Girlfriends and Snakes invade the Bighorn!

"Buddies Record breaking Whitefish"

May 17th, 18th and 19th: Bighorn River trips for Matt at the Kingfisher Lodge. Sunny and warm all three days with an afternoon thunderstorm that made us run for the ramp on the 18th. River appears to drop lower each time I journey to the Flea Circus we call the Bighorn.

On Wednesday morning the 16th I was awaken by my cell phone at 7 am. Before I even checked the caller ID I had the thought that Paulson must have arrived back at his home in Gateway after his two month stint on the Bighorn. I was not sure that when he was scheduled to return to the Gallatin Valley, but I knew that he must be back since my phone was once again ringing at 7 am. As I poked around for my glasses on the dresser next to the bed I took a quick glance at the caller ID and it was a Fort Smith number that was ringing me from my slumber. I figured Paulson had not come home yet but he was calling me from his home on the Reservation to shoot the shit and ramble on about artifacts, fishing or the soap opera that takes place in the trailer court on a weekly basis. I answered the phone and to my surprise it was Matt from the Kingfisher Lodge and he had a panic tone in his voice. He asked me if I was busy and if I could come down and fill in for him as he had one of his regular guides double booked and he needed to find a competent guide for the next two days. I told him I did not have anything on the books for the next few days and that I would have to run it by my better half before I could commit to leaving the family for a few days of work. I spoke with my wife about it and she was happy that I could go and make a few extra bucks to help cover our bills for the month. I called Matt back and told him that I would be there that afternoon and would be happy to help him out. I could hear the sigh of relief leave his body as he had the trips covered. I have been in his position many times when I owned my own shop and I knew how good he must have felt to know that he had the days covered. I got Reece dressed and we road our bikes to school, where I gave him a big hug and told him I would miss him while I was gone. Reece is getting old enough to understand that Dad is going to work and sometimes I will be gone for a few days while I am working. He loves me a ton and it is always the hardest part of leaving for a few days. After I got back to the house I loaded up my sleeping bag, some clothes, and my fishing gear and headed for Six Flag's newest amusement park in Fort Smith Montana. If you haven't been to the Bighorn in the past two years than you are missing out on one of the most spectacular trout fisheries in the world. The numbers of fish in the river at this time is almost obnoxious and there are more fish in the river than there are fleas on a stay dog.

I arrived at the Lodge around 6 pm to let Matt know that I was in town and that I would be there bright and early to pick up the clients in the morning. I headed for town to find a place to rest my head for the next few days and my first stop was at Palumbo's since he had a spare room and a bed. When I got to his house he was on the phone with his gal and I sat and read a few articles from the old playboy that he had sitting on the coffee table. Matt had informed him that I was on my way down and he told me to put my stuff in the spare bedroom. He finished off his conversation with is Gal and we shot the shit for a few minutes before Weedmiller and Kieser walked into the house. As usual Dave's house is the local watering hole since there is not a bar within 50 miles of Fort Smith. We all shared a few beers while Dave cooked up a piece of catfish he had purchased from the market. Eric was on his way down to his new girlfriends place and Kiser invited me over for some meat loaf and potatoes. Dave's phone rang again and I headed over to Kisers for a meal and some great conversation with the surely old koot from Lander Wyoming. We talked about wolves, moose and fishing freestone streams throughout the Rockies. After a while I headed back to Dave's and he was still on the phone with his girlfriend so I decided to head to the "Tenders" house to catch up on some missed time from the last trip. Tender was cooking up some of his new goose brats and invited me to join in on the feast. I told him I had just had some of Kisers meatloaf and that I was full from the meal. I partook in a few beers and a couple of shots from the Makers Mark bottle that his client had left him from the past couple of days. The Tender was also into a new girlfriend and soon his phone rang and he was into a conversation with his new girlfriend. I decided to head for bed so that I would not have a hangover for the next day on the water.

