Alina and I pulled into the 3-Mile access around 10 AM on a slightly overcast, but warm Monday. From the boat launch it was clear to see that the Horn was ripping, but clear. Obviously, wading anywhere beyond a few feet off the bank would be sketchy. We rigged up at the car with San Juan Worms and(8-12), Zebra Midges (16), and Scuds (18) - distance from indicator to bottom fly: About 7 ft. with a couple pieces of split shot above the first nymph.
We walked a good ways upstream to get ahead of the other on-foot anglers near the boat launch. Once we had gone 1/3 of a mile or so we picked a nice stretch of bank where the water was both shaded and slower and started wetting our lines. The first hour or so was pretty slow with no obvious strikes or action whatsoever. Around 11:30 the sun came out and the day really started to warm up. At about the same time we moved further up the river to a slightly quicker, more structured piece of water where I hooked a nice brown trout on the San-Juan. A little farther upstream, I landed another small brown trout on the edge of the current in a fast-moving side channel this time on the Zebra midge. Overall, things were beginning to pick up.
Just upstream of the side channel the river took a hard turn to the left, leaving a deeper, slower section right up next to some vegetation. There'd been midges skittering above the water all morning and this seemed like the perfect place to find a fish feeding on top. After sitting for a few minutes, sure enough a big head slid out of the water and sipped a midge. This was the first rise I'd seen in over 5 months so it was enough to convince me to tie on a Griffith's Gnat. Of course, it was probably never going to take my fly, so I quickly switched back to a nymphing rig. Sure enough, 3 casts later I had a fish on. Right after I landed the hard-fighting brown, Alina hooked into a fish just a few yards downstream.
We fished the rest of the corner without much luck and decided to continue upstream. Unfortunately, the trees and undergrowth were so thick for the next quarter mile that we had to go quite a ways before finding some accessible water. Just as we did start fishing again, the sunshine faded and dark clouds began to seep over the Bighorn Mountains. We kept working upstream as the wind picked up and a light rain started. Before long Alina had hooked and landed a feisty brown trout in a hole right below a quick run. Meanwhile, I went just above the ripple and started working a deeper run right beside the bank. I think I'd floated through four or five times before my indicator suddenly dropped like a rock. I set the hook on the fish that instantly felt bigger than all the others.
I struggled to safely wade downstream and keep pressure on the big fish as it worked hard to put distance between us. After chasing it 50-60 yards I finally managed to get the fish under control. Slowly, I pulled the fish methodically closer and closer to the bank as Alina waited downstream with net in hand. It took a few minutes, but eventually we landed the beautiful rainbow, snapped a couple of quick pictures, and let it loose. By the time the fish swam off the sky above was pitch black, the wind was howling at 40 mph, and rain was falling harder by the second. I couldn't help myself from thinking, "This is what fly-fishing is all about!"
Alina and I took shelter in a nearby grove of cottonwoods and re-lived the excitement of landing such a nice fish. After fifteen minutes we eventually threw caution to the wind (Literally) and decided to make way back to the parking lot. Lucky for us, the storm passed by the time we arrived at the car and we managed to fish downstream for another hour and a half or so. All in all, it was a pretty epic first day on the Bighorn despite increased flows and our newness to the fishery.
><> Tight Lines <><