Big Horn Trip: Icy water and blistering hot days

 

Big Horn brown trout.

Just got back from a fishing trip to the N. Platte and Wind River in Wyoming and the Big Horn in Montana.  The air temperatures were in the mid to high 90's, while the water was in the high 40's.  Small flies were the rule, red annelids in size 16, zebra midges in 18 and 20, and sow bugs in size 18, all fished on a 5X tippet.

Fish were pretty evenly divided between browns and rainbows.  My partner the Old Gunkie landed the largest (a rainbow about 22"); the smallest was about 16".  What they had in common regardless of species was a strike like a steelhead, ripping away through the water and, if a rainbow, jumping again and again.  I lost one rainbow when the hook pulled out on its eighth jump.