Latest Big Horn Streamer Fishing Trip

Randy, Matt and Adam just got back from fishing the Big Horn in Montana for two and a half days.

We got on the river at about 2 in the afternoon on March 24th. We started fishing at the 3 Mile access and took out at 13 Mile. The weather was quite windy and overcast. Driving to the river we were concerned about the wind, however it didn't prove to be that bad. Fishing with streamers and using either 12 or 15 pound fluorocarbon tippet we really had some great fishing. Nearly every feeding fish would take our streamers. We ended up landing 103 trout.

The next day we put on the river below the after-bay at 9 am and fished to 13 mile. Fishing started out slow. The first hour was spent trying to find a streamer they would take. The bright sun had the fish a bit off. Low temperatures the previous night also had them a bit sluggish. The key is to continually change flies. Try a streamer for a 5 minutes and change if it is not working. You should have some standbys that always work and go back to them. Later the fishing picked up, but was not as good as the day before. We ended up landing and releasing 90 trout for the 13 mile stretch.

Wednesday the 26th of March we put in at 3 Mile and took out at 13 Mile. The weather was just right for a great day of fishing. The sky was overcast and no wind. As usual we started with streamers and used them all day. Fishing streamers instead of nymphs is just more fun in our opinion. We got on the river at 8:30 am and took out at 7 pm. We tried to fish water that we had not fished the two previous days. We released 215 trout for the day.

Historic Big Horn Streamer Fishing

You Tube Link for Upper South Fork Video

523 Fish Released in 2 1/2 Days!

Tom Fenger with a Bighorn Brown

Randy Berry, Tom Fenger and Brian Berry caught and released 523 trout in 2 1/2 days of fishing on the Bighorn River of Montana. Now I know that most of you are saying that is a big lie right now, but believe it or not, it is true. On February 14th the three of us fished the Bighorn for the first time in several years. We had taken trips to the river every year for more than a decade, but had lost interest with the water and looked for other winter fishing locations. Thankfully we returned.

As we fished we would rotate fishing and rowing. Our system works where once a fisherman lands three fish he switches positions with the angler rowing. This way every one gets an equal amount of time fishing and rowing. We like to call it baseball. Many of our switches on this particular trip were made after the fisherman had only made 5 to 10 casts, because he had already landed his three fish. We switched constantly.

The first day we floated from the Dam to Bighorn, 13 miles in total. We were the only boat on the river that day and we only saw a very few waders. It was great. The weather was a little cold, around 35 degrees with a wind of about 15 to 20 MPH. We fished only streamers, as we did all three days of fishing, and never got out of the boat, except for lunch. Our fish counts the first day were astonishing. At the Three Mile access we had counted 77 fish. We were very happy with our morning, we new we had 100 fish in the bag, (100 fish is our goal every day). The day ended with 155 fish caught and released. We did not think that we could top it the next day, we were wrong.

The second day we got to the boat ramp a little earlier, around 8:00 am. We tried to fish the water that was productive the day before and skip over the water that was not. When we got to lunch at Three Mile we had landed 117 fish! Now we had the number 200 in our sights. We were on a mission and were dedicated to fishing hard the rest of the day. We ate and got right back out to catching them. With the light leaving and the temperature falling rapidly we settled on 226 fish about a mile above the take out and rowed in. This was a record high number of fish for all three of us. And when I say that, it means something. Randy has been guiding for over 50 years and Tom for over 30! That is a lot of fishing and guiding. We were on cloud 9 as we ate dinner and sat around our cabin congratulating ourselves.

With all these fish, we decided to only fish from the Dam to Three Mile the last day, and drive home. The day was perfect. More clouds than the first to days, and fish were as active as ever. We ended our trip with 144 fish at 1:00.

523 fish in 2 1/2 days, unbelievable. If I had not been a part of it I would not believe it either.

March Snows Bring August Flows!

The snow has been stacking up all winter long, and now that spring is coming, the snow continues to come as well. All this snow means one thing, great fishing throughout the entire 2008 season. Idaho Water Resources expects all of our rivers to flow at 95% of normal for the up coming summer. So let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Upper South Fork March 14, 2008: 58 Trout Released

This is the first in a long line of short films that TVL will be posting on this blog throughout the year. With these videos we hope to display the incredible rivers, fish and guides that make Teton Valley Lodge great.

Upper Section of the South Fork of the Snake - Idaho

We fished all day using streamers through the snow and wind and had a pretty good day. Fishing was spotty as the fish are not everywhere. They are podded up in certain areas. Changing flies was very important as the fish were fickle. We ended up landing between 50 and 60 trout. Nearly half the fish were cutthroat, the rest made up mostly of browns with a few rainbows mixed in.

Fishing the upper section of the snake right now can be a challenge because the accesses are not open for vehicle traffic. You have to drag you boat up the bank to the road about 100 yards through the snow to your car. Thankfully the snow was hard and slick.

Fly Fishing Again.....finally

We finally got back on the South Fork after a few months of very bad weather. I don't remember seeing the banks so stacked with snow and ice. Our water for the summer looks very good with all the snow we have.

We fished from Heise to Lorenzo on Tuesday 2/26/08. Fishing started out a bit slow for the first 45 minutes. Then the fish started waking up and coming to life. Using several of our own streamer patterns we managed to land between 60 and 70 trout. The vast majority were browns with very few cutthroat mixed in. We did not catch any large fish. The biggest was about 20 inches. I don't remember catching any rainbows.
The weather was nice and a bit overcast. We look to get out again this next week.