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.

Bighorn river flows

This is from the Hot Springs County Emergency Management Facebook page...

Boysen and Bighorn River Summary & Update:
Yesterday the flow into Boysen dropped to an amount equal to the amount being released.
The official elevation of the lake is 4728.90 feet above sea level. That means that 4 feet of the flood pool was used.
Release will remain at 9000cfs a few more days in order to vacate a lot of that water.
Let me introduce you to another office involved in decision support; The NWS Missouri Basin River Forecast Center in Pleasant Hill, MO. They forecast river flows across the entire Missouri River Drainage as well as inflows to the many reservoirs in that river system.
The MBRFC forecast is for flow into Boysen to drop roughly 1000cfs each day for the next 4 days. In a few days the release from Boysen will gradually be reduced so that finally, in several days the release from the dam will be in the 2000-3000cfs range and the lake storage will be considered "Full" at an elevation of 4725 feet.
Spring Runoff flows first began appearing on May 5th when they climbed above the 3000cfs mark. By June 2nd they had reached and exceeded 8000cfs. June 10th was the highest inflow day at 20,284cfs. Now it is over and we are headed into summer.
Reaching a good conclusion in a year of extreme snowpack and then rain on the snowpack takes technical expertise and a little help from Mother Nature. Thank you to the Bureau of Reclamation, NOAA, National Weather Service, Corps of Engineers, Natural Resource Conservation System, Wyoming State Engineer's Office, Water Resource Data System & Wyoming Climate Office at the University of Wyoming, and anyone I may have missed.

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

Fishing report

Reservoir is now over 100% full and flows are up to 9000cfs. Still puking mud out of the dam.

It's a banner cicada year here in the Bighorn Basin and luckily runoff has subsided on the small creeks giving us our dry fly fix. Get in touch if you wanna do a walk & wade trip on some very cool water, both public and private.

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.

Dirty water report

Fishing over the weekend was pretty good despite the dirty water.  We ended up doing half days and still hooked about 20 fish per boat. Flows are still around 7000cfs but I heard a rumor that they may drop it next week. Stay tuned.

Weekend update

Flows are around 7000cfs. Inflow to the reservoir is around 5000. Reservoir level is around 65%. The lake is muddy and there's dirty water coming out of the dam. And where's this giant runoff? We're getting a slow melt and the Bureau of Recklessness is screwing up the river. Give them a call and ask em what the hell is going on!?!

As for fishing... it was decent last weekend. We caught fish. Some were good ones. We have trips going out tomorrow and I'll let ya know how it goes.

If ya wanna go on a float trip I would recommend a half day.