I arrived at the lodge and was given the two rookies for the day. I typically get the anglers with the least experience because I enjoy teaching people the sport and with a long list of teachers in the family genes I am pretty good at it as well. I had Bill and Buddy in the boat for the day and we headed for the three mile put in. There were plenty of boats already in the water and a trailer load of the "Devil's Spawn" pulled up and started unloading their kickboats. We jumped in the boat and started down the river. I don't enjoy boat fishing on the Bighorn so we rowed downstream to the Corrals with hopes of getting into the hole. There was a guy who had walked down to the Corrals so I told the guys they could boat fish through the fast water above the club. We hooked a fish immediately and I was impressed that both Bill and Buddy were doing pretty well with their casting. We hooked and landed a dozen or so fish from the boat as we floated to the first good open spot at the Vines. I put Bill on the shelf ledge and waded Buddy up to the top flat to sight fish the larger browns that usually hang on the tan flat above the deeper hole. Bill managed to hook a half dozen small browns from the drop off and Buddy hooked into two very nice browns that managed to school him in a few seconds. The fish were on the flat but they were being very picky about eating our flies. We fished here until around lunch time and then we headed for the boat. Palumbo had floated past us and he was pulled over eating lunch across from Turkey Point, so I pulled in and we ate lunch together. During lunch we got to witness a small argument with one of Mike Craig's friends who was fishing across from the house and a boat with three anglers who had pulled in and were going to try and fish the spawning beds above the house. I am not sure why they tried to pull this stunt because most everyone who fishes the Bighorn regularly would have said something to them about fishing in the largest beds on the river. It is perhaps the biggest no no on the river and everyone frowns upon fishing the reds. The guys loaded back in the boat and headed on downstream after the short conversation with Mike's friend. We pulled out shortly thereafter and headed for the tail end of the flat below the house where there were several good pods of rising fish. I ask Buddy and Bill if they wanted a lesson on fishing dry flies and they were game. I told them we would not have a great numbers day fishing for the rising fish but that they would learn a great deal and get to experience what fly fishing is really all about, seeing a fish eat your dry. I rigged them both up with my Winston rods and gave them a quick lesson on the differences in casting a dry versus lobbing a nymph rig around. Both of them were surprised at how much different the casting was and we set off to try and catch a few fish on the surface. Bill was handling the casting pretty well and I had him setup with a Bailey's CDC baetis that wound up taking three of the smaller brown trout from the slick water in the tail out. Buddy was having a bit more difficulty in trying to cast the dry fly setup and I spent a solid hour working with him on his cast and presentation. He missed several fish that ate his dry fly but never managed to get a hold of one of rising fish. He did make vast strides in his casting and he was very happy that we had taken the time to learn about the art of casting and the frustration of having fish rising in front of you and not being able to catch them. It was nearing 4 pm and we got back in the boat and looked for one last stop before hitting the boat ramp. The left hand side of Little Horn Rapids was open and when I pulled in there were a hundred or more fish surfing just below the surface with some of them rising to adult insects that floated down the river. There were also a good number of caddis starting to pop so I tied on a parachute caddis with a mangy dropper. Both of them were getting tired and their casting was falling apart with each subsequent cast. We did manage to hook several fish and it was time to head for the lodge for dinner. All in all it was a fun day and both Bill and Buddy learned a lot and improved their fly fishing skills.

The next day I was blessed with my first single on the Bighorn. Having one angler in the boat opens up a lot of options and I was excited to get on the river with Gary. Gary was also pretty new to the sport and he had spent a couple of days with Kiser, who gave him plenty of grief about using to much wrist while he was casting. I told Gary that we would work on his casting a bit and that I would show him how to incorporate his wrist into a nice cast. In all the years of teaching the art of casting I have come to realize that everyone is going to do it a bit differently than the next guy and that you can use each individuals strut to help them become a better caster. The long time method of casting where no wrist and using the ten and two approach is an old method that I believe hinders many peoples casting. I prefer to teach them about the mechanics of how a rod flexes and incorporate their own style into making the rod flex in the appropriate manner. Gary and I headed downriver looking for a good spot to pull over. I passed on the Beaverhut, SBA and eventually wound up in the Corrals. There were a few fish rising in the lower end of the bottom bucket and we made a feeble attempt to get them to eat a dry fly. After the fish spooked and moved into the lower bucket we headed for the ledge and ran a few nymphs through the deep part of the hole. The fish were a little skittish in the lower bucket and most of them moved into the middle, which was not obtainable with Gary's cast. I peered upstream to the upper bucket and there were a dozen or so fish rising very steadily on midges just at the top of the rock shelf. We eased our way up to the fish and I tied on a midge cluster that Gary could see. We got to within 20 feet of the rising fish and Gary managed to hook several of the fish and miss a few more. About this time Stretch came floating down the shallow channel and parked in the riffle above the hole. He waded his guys out to the shallow water that does hold some spawners and he began predating on the vulnerable spawners. I was not upset about it but his wading was sending down plenty of muddy water that was washing in on the hole we were fishing. It is not a big deal as it can be helpful at times to have a cloudiness in the water to make the fish feel more secure. We switched over to a nymph rig with a sow bug and Jesse's Midge larvae and on the first cast Gary was into a nice brown trout. We stayed in the hole for another hour or so and Gary caught fish after fish until he was giggling like a little girl. At one point I looked upstream towards Stretch and his two dudes and one of them was doing a rapid Irish jig as he danced around kicking his feet out in front of him. I saw stretch pull out his net and net a rather large Bull snake that was trying to crawl up his clients leg and get out of the frigid water. Stretch took the snake to shore and I walked up to let him know that we would be leaving the hole and to give his client a little grief about joining the Riverdance tour and performing his jig for a larger audience. They all laughed and Gary and I headed for some new scenery and some more fish.

