Can't Get Much Better

I was talking to my neighbor yesterday before heading out for the day and he made the comment that he was on the Big Horn last weekend and, "we are on the wrong river."

I'll be honest, I got a little defensive. "Seriously?" I said. "With three times the boats on a third of the size of river?"

To be fair, I've never been on the Big Horn so I'm not really the best to ask but from what I've heard it's an absolute zoo and I've heard shops actually send out employees to sit in holes until their guides can get there. I've also heard the etiquette is completely gone. 

"But there are 11,000 fish per river mile!" he went on, "They might not be as big but there are bugs and they eat on top!"

Ok so like I said, I haven't been on the Big Hole but what I've heard from down there, I really have no desire to make the trip especially since I know what we have here. Yesterday was stupid. Even with the wind, it's hard for me to imagine a better quality of experience. We saw a few boats in the Canyon but it wasn't at all what one would consider to be crowded. We crushed them in the morning on deep nymph rigs. By noon one of my guys had to have put a couple dozen in the boat and they were all the deep dish variety with extra cheese if you know what I mean--no dinks. After lunch the bugs came out and the fishing got really good...

We short-leashed the entire afternoon and since we were on the marathon program due to a strong down-stream wind, we didn't spend much time sitting on fish or rowing back up to working pods. There was literally an hour or so where if you didn't touch a fish in 60 seconds, you must have gotten either tangled or picked up weeds. It was ridiculous. I can't tell you how many fish we caught. All I know is that both my guys were popping Advil when we got to the boat ramp.

We didn't throw a dry-fly yesterday because my guys were happy catching a ton of fish. I have been doing alright on dries, however, when the conditions are favorable. They are still eating pseudos, which can be tough, but don't be afraid of throwing something big over them. They will eat.

The bottom line is some people have a certain affinity for the Big Horn and that's cool. I just can't imagine it being a better overall experience than what we have here on the Mo.

Keep 'em where they live...