Well for those of you following out blog we do apologize. We are three days behind. We did not have Wi Fi at our camp gowns in Fort Smith. Although out last repost was posted Saturday it was about our Thursday fishing at the Bighorn.

Friday

Bob, Brad and I had fun day fishing on Friday. We started around 10:00AM and took the drift boat down 13 miles of the Bighorn. Brad rowed for the first part of the drift with me in the back of the boat and Bob in the front. Bob and Brad agreed to swap place after each caught a fish. It was not long until Bob hooked into a nice brown on a hopper (a fly that looks like a grass hopper).  We all fished hoppers patterns the entire day.  If my memory serves me correctly Bob continued to row for rest of the day until the very end of the drift. I am sorry to report that Brad did not have a good day of catching fish. He just had difficulty in setting the hook.  I wish I could say I felt sorry him but the same thing happened to me the day before and they gave me hell, so he received no mercy from Bob or me.  I had good day fishing with six nice browns. Bob had two but he rowed most of the day. Brad one.

This was our last day fishing the Bighorn. It is a great river with big fish. The water was running high at 6000 CFI and usually it is around 2500 CFI this time of year. Although Brad and Neil nymphed  (using a fly that imitates the immature stage of an aquatic insect) the first day they fished we caught most of our fish the three day we were thet on hoppers casting them close to the bank. It is truly thrilling to see those big brown trout come up from the bottom and swallow those flies.

Saturday

Saturday was a busy day breaking up camp and getting the RV ready to travel to Ennis, MT where Bob and I will stay for a week.  We went by Billings and dropped Brad off to get the flight home.  I am sure Allison, Sara, Taylor and Evan are glad to have him home but we miss him.

Joe and Terry fly in on Saturday to join us in Ennis for a week of fishing.  Joe, from Columbia, and I have been fishing together for over 20 years and he is like a brother to me.  Terry is Joe’s cousin from Truckee, CA.  He is also a close friend who has been fishing with us a long time. He is crazy fun guy.

 

We all arrived Ennis around 5:30 PM and set up camp for the rest of the week.

Sunday

The four of us were slow to rise on Sunday, which could have had something of the libations we consumed Saturday.  We really did not have a fishing plan for the day. Bob and I had stopped by Cabela’s on Saturday and a man who worked there gave us some great fishing advice and some suggestions on places to fish. We decided to follow his advice and drove 30 miles south to fish the Madison River at Three Dollar Bridge.  We fished there for about two hours and decided to move after Bob had scouted out a place he thought we would like better- West Fork of the Madison.  It was just a few mile north of were we where. It was a great small river, much more to our liking. Bob really came through finding a new great spot for us. Everyone caught some fish. Although they were small, they were great native browns, rainbows and brookies.  Most of them were caught on top water with small mayfly patterns flies except for Joe always insisted on nymphing.  He also usually catches the most fish.

We arrived backed early to get ready for tomorrow's fishing but instead we had a few drinks and told a few stories and best of all sang a few country song as Bob played his guitar.