Bighorn River Update October 4th
We’re in Fall transition on the Bighorn. The water clarity is not fantastic, but is not terrible especially toward the lower end of 3-B. Fishing has still been good, but is very spot specific. This is the one time of the year I would say the guides are really earning their $ and getting fish in the boat, while other anglers have challenges ahead of them. It’s not a bad idea to hire a guide for a day and at least pick their brain. I’m not trying to push business on anyone, but rather help an angler out and maybe get you a picture of a nice fish. Our guides are consistently putting pretty good numbers of fish (at least hooking a bunch) in the boat and it’s not an easy time to do that.
Off my sales pitch, here’s the lowdown on fishing:
Nymphing has been the most productive tactic. Orange Scuds and Sowbugs (Carpet Bugs, Rays, Eddie Vedders in Grey and tan #14-16) on the upper river and worms on the lower. Chenille, wire, Squirmy, they’re all working for us.
Not an ideal time to fish dries with the water clarity, although there are a great amount of Tricos and Psuedos out there. The hopper bite seems to be done for the time being. It was good while it lasted!
Streamer fishing has been decent to good. We’re seeing a good number of little fish chasing them and the random big ones eating them.
Montana FWP was on the river this past week and were doing their seasonal ‘study’ of the fishery below Bighorn fishing access. I spoke with one of the biologist and she reported high numbers of fish and plenty of big ones. Should be a sign of things to come for next year…