Mike's Short Skirt!

April 12th,13th & 14th: Bighorn River

After spending a few days with Reece and my wife I was off for another three days on the Bighorn. I packed up the old trusty steed with all the gear I would need to survive three days in the small travel trailer named "Foxxy" at Cottonwood Camp. The bags were packed and I headed out of town on Wednesday at around 9 am. I made one quick stop at Dan Baileys to pick up a few CDC baetis emergers and another stop at Walmart, the home of cheap plastic shit, in Hill Billings Montuckey. I arrived in Ft. Fun at around 2 pm and headed for the trailer park to see who had the day off. I first pulled by Thors house to see if Paulson was around and his rig was a no show so I figured he must be on the water with some clients. I pulled up to Tres Trailers and found Reithmiller dealing with Wilcox's hounds, which were fighting to get under the tender's trailer for a quick escape and journey around the trailer park. Reithmiller had been tying up some bugs for the coming days and after a quick discussion about how the fishing had been we headed over to see how Palumbo was doing. He had just returned from his errands and we sat and discussed music and the fishing for a couple of hours. Kieser poked his head in and we partook in a few busch beers. Once I started to feel the affects of the Busch's I decided I had better go get my camp setup at the "Foxxy" When I arrived at Cottonwood no one was around so I decided to go check out the river. As I pulled out of Cottonwood Alvin was on the ditch road concocting some old tractor parts to drag behind the truck to loosen the hard gravel road in the camp. He told me to go find Doug to see if he had setup the trailer for our stay. Doug was getting the water hooked up in the newer showers and he had not gotten the trailer ready for my stay when I found him. We headed down to Foxxy and with a quick plug in of an extension cord we at least had power to the trailer. I told him that water was not a big deal and that I could care less to blow my self up in the pre 70's era trailer with the propane for the stove and fridge. He concluded with me that propane in the trailers was a scary proposition and that neither of us wanted our obituary to read that we were taken from this earth in a 14 foot travel trailer that blew up when the propane leak ignited. I had my grill, Coleman stove and a cooler full of block ice that would suffice just fine for the three nights and four days of my stay at Cottonwood. I began unpacking my bags and getting the gear setup in the trailer. First and foremost was setting up the fly tying station to pump out the necessary weapons for the next three days. I was running short on Big Uglies, Jess's Pupae, Cripple Thors, Baetis Comparaduns and the four hours in the truck gave me a couple of ideas for a few new bugs that I would use on my clients rod for the next few days. Once all my gear was inside and the place was setup, Peter pulled up and we unpacked his gear and got the trailer ready for our stint at the Disneyland of the flyfishing world.

Day one brought introductions of the clients and guides and I was paired with Mike and Marshal. They were both fairly new to the art of the fly, Marshal had done a decent bit of back country fishing and Mike was very new to the sport. Mike did have some idea about the casting and Marshal was accomplished enough to make the cast he needed to. We put in at the after bay and were in for the long haul all the way to Bighorn. Our first stop was in the Meat hole where I showed them the rig and how it was setup. Then we headed out into the riffle to introducing them to the finer points of nymph fishing, primarily how to mend. Mike was into his first fish after several cast and I landed his small brown and headed up to put Marshal in the spot. Marshal caught several fish right off the bat and I went walking to the head of the hole to see if there were any fish rising. There was a huge bow on a redd at the top of the riffle and I watched the pair move off and on the redd for several minutes. I'm not some pervert, however I do enjoy watching fish complete the reproductive cycle and I figured it would be a great time to give a lesson on etiquette to the clients. I did check out the small side channel and there were about 75 fish rising in the scum and trickle of current coming in from the channel. I rigged up a dry dropper rig and had both Mike and Marshal come to the top to watch the spawners as well as fish to some rising fish. They both enjoyed seeing the spawners and then Marshal took a half hour casting to the rising fish in the scum eddy. He hooked and landed a couple of fish and we headed for the boat to make a journey downstream. We did very well in the meat hole and we could have just stayed there most of the day. Our next stop was not until we hit Carl's and we only stayed there long enough for Marshal to land 4 or 5 fish and then we headed on down the river. We did a little boat fishing on the way and we had to row all the way to the vines for our next stop. The Baetis started pouring off around 1 pm and we could not find a good stop to make for fishing dries. Dave was in the Pipe and there were fish going crazy on the surface. We stopped for a quick bite with his clients and then we headed down to the Vines. I knew that when a good hatch comes off that you can do really well in the vines fishing a drowned dry pattern as they get washed under from the fast water in the Bighorn Rapids. I put Marshal out on the ledge at the bottom and he proceeded to hook and land 30 or more fish most of them were smaller fish but the numbers were very good for Marshal. Mike and I headed up on the shelf and the sun was just right so that you could see all the fish sitting on the rock just off the edge. Mike hooked several large brown trout before he was able to land the big fish of the day, a skinny 21 inch brown. The Fish moved right into the ledge and we could see about 20 of them jockeying for position. We were able to hook another 10 fish swinging a CDC spinner with two split shot under an indicator into the fish. Both of them were very happy with the fishing and we headed for the slot below the Bay of Pigs for one last stop before heading for the lodge. We took a couple of more fish and they were ready for cocktails and a good meal.

