Spring Fishing Report - Bighorn River - Thermopolis, WY

Spring weather is finally here. Temps are in the 50s today and sunny, looks like we will be up into the 60s next week. Most of the low elevation snow is melted and the ground is soaking up most of it so we're hoping the creeks won't be running red mud.

Flow right now is around 1000cfs. Nymphing is good with sow bugs and midge pupa in various colors. Starting to see some BWOs around, no fish looking up yet but I'd bet a baetis nymph would do well in the afternoon.

Starting the day off right with Chris & Ben on Saturday. Photo: Chris Roberts

Talked to the guy at the Bureau of Reclamation yesterday, he says unless we get a bunch of  spring moisture there will be no flush this year and that river flows should stay stable thru April and into May. Good news for us fishermen.

March?

Cold start to March here on the Big Horn in Thermopolis. I think we're topping out at 4 degrees this afternoon. Should be the last of the cold weather as temps warm up into the 40's next week.

We are back from our steelhead adventure in Washington and boy did we have a good time...and of course Alyssa outfished me. But we are excited to start fishing on our home river again, as soon as the ice jams melt.

Open days for March: 10-15, 17-24 and a couple other dates here and there.

April is filling in fast... open dates April 2-10, 14, 20, 21, 25-30

Book before April and receive our 2018 rates $450 for 2/full day float $350 for one.

Hope to see ya on the water soon!

Bighorn River Fishing Report & Hosted Trips

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.

Chris & Alyssa hoisting one of many milkfish caught. These fish fight incredibly hard

A very nice bonefish from the flats of the lagoon

our guy Chris with a beefy GT

Sunrise over the lagoon, running out to Huff Dam

I have become obsessed with these fish. it's a tug-o-war when hooked

this was the first GT landed... right in front of our clients as the boat came to pick us up

Cigars, rum, and bitters after an awesome day of fishing with Georgie, Rand, Steve and Dr. Bill

Traditional outrigger canoe and $10,000 worth of rods & reels

Rainbow Runner, excellent sashimi. you don't have to go far to catch the bluewater species.

Bluefin Trevally, perhaps the prettiest of flats species

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!

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

Weather's great, fishing's good...

...and flows have been dropped to 2350cfs +/-

Nymphing remains consistent with sow bugs and baetis nymphs. Dry fly fishing is pretty good most afternoons with BWOs and it seems like the streamer fishing is getting better with warmer water temps.

Plenty of days open for May if you wanna go fishing

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!

open dates

March is filling in. Still have some holes in the calendar.. we have open dates March 10-12, 14, 16, 19-21, and 23-28. Give me a shout if ya wanna get in on one of these days... best time of year to be fishing the Big Horn... 307-480-8457

Nymphing remains very productive with midge and sow bugs and a few baetis nymphs starting to show up. No dry action yet but that should change by the end of the month. Getting a little bit of love on the streamer... olive or black. Flows are 1270cfs and the river should be going up to 2000cfs in the next week or two, though I haven't heard a specific date... same with the flush which usually happens the last week of March. Traffic on the river has been pretty light with one or two boats and most days we're the only boat out there which is a nice change of pace for this time of year.

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!

Bighorn River - Winter Fly Fishing - Report

Flow is around 915cfs.

Fishing has been fair to good. Cold water temps have the fish moving into deeper holes. Nymphing has been consistent with sow bugs, midge in the morning, baetis in the afternoon and worms. A few fish are eating dries. And the brown spawn is just about wrapped up.

Got a cold snap hitting us this week which will make fishing tough and unenjoyable. Temps next week climb back up into the 40s... looks like a good time to slip away for a little fishing before the holidays.

Winter Fly Fishing - Big Horn River - Thermopolis, Wyoming 

Bowling for Trout

That river is humpin out there. Flows are around 3000cfs. Fished yesterday with Dan and Steve from Billings... Steve works with the Bureau of Rec and tells me the river is going up to 4000cfs on monday. Nymphing is pretty darn good right now with a lot of work and a lot of lead. Lots of flotsam so be prepared to toss the moss. Streamer fishing is OK... I think it should be better than it is but we were getting some nice fish to eat em in the dirty water. Here's the highlight reel from yesterday...

Alyssa and I will be out tomorrow with the ladies from University of Wyoming Women's fly fishing club the Fish'N'Chicks. We're almost as excited as they are and it will definitely be a fun day. 

Flows should stay somewhat steady for the next couple weeks as the inflow is dropping dramatically and there isn't much in the forecast for rain or super warm snow melting temperatures. We have plenty of days open, so get ahold of us if ya wanna go bowling for trout!

Double date with the Muellers

Had a great Valentines day float with our friends Geoff and Kat... it was gals vs guys and while the gals hooked more fish I'm pretty sure ours were bigger.

Kat and Alyssa gettin it done

Fish were flying today

Tomorrow is a down day. Sleeping in and tying bugs, got a couple big streamer orders to fill this week. Booked Tuesday, I'll let ya know how it goes. We've  got Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday and Sunday open. Still running the deep discount for winter which is crazy because fishing is so fuckin good right now I should be charging folks double.

See ya on the river.

On the water report

Pretty busy out there for mid week but it looked like most boats were doing well. Streamer fishing started off with a bang and got a couple of these guys

But the action didn't stick so half way thru the day we started nymphing and hooked about 40 of these

Fishing is on feugo right now and frankly you're doing yourself a disservice by not hopping in the front of my boat tomorrow... especially since we're still offering full days for 2 anglers at $350.

Fishing Report - Bighorn River, WY

Did a lower river float yesterday it was nice to fish some different water, though it was good only in a few spots. And the boat ramps are still very icy.... took us about twenty minutes of chipping ice with the spare oar to get up the ramp last night. Weather has been great the last few days mid thirties to low 40s and the midge have been popping getting those fish active on pupae in the right spots. Not much in the way of dry fly fishing right now but we have seen sporadic rises to midge adults here and there. Nymphing the deep and slow water is the most productive way to catch fish right now, and we're starting to see more browns in the mix whereas a few weeks ago we were only catching rainbows. You just never know what you're gonna lift off the bottom of the river...

Ate the worm.