By the time we walked about a half-mile upstream to our favorite starting spot, it was inching up towards 90 degrees and there was yet to be a single cloud in the sky. We waded out through a flooded grove of Russian olive trees and out into the somewhat murky water. 100 yards below us, a group of anglers were running nymphs through the bottom part of the run. Alina and I spread out, adjusted our indicators to 8-9 feet above the first fly, and started working the edge of the seam. Not even 10 minutes later, things were already looking up as I released my first Bighorn brown trout of the day which had taken interest in my orange wire worm.
For an hour we waded upstream through flooded shrubs and bushes - working the banks and edges. Alina and I were both hooking into fish regularly, and one of Alina's was quite large, though it came off after a short fight. As we waded, occasionally a large brown trout would dart out of its hiding spot along the bank when we got too close. I couldn't help myself from wondering whether any of those fish would have taken a well-placed ant.
After landing 3 or 4 nice sized browns I decided the time had come, so I removed my nymph rig, cut my leader down to 4x and 9ft, and tied on a favorite purple ant pattern. Soon we came to a spot where the river comes out of a big horseshoe turn, directly above a side-channel - Here, there is a slow section of water sheltered by the turn in the river. I'd seen surface-feeding trout here in the past, so I approached stealthily. Sure enough, a large rainbow trout was feeding within an inch of the surface, it's dorsal fin breaching the water as it fed. I moved into casting range and put the ant right over its head. The trout seemed uninterested by my first, second, and third cast. I waited a minute or two before trying again, this time the fish came to the fly without hesitation. Time slowed as it casually sipped the ant. I lifted my Winston BIIIX and connected. Thanks to Alina's mad netting skills, we landed the stunning 18-inch fish without much trouble and safely released it back into the river.
Seeing the big rainbow sipping my ant was enough to convince Alina to also tie on her own. We both were glad to be free of our split shot and indicators as we walked upstream around the bend where the river is almost inaccessible for about a quarter mile due an impenetrable riparian zone. We finally reached a trail leading to the water on another turn. Scanning the water along the bank revealed plenty of sipping trout nestled among the grasses and algae in 12-30 inches of water.
Alina and I took turns quietly wading into range before putting our best cast over each fish we saw. More often than not, the fish would go after our flies. We landed quite a few really nice brown trout in this manner, and also missed or put down a fair share as well. I can honestly say that this is my favorite kind of fishing thanks largely to the technical and precise casting required, but also because of the anticipation and excitement of watching a big trout come up to sip a dry fly. By the time we made it around the corner it was time for a break.
After eating lunch in the shade of a big cottonwood tree, we continued up river. In another side channel we found another pod of rising fish and Alina saw a huge rattlesnake swim across the river. Around 4:30 or 5:00 PM we started to notice splashier rises from the fish and a lot more caddis on top of the water. Following suit, we tied on dark brown x-caddis in size 14. These flies proved just as effective as the ants had earlier in the day, and the bighorn trout came easily to them.
We made our way back to the parking lot around 6:45 so we could catch the fireworks in Billings. Alina and I were both thankful for such a consistent day of dry-fly fishing - our first since early October of last year. Don't be fooled by the high flows on the 'Horn', the fish are accessible and (at least they were for us) are coming easy to the fly. Get out there and get spoiled before the fish smarten up.
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