"This will make anyone do the Riverdance"

Our next stop was at the Vines again and the fish were up on the shelf as they were the day before. This was a golden opportunity for Gary to learn the roll cast and he picked it up very quickly with the extra wrist that he uses in his cast. One very nice brown had moved into the seam just off the drop and Gary was able to see the fish that I told him to cast to. After several good drifts the fish finally made a move for the flies and both Gary and I witnessed the fish move over and take the fly that Gary had presented to him. Gary set the hook like a seasoned pro and the fish came out of the water right in front of us. It was a very nice brown and it headed for the faster and deeper water. Gary did a great job of turning the fish and soon the fish was back in his control and coming in for me to net. Just as the fish came near it came unbuttoned and we were both disappointed that we did not get to fondle the great fish that was so much fun to try and catch. Gary picked up the roll cast technique and he had an uncanny ability to see the fish laying on the shelf. It was one of the first times that a client really saw the fish that I was pointing out and he even pointed a couple out to me that I missed. We fished at the vines for another hour or so and Gary hooked, landed and lost another dozen or so fish. We jumped in the boat and headed on downstream to fish one more spot before we called it a day. We arrived at the bottom end of the Bay of Pigs channel and when I pulled the boat in at the bottom end I accidentally rowed onto a small spawning pit that had 4 nice fish on the bed. I slid the boat below the spawners and we headed up to the deep run above the small spawning bed. I put Gary in the spot and told him exactly where to cast and his flies stuck hard and strong to something on the bottom. The flies broke off in our attempt to rescue them and I brought up the leader to replace the lost bugs. Just as I had the bugs tied on a fierce cloud packed with lightning, thunder and buckets of rain started to move in on top of us. I told Gary to make a few more cast and then we would head for the ramp and try and beat the storm that was approaching fast. Just as he made his first cast back into the seam, a horrific sound of the approaching storm raged in on us. You could here the wind for a solid 30 seconds before it even hit us and I told Gary to reel up because we needed to haul ass. He quickly reeled in and we jumped in the boat and I turned us around and rowed as hard and as fast as I could. Fortunately the wind was blowing directly downstream and at one point I looked back and I could have easily been towing a wake boarder from the bow of the boat. We hit the ramp just as the first major drops of rain started to fall and I had Gary jump in the truck as I backed down the ramp. Gary was inside the truck as I loaded it on the trailer and got all the gear stowed away and ready to travel on the highway back to the lodge. I got soaked by the rain but I was glad that we were not still on the river in the lightning and rain that was pouring down from the heavens.

When we got back to the lodge the storm broke and all of the other guides were back at the lodge within a few minutes of us. The clients went into their rooms to get ready for dinner and all of the guides sat around the boat drinking a few cold beers and telling stories. Kiser showed up and he was most impressed with the "Boat Lean" and commented about how he hadn't seen one this big in a while. Matt's two boys were running around amongst the mix of guides and clients and his youngest son Cash decided he did not want to have on any pants anymore. He jumped in the boat and he hung out with all the boys and had a great time. Matt's older son Cade was hanging off my boat and climbing around most of the time and he wanted to know if I was going to bring my son Reece over in the morning to play with him. I told him we would come back down in the fall and they could all run around and have a great time in his tree fort out back behind the lodge. He was excited about it and I promised him we would come back down and hang out with him. I had plans on traveling back home to Bozeman that night but Paulson talked me into staying the night and taking a short drive in the morning up to the lake. Since I had several beers on board I figured it was best that I stay the night and I could get home by mid morning to see the family and spend the weekend with them.

"Yellowtail Zig Zags"

That night we ate some dinner with Thor and Blatter and had a few more beers before we all retired for the evening. In the morning we got up and Paulson and I picked up a box of donuts and some milk and headed up the Grapevine road for a tour of the reservation. We wound up on top of the reservoir and we made it up past the main body of the lake and where the lake enters into the zig zags of the canyon. It was one of the most amazing places that I have been in the state and even though it was more than a quick drive I was glad that I got to see the sights that we saw. It is an amazing piece of land that the Crows have and I am glad that it will stay as it is for many more years. I am looking forward to taking the Lund up the lake and seeing the zig zag portion of the lake from lake level.