big brown

Alyssa was batting clean up in the back of the boat today which led to many doubles..
More than we could count.

Alyssa with a nice brown from the back of the boat

Flows are still around 915cfs. Fishing is still really really good. Didn't have much traffic out there and the browns ate really good today. Ya still wanna focus on the deep slow stuff but we are starting to find a few more in the riffles on the insides. 

Winter fishing

We went from 70 degrees and sunny to 6 inches of snow and temps barely breaking the freezing point almost over night... kinda shut the bite off. Add 20 mph winds and it made for a tough weekend for anglers.

But it warmed up a bit yesterday and the clouds locked in the warmth. Anthony came out from cali for a couple days and got to see the ying and the yang.

He ended up landing two 22"s back to back

First he  landed this big fat rainbow,  taped at 22x12

And two casts later tied into this Big Horn brown. We rode him down river about 100 yards. Had Anthony's Sage One 5wt corked the whole time.

Winter is a great time to fish the Bighorn here in Wyoming.  Pick a nice day and jump in. You can always warm up in the hot springs.

Fishing report

Flow on the Bighorn River in Thermopolis is around 815cfs.

Fishing has been good. Seen a couple fish over 2 feet and several around 22" the last couple weeks. Still getting some good blue wing hatches in the afternoons, but cloudy days are best. Streamer bite has been day to day and nymph fishing is consistent. Been kinda busy on the weekends and by that I mean 5 or 6 boats.

We have open dates Nov 7-10 and Nov 14-18. Get in touch.

On the water report

Flow from Boysen dam is 895cfs +/-

Just wrapped up 7 days fishing with Rodger from PA. He guided me into a couple nice browns on the hopper and I like to think I put him on a few fish too, but sometimes it's hard to tell who the boss really is. We endured some shitty weather, lots of boats, and few picky risers... with the exception of yesterday.

We waited til about noon and hit the water. Action on the hopper was pretty good right off the bat, dingin em here and there, but we ran into a lull about half way thru and you could feel the excitement fizzle. Then we started to see them around 3. One sailboat, then another, and another. The fish began to take notice and then one rise, then another, and another. Soon the tiny sailboats seemed to cover the surface, their slate wings twitching ever so lightly to dry. Our first fall baetis hatch was under way, and there we were, Rodger and me, surrounded by rising fish. The hatch wasnt so thick you couldnt pick out your flies from the naturals, but almost, and at times all ya had was a blind cast and it usually paid off. Undoubtedly the most fish I've seen up on dries since May.

I'd like to see some more shitty days in the forecast.

Also, nymphing has been productive. Some days it seems like theyre eating everything, and some days it seems like they're not eating anything.

And I'll bet ya streamer fishing could be good. I'd go with olive or white or both.

Big browns on dries. Love it.

Bighorn River Fishing Report

Flow out of Boysen Dam is around 1000cfs. River blew out yesterday from all the rain Sunday night, she was running blood red from the wedding down. Clarity is improving and should be back to normal in a couple days.

Fishing has been good. A little trico action, a little hopper action, and productive nymph fishing.

Rick from Team McKay with an awesome first brown

Good friend & client, Gary K, with a solid 22x12 rainbow

Got a few days open still for Sept and starting to book October. Also thinking about offering a couple Spey Casting clinics at the end of October and maybe November if there's enough interest... if this is something you're into, get in touch with us and we can start working on the details.