Big Horn Fly Fishing | Wyoming Trout

[Music] welcome to the fly shop of the Bighorns this is the epicenter of fly-fishing and Sheridan and Sheridan County here in Wyoming it's October and the temperatures are dropping but believe me the fly-fishing is heating up well most people have put their fly rods away we're here to experience all that Sheridan has to offer we've got the rivers to ourselves visit epic Wyoming adventure starts right now on a new fly fisher [Music] welcome to Sheridan Wyoming found deep in the heart of the American West Sheridan is steeped in Western tradition spanning all things mountains and all things cowboy the region is also becoming known for the fantastic fly-fishing opportunities it affords during the summer months uncrowded rivers teeming with rainbow cutthroat and brown trout rare are the days you fish crowds well we're in Sheridan a little later in the season October to be exact with the sole purpose to experience this fantastic fishery when there are even less people on the water while most anglers have put their fly rods away to partake in other outdoor pursuits fall time and Sheridan is prime time to catch and release pre-spawn Brown's rainbow and cutthroat trout we're making our home base for this adventure right downtown in Sheridan Wyoming steps away from the fly shop of the Bighorns a full-service fly shop and of equal importance the home of Rock Creek anglers a guide service company serving the Sheridan area and points beyond the fly shop of the big hoards is run by Peter Widener lifelong Sheridan resident lifelong fly fisher and all-around fantastic resource for all things fly-fishing in Sheridan and the state of Wyoming rock creek anglers guide service is headed by clark smith another well fished wyoming i dedicated to exploring conserving and enjoying the amazing fisheries in the state wyoming is unique with respect to the reputation it has for fly-fishing some anglers have heard of Wyoming some even travel to the state however as locals know the fish here aren't pressured like many neighboring states and there are literally countless opportunities to target multi species fish in both still and moving water statewide shirt in Wyoming is based in the foothills of the Bighorn National Forest and as fly anglers who travel the old adage stands true you have to fish it as you find it upon our arrival in Sheridan and after having a short poke at some local creeks the weather turned to pure October so we immediately loaded up and headed out with Peter Clark and our crew for the day to a Wyoming River a short drive away on this day we're fishing Wyoming's infamous Bighorn River and despite the snow in the higher Wyoming elevations here the weather is nice but is it conducive to catching trip on fly man Peter what a fantastic day another banner day for fishing in Wyoming another fantastic Wyoming River absolutely you know today we're actually hoping we'd have some clouds so we could at the beta's fishing would be a little better hopefully but we still may get him all right so we're hoping messin with you sir you're gonna fish is a list of hauls at Al Creek yeah Outfitters and she's amazing super fishy fun to fish with both our companies work together well and cool yeah she knows the area well let's get these boats launched that's it Alisa hauls has been a full-time fly fishing guide for years learning her craft on the steelhead rivers of the American West hosting trips in Alaska and Trout bumming all around the United States today we find her guiding all over her home state of Wyoming and running Owl Creek flies with her husband Neal we got loaded up and begin our day floating the bighorn the Bighorn River in Wyoming is an absolutely amazing fishery that you can fish year-round for big healthy Browns rainbows and the occasional cutthroat true it definitely helps to fish this river from a drift boat as it's a large river the Big Horn boasts roughly 3,000 trout per mile and the scenery is not too bad either we start throwing streamers custom patterns tied by Elissa I say default could strip fast and I'll let you know when you can strip a little bit slower all right now do these fish generally relate too strictly to the banks or they will they sit behind boulders and stuff in the in the main river as well yeah mostly in front of boulders yeah is what I found cast it over to the left over here see this see this you know this shallow zone in front of the island stuff like that where its structure its structure simply because the island breaks the current you know yeah they're moving into shallower and shallower water right now the fish are yeah don't be afraid of the Sun is that what it is oh yeah yeah we've seen it illustrated over the last couple weeks where I mean it's like night and day with the clouds the clouds will come out and you'll hook one every five minutes the clouds will go away and you won't see one for an hour they get a little skittish with this bright blue bird sky we decide to make a change switch to a nymph rig under an indicator and find almost immediate success [Music] there's one nice