Planning a Bighorn River Trip - Need HELP!!!

I'm in the process of trying to help my son and three of his buddies plan a week long trip to the Bighorn to celebrate their high school graduation. In the past whenever I have taken a multi-day trip to a new river I have hired a guide for a wade trip the first day to get the lay of the land, learn which flies to buy/tie, how to rig up and, most importantly, where the wade access points are and the general areas to concentrate on over the course of my next few days of fishing. As it turns out no one on the Bighorn does wade trips.

So now I'm faced with the prospect of arranging two guides (big $$$$ for kids with limited budgets) for their first day to learn the flies and techniques, while seeing a LOT of water they will never be able to get to, or letting them fly blind? :scratch: I see that there are quite a few places in the area that will rent boats - Is the water calm enough that 4 totally inexperienced 17/18 yr olds could manage a drift boat from put in to take out (one of the guys is going to college on a football scholarship so I think they would have the physical strength to handle the boat but obviously none of the skills). Are the take outs marked clearly enough that someone who has never been on the river before could find it? If they happen to miss the take out how far to the next and are they looking at potentially dangerous water if they miss it? Do you need a boat to fish the Bighorn or can you reach a reasonable amount of good fishing by wading?

How is the wade access in terms of numbers and crowds? I've seen the ones identified on the fly shop maps, are there just the three (probably getting into a touchy area here I realize so feel free to e-mail me if you'd like).

Any other tips you can offer to ensure that my son and his friends have #1) a SAFE trip, #2) have fun and catch FISH, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Mark

the first 3 miles are very easy even a caveman can row it! :D

wading access would be from walking the shoreline and staying below the high water mark, although the path is above the mark. dont think you can walk the whole length from afterbay to the take outs. never did it.

take outs are not marked by neon signs but are very recognizable.

if you miss the 3 mile take out, there are private ones to take out from, but the next one is at 13 miles and is a long haul at the end of the day. how would the shuttle guy know where to pick you up if you missed the public take outs??

there is one stretch of the river that has a small and short rapid that should be no problem.

Google "big horn river fly shops" and check out their fishing reports for the latest patterns. i've always done well with midges.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=bi ... gle+Search

see my page for midges and thats a bighorn rainbow caught behind the first island below the afterbay. http://www.danica.com/flytier/nfrechette/nfrechette.htm

The Big Horn river is not a good river to walk in and wade. There are only 2 practical places to walk in - the Afterbay area at the top of the tailwater down to the breakfast hole and the small braided islands at the 3 mile access. Both of these are usually very crowded. Walking beyond these limited areas is really not practical due to obstacles such as high vertical bluffs to the water, barbed wire right into the water, deep siliting in spots, many bank lined thorn bushes that will pin cushion your waders, etc.

The upper 13 miles of the river is best fished by floating from fishy spot to fishy spot, anchoring the boat and wade fishing drop offs.

The river is generally easy to boat for those with some experince, but I think it an be ominous and dangerous for pure novices including but not limited to the whirl pool on the upper 3 miles, th tree sweepers tha exist from time to time, and the rapids can cause trouble if approached incorrectly.

In summary, I thnk the idea of sending complete novice oarsmen afloat on unknown waters is not a good idea.

Good Luck
Max

Let me know if you have all ready done this or are still planning to. I will get you lined out.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by flyfishmt

Let me know if you have all ready done this or are still planning to. I will get you lined out.

---

The boys got back early Saturday morning and had a great time. Thanks for the offered assistance!