Montana Fly Fishing & Bird Hunting

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2009 proved to be one of the best years of fly fishing we’ve had in a long time. The season started off with good mayfly hatches in the spring from mid April to late May. June we saw flows as high as 14,000 CFS which in turn made the nymph fishing outstanding! About mid July after the flows dropped, the hopper fishing started and lasted into the first week of October. 2009 Hopper fishing was out of this world. None of us have ever seen it as good. Fall fishing on the Bighorn was surprisingly good considering all the algae that had grown in the river over the season. The grass or algae didn’t seem to be a big problem this year. So far the snow pack and reservoir levels as of right now seem to mirror last winter. We expect to have similar flows in the river for 2010. Fish numbers continue to rise. Rainbow and brown trout numbers have increased per mile over the past three years. With the amount of water stored in the reservoir and snow on the mountains, 2010 should be another stellar year for the Bighorn River. With another flushing flow this spring, we should see an increase in caddis and stonefly hatches this summer!

Citing the water supply outlook for November, and despite the current lake elevation being the third highest on record and only 8 inches below the top of the conservation pool, Reclamation will reduce flows on the Bighorn River from 3,000cfs to 2,775cfs on Thursday.

August 2009 – The fishing on the Bighorn right now is all about HOPPERS, HOPPERS, and HOPPERS! They are everywhere and the fishing has been excellent. Catching fish on streamers too. Fishing mainly the lower section of the river. Few fisherman, lots of fish.

Flows are running around 3000 CFS so the wade fishing has opened up. Water temps averaging around 55 degrees.

Tight lines!