that being hit like a ton of bricks yeah there's no mistaking probably on the cirtl or the crane fly imagine oh just loving the boat yeah nice bow nice rainbow sweet alright we're looking at an average size of about 16 to 18 inches yep this is a little little thin for a fish down here they tend to get pretty chunky alright she goes that is fantastic thank you yep absolutely coming up the fish start looking up on the Big Horn River in Wyoming the main season as far as when tourists are coming into town and when we get a lot of our traffic is summertime and so that would be you know usually July through late August however that's really not the best of our fishing here I mean we have great fishing in the spring we have great fishing in the fall we even have excellent fishing during the wintertime and so it's all about what kind of cold and what kind of weather you're willing to tolerate there's a lot of a lot of opportunities all year round between the boat and where your bobber is now as we head downriver we stick with our nymph rig and right before our eyes a giant pseudo hatch starts to go off and the fish they're looking up pseudos are found generally in the size 22:24 range and since there is just so much bug activity on the surface ELISA is showing them something a little different I am setting up a hopper dropper rig so for the hopper I've got a kind of a crane fly type hopper kind of like a Waterwalker let's see it's got a real flat wing not a very high profile fly rides low it's got that dubbed body so that's gonna sink a little bit even though I'm going to put floating on and it's gonna sit more like that than like this and then that light foam on there is gonna ride flat on the surface it's got a very low profile wing so it's not gonna have the puffball profile and pretty subtle legs so this is the last hopper I got a neat on so we'll give it a shot they're just not moving on the streamer today so instead of you know fishing different water just because they're not eating streamers I'll row you up a little bit they'll probably have that hopper [Music] there's a pot of trout here all happily feeding and chasing each other in the pool it's important when you come across an amazing trout feeding scenario such as this - take your time don't go barging into the pool risking spooking the entire pot drop anchor and observe choose your fish and get a game plan ready to take your shot so we row up into position and I ask Alissa to show me how it's done [Music] yep Perry is the job how fun is that that's crazy that's been that much time working on him oh that was a sweet sweet bang yeah nice bow they're so hot swear it go beauty definitely fatter a little thicker than that yeah yeah but how cool is it that you can just sit and observe and watch these fish do what they do and then come tight and get to meet one Wow tiny tiny tiny little guy well size 20 fantastic this is why you come to Wyoming she wanted to go yep areas nice well done good fish - yeah on the second one second one yeah that little that little nymph Wow let's just let's just caught a rainbow on am on a tiny little number 20 dry fly and we decided we switch things up and go with a hopper dropper outfit here and second cast in it's amazing I love the hopper right it's you it's your indicator and it's your fly exactly darker fish yeah nice beautiful great fish just fantastic lovely all right so let me see that that's the fly it took little tiny guys oh that one's an 18 in 18 fantastic let's take a look see what we're dealing with here oh man this fishery is fantastic again there's not a great number of fish here but they are quality and they are ready and willing to eat it just on believe boy there he goes so when you come to a spot where you're seeing fish rise take your time pick it apart have a couple of different weapons in your arsenal that you can throw at them and expert guides will get you set up properly to catch probably one of the best rainbow trout eats I've seen in a long time just fantastic so it's a beautiful place I love being here it's got great fisheries I mean within two hours of here I have probably a hundred different fisheries that I could go to at any given time there's pretty much everything as far as freshwater fisheries go Browns rainbows cutthroat brook trout there's grayling fisheries there's Pike fisheries there's muskie fisheries largemouth bass it's that one I was a pretty enthusiastic eat All Right game on [Music] super hot thick rainbow man oh my goodness that's the one we've been looking for okay he's on the realize excellent what an unbelievable fishery man this is fantastic we sat and watched the three big ones at the top oh he came off but we sat and watched the three big ones at the top of the pool and maybe that was the one that was chasing all those little ones around here probably whoa did he bust it or did he just slip I think he just slipped we pick up anchor this type of fishing is completely addictive and sometimes our emotions do get the better of us yep well you weren't gonna miss him if it was a fish yep Oh probably hitting bottom