The Bighorn River, Montana

In April of 2013, I decided to go visit Chris Pettine in Fort Collins, CO, and join his group for an annual trip on the Bighorn River in Montana.  I have never fished the Bighorn, and it had been quite some time since I had fished for Brown Trout. So, I looked forward to the adventure. The weather was quite terrible for most of the week, but we did have some sun on the last couple of days.  This stretch of riverbank that has been reinforced with old Cars is quite famous.  It is a well-known feature of the Bighorn River, and has been used in several advertisements for fishing gear.

By far, the most productive method on the Bighorn in April is to drift very small nymphs under an indicator.  However, I was able to find enough rising fish to keep me entertained.  All of the risers that I caught were Brown Trout.  None were exceptionally large.  They were typically about 14 inches, with the largest being 18 inches. This is a typical Brown Trout that I caught on a Size 20 Griffith's Gnat.  Most of the fish that I caught were on the Griffith's Gnat.  There was a profusion of small midges hatching each day - even though the temperatures were hovering around freezing.

I don't get many opportunities for Dry Fly fishing in Alaska (except when fishing for Arctic Grayling), so the opportunity to catch Brown Trout on small Dry Flies was very enjoyable for me. This is a close-up of a typical Brown Trout that Chris caught using one of the small Griffith's Gnats.

There were a few stretches along the river where these Browns were rising quite regularly.  But, there were enough small Midges on the water to afford them a pretty high degree of selectivity.  In other words, they weren't easy to catch.  But, we each caught enough to keep us happy. Chris is holding another nice Brown Trout that he has taken with a small Dry Fly.

Chris uses an Abel Reel on his 5 WT Rod.  The Reel is decorated with the colors of a Brown Trout. We took this photo of a beautifully colored Brown Trout next to his Abel Reel.

As I stated earlier, the weather was not very cooperative during our four days on the Bighorn.  There were quite a few days when maintenance was required to keep ice from the Rod Guides (in fact, I think all of the days had some of this). Here I stand in one of several Snow Squalls that blew through while we were fishing the Bighorn River.

Chris spent a little more time using Nymphs than I did.  He was very successful using a tiny (Size 22) Zebra Midge under an Indicator.  All of the Rainbow Trout were caught using Nymphs. This is a nice 17 inch Rainbow Trout that Chris caught using his Zebra Midge.

The larger fish that we caught on this trip were Rainbow Trout.  All of these fish were caught on a Nymph Pattern. This was a beautifully colored 19 inch Rainbow Trout that Chris caught.

At one hole, Chris was catching a fish on almost every cast.  This went on for about twelve fish in a row.  I could bear it no longer, so I also rigged up one of Chris' Zebra Nymphs below an Indicator.  I also ended up catching about eight fish in this same hole.  They must have been just stacked up in there taking Nymphs. This is a nice 18 inch Rainbow Trout that I caught using Chris' Zebra Nymph.