Three Ways to Float the Bighorn River

Why Now After All These Years?

I've never been to the Bighorn River before, which to me is sort of crazy. I've fished Montana a lot, but because I live in Great Falls, MT, and the Missouri River is in my backyard, driving four hours to fish a similar tailwater has never been on my list.

However, I was recently invited to a meeting by one of our suppliers, Zoetis animal health. Yep... our animal drug company is what has led me to come fish the Bighorn River this weekend. Farm store fly fishing to a tee.

If you are considering coming here for the first time, I want to paint a picture why you should consider it... Even if you live on a world class tailwater already.

Journey to the Bighorn

I left Great Falls at 6:30 am with my Dad and we drove through Lewistown, through Roundup, on to Billings and finally turned right at Hardin, where the main section of the Bighorn begins. Have you been to Hardin, MT? Right before you hit tourist central, Hardin, MT, is this awesome small town with a lot of character. Here, we stopped and ate at Subway (a great Subway and you can get gas at the same time which I appreciate).

From there, we drove the 24 miles towards Fort Smith. Fort Smith has a couple fly shops, a few restaurants, hotels or lodges; but all we needed was a shuttle and that is certainly available there. I asked the dude behind the counter if we could float the whole famous section from Yellowtail Dam to 13 mile (Bighorn Access). He said yes, but that we probably shouldn't stop much... It was 1 p.m.

The reason for his suggestion was this; on the Bighorn River from Yellowtail Dam to Three Mile, you could spend all day. Three Mile is the only takeout/put in between Afterbay (Yellowtail Dam put in) and 13 Mile (Big Horn Access). So if you come here, a three mile float from the Afterbay to Three Mile seems very short. However, Three Mile to 13 Mile seems very long.

So....

A Few Floating Options

Basically you have three options on this stretch of the Bighorn River.

1. You put in at Afterbay (Yellowtail Dam) and float to Three Mile. Sounds too short? You are mistaken. You could fish forever on this stretch because there are so many fish, one of the highest concentration of fish in Montana is on this stretch. We could have stayed up here all day. You know that rule, "Never Leave fish to find fish"? We were forced to break it.

2. Put in at 3 Mile and float to 13 Mile (Bighorn Access). So cool, but the big problem here is that you miss the first three miles. The awesome thing, you skip a lot of people, especially if you are here on the weekend. And, if the experience is similar, the dry fly fishing for 3 miles past 3 Mile access is still very good, almost as good as the top.

3. Float all of it. Put in at Afterbay and float to 13 Mile. This is what we did. It was awesome and you get a lot of different river experiences in one day, but I would make sure you have all day because the first five-to-six miles is going to take a lot of time if fish are rising... and they were... like crazy.

A Complete Experience

We had a great day, I had a great first day on a new river. I watched my Dad land his first technical dry fly eat. He missed 5 before that, but on take six, he saw the brown trout eat a size 18 spent, CDC BWO and set the hook perfectly, and for me, very little beats that experience.

If you're heading out to the Bighorn anytime soon, and you still have questions, feel free to reach out to us at support@north40.com or use the comment box below and we'll get back to you.