now yeah so I like your enthusiasm I just mellow out just I know [Music] I was just about to lift it up - that's amazing Oh oh my gosh what a thrill I got tied again oh good jumps man oh man what a good fish oh that Harper paid off that did it it really did it's fantastic I mean why wouldn't why wouldn't you caught literally cover every bit of water that you could with this system whoa oh my gosh those headshakes are just crazy super violent I'm gonna move downstream of the stick so she doesn't get an ID any ideas nice rainbow really nice now these are wild fish most of them are yes the hatchery plants don't survive very well right yeah so we get a lot of wild fish in this river all right you know what can I get kind of step out absolutely that's perfect and that was fantastic any time you can watch one eat you did great with that fish - it was a good slow eat real slow you waited and you said it just right this is incredible you do a fine job you really do what fun nice Alyssa nice nice nice that's a beauty oh really gosh does that ever a thick fish oh I can't get my hand around that mm-hmm yeah Oh beautiful hopper dropper what tast again you want to eat it again yeah look like it that is just amazing ready see you Phoenix and that deserves one of those and one of these fantastic wonderful huh okay do that again high-five hug that was pretty good that's me that's me that's my high school days coming up right there there we go good one Oh another rainbow sweet man there's no shortage of big fish here is there no and they are strong so what's interesting about this fish and a lot of the fish that we've caught today is the the placement of your casts it pays it pays before you come to a vacation or a fishing adventure like this like we are like we have here in Wyoming to to go to your schoolyard a local school yard or a field and actually practice different kinds of casts absolutely and not only not only practice your casting just to shake the rust off but to practice accuracy accuracy yeah absolutely so we've been talking a lot today about accuracy and casting and how to place these flies underneath in in the tight spots and anywhere there's little micro bays and things like that and that's what a lot of these fish have come from is absolutely this one came from right behind that tree look at that that is a chunky rainbow yeah beautiful just picked right up yep oh not ready yet under the boat that's a cut chunky cut beau it's a yeah nice yeah this one has a real defined chinstrap there so the main the main trout species are Browns rainbows cutthroat and is cut most considered a primary target species or is that just actually that's that's a bonus and it's also something that occurs quite often we get a lot of cut boughs but you can't always tell sometimes you can just tell by looking at the spot pattern so you can see right under the chin there there's that little orange stripe that's definitive of cutthroat you can also see the yellow in the flank there and the placement of the spots they're mostly focused on the back of the tail that was fun beautiful and as the day waned away we were rewarded with one of the wonderful brown trim the Big Horn River is so famous for Oh Brown is a brown shrimp oh my gosh what a fantastic fish [Music] there we go got a hen I think so [Music] there we go in the hole very nice don't tell you something beautiful what's up this is the biggest Brown chart I've ever taught is it really hands down yep awesome that is what you'd come to Wyoming for what a fantastic specimen beautiful fish my biggest brown trout ever caught on a streamer on the Bighorn River stories don't get any better than that I really don't that's awesome I wanted to get a picture of her I don't thank you so much you know what that about does it for this episode of the new fly fish I want to thank everybody in Sheridan Wyoming for their unbelievable hospitality it has been an adventure of a lifetime definitely put it on your bucket list you know adventures out there all you need to do is go and find it and what better way than to do it with a fly rod in your hand for everybody from the new fly fisherman I'm mark Melnick you know what we're gonna see you in the Midwest hi I'm mark Melnick from the new fly Fisher television show I really hope you enjoyed that full length episode if you did do me a favor hit the like button and subscribe today now new episodes are going up all the time so click that Bell icon so that you're notified the next time we put one up [Music] you you

Channel: The New Fly Fisher

Views: 198,039

Rating: 4.8630247 out of 5

Keywords: beginner fly fishing, fishing, fly casting, fly casting for beginners, how to fly fish, how to fly fish for bass, how to fly fish for trout, learn to fly fish, orvis, orvis fly fishing, the new fly fi, fly fishing, brown trout, bighorn river, rainbow trout, dry fly, montana (us state), wyoming trout fishing, wyoming golden trout, fly fishing montana, tom rosenbauer, bighorn river fishing

Id: S3IGb65uhsc

Length: 23min 4sec (1384 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 20 2019