bighorn trip

I just rolled back into town from Montana. It feels good to be home...but it was awfully hard to leave such an amazing river. I'm already thinking about dates to go back there in the fall. Tony and I picked up my boat Thursday morning after a 13 hour drive from River Falls, grabbed our licenses, arranged a shuttle and hit the river. It proved to be really tough fishing that first day. No sleep the night before, high winds and tons of boats probably didn't help matters. I ended up getting a couple rainbows near the take out point and that was the end of the first day. We woke up the second morning and our tent and campsite were covered in snow. Needless to say that we were the only tent in the campground. I think people thought that we were nuts. Friday was a night and day difference from Thursday. Despite the colder temps and snow, the fish were cooperative. We tucked ourselves into little channels between islands and ran nymph rigs and did really well. A size 16 or 18 orange Ray Charles and an orange Bighorn scud were hot, as were size 20 red Copper Johns and zebra midges. We had a few big fish roll on streamers, but didn't get any hooks into them. I landed the biggest inland rainbow of my life, a hefty fish that Tony and I figured went 24 to 26 inches. It's odd out there that fish that size will eat a size 20 nymph, but they do. I hooked one that was maybe even bigger, only to lose her and realize that she'd completely straightened the hook on my zebra midge. As good as things were, that fish will haunt me. I will be back to exact my revenge on that one. The snow ceased in the afternoon and the sun even graced up with it's presence for a little while. We ended the day in a good run that gave up a couple fish and many more takes. It was an awesome trip and I'm thankful that things went smoothly and safely. I can't wait to get back there. Click on the flickr link to the right to see all the pics from the trip...there were too many to post them all here.