Day Two we put in at 3 mile and floated down to the pipe to camp out for the day. Dave had done well there on dries the day before and both Mike and Marshal wanted to give some dry flies a try. We nymphed most of the morning and I had mike try and new fly that came after several Beam and Soda's and about 8 beers. During the course of the morning Mike and I were talking about how great of a day it was already and the only way it could get better would to see a boat full of short skirts and bikini tops go floating by. That is when the new fly was labeled as "Mike's Short Skirt". We stayed in the "Pipe" until around 3 pm waiting for the baetis to hatch but the sun was high all day and the bugs never really got going and the fish never looked up. So we headed on down river and made another stop at the Vines to see if we could hook Marshal up with a few of the large browns that Mike tied into the day before. Mike was on the ledge at the bottom and he hooked and landed plenty of fish to satisfy his day. Marshal and I headed for the upper end of the shelf and Marshal did finally hook and land a nice 17 inch brown that gave him a run for his money before coming to the net. Marshal managed to hook several more large fish and break them off before we decided to head for the lodge.

Day Three: Oh the dreaded Saturday crowds were on tap for the day and the key to fishing the Bighorn is getting lucky with managing the crowds. When I pulled up to the ramp there were already 14 trailers in the lot and another 8 kick boats getting ready to put in. I was a bit concerned and I told both Mike and Marshal that finding a spot could be a challenge. We pushed off from the 3 mile ramp and I had plans on stopping early and trying to fish for some fish sipping on risers either below the snag hole or on the flat below Crow Beach. As we launched two boats pulled over into the Gravel pit and it put a total of 12 boats ahead of us and possibly stationed in the good holes downriver. The kick boats pushed off about the same time and fortunately they were more interested in fishing from the Kick boats than getting to a hole to wade fish, thus they were out of the crowd management picture as well. I put the boat in full gear forward and we ran into two more boats in the first on the right, 10 boats ahead it's looking better. As we spit out the bottom of the channel there were 5 more boats parked in various places around the snag hole. At this point I told the boys that we were going to take a gamble and head for the 3 rivers area of the river and setup camp in either Holly's Hole or across from Mikes. We were in for an hour boat ride and if the other boats had the same plan we might have to row out and go float the upper three in the afternoon. As we hit the car bodies another boat was pulled over wade fishing the slick above the Beaver hut. I rounded the corner and two more boats were pulled in at the Duck Blind and I got very excited because there were only two more boats ahead of us and we would certainly get one of the holes at Three Rivers. When we got to the Club the old guys who had been there for the past two days were parked and fishing. That left one boat which was right in front of us and they pulled into the pipe. I gave Matt and wave and kept front rowing with a smirk on my face. We pulled into 3 rivers and we pulled in across from Mikes house and setup camp for the day. I got the boys rigged with flies set them in their spots where they immediately started catching fish. For the next hour I went back and forth between setting up the table, chairs and camp in between netting fish. We nymphed fished all morning and then we sat to eat some lunch. After lunch they headed back out and I took a scan of the upper end of the hole to look for risers. The fish were starting to eat midge clusters pretty strong and when Marshal needed a break to warm up I rigged a dry fly rod for them to fish to the rising fish. By the time Marshal warmed back up there were a solid 30 fish rising in the hole. We waded out and I put Marshal to work on catching fish that he could see holding just below the surface and lazily sticking their heads up to pluck the clusters off the surface. Mike was back at it hooking fish every 5 to 10 drifts on the nymphs below. Marshal hooked several fish on the cluster and then a few baetis started to trickle in with the midges. Several more fish had moved in as the baetis started to drift and soon we had too many targets to cast to. Each fish was picking off both baetis and midges so I switched up to a biot comparadun # 18 and trailed it with a red miracle midge off the back. The miracle midge did take the majority of the fish but the comparadun was easy to see and a quarter of the time the fish choose it instead of the midge. After Marshal landed several nice rainbows and a couple of browns it was Mike's turn to take his shot at and become thoroughly addicted to fly fishing. Dry flies are the presuppose for why most anglers become addicts for using a fly rod, nymphs catch fish but to witness the event unfolding at this time is what causes the addiction. Mike took a few cast with the dry fly stick and it took him a few tangles and a bit of instruction in how to cast a slower shorter rod without the weight and strike indicator that he had on his stiff nymph rod. Once he worked out the kinks he started to see wherein the addiction lies. After catching several fish and missing a lot more his feet got cold and we sat back at our camp and watched as the parade of boats came floating down at the end of the day. We packed up the gear and they both finished the day off with a few more fish while I loaded up the boat and then we headed for the takeout and a wonderful day of turning rookies into fly addicts. It was a great trip and both of them made a ton of progress in the three days of being on the Bighorn.