Bighorn Fishing
My friends, John Beth,Dale Thompson, and Doc Zavadsky hit the ‘horn for a week starting on May 9th. They did catch some fish, but nothing like it has been in past years. As John reports in an email that he entitled, “The Good the Bad and the Ugly of the West”:
In spite of months of careful planning – the key is more critical with timing than ever before to hit this trip right. If we had gone a week earlier – a foot of snow, high winds and low temperature would have nailed us. A week later, the water would be twice the level we’d hoped for.
So, I guess we made the best of the poor spring weather and water issues that we could. For several years, Doc and I hit the flow around 2000cfs this time of the year – give or take a bit. This year, we had a decent Sunday afternoon on the 9th. then it got cold, windy and rained for 3 days and nights. The water started to rise and it was 2500 – 3500 – 4500 – 5000 – (and over 6000 cfs by today). Blew out all the surface activity and the river was a mess. Wade fishing was hopeless and even scuds and worms weren’t working. A lot of sad fly fishermen around as midge and baetis dry fly fishing is about the best of the years right now (typically). We caught some fish here and there and had one good BWO hatch for a couple of days before the water got too high.
A nice Bighorn bow taken during a week of high water and poor angling conditions.