Bighorn River Nymph Rig
Since my discovery of the Bighorn Nymph Rig on a guided float trip to the Bighorn Rriver several years ago, this nymph rig has been my go-to technique for subsurface nymphing not only on the Bighorn in MT but also back home here in MA.
Immediately after returning home I ventured out to a favorite spot on the Deerfield River and rigged up with the newly discovered Bighorn nymph rig.. I would generally catch a couple of fish 12-14 in, during an outing but what I now came upon was a mind blowing experience. In the first 15 minutes I caught and released three 18-20 inch brown trout! ….. all from the same run, the one illustrated in the header of this web site.
My rig differed only slightly from the one the MT guide used. I did not use the swivel and slidi head caddis. My end fly, about 20 in. from the bead head caddis was like what my guide used, a size 22 baetis dry fly with tiny wings. As in my MT experience all fish caught were on this very tiny unweighted dropper fly!
Madison River Nymphing Finesse
The Madison River flows from its beginnings in Yellowstone National Park to its confluence with the Jefferson River and Gallatin River, at Three Forks, MT, becoming the head waters of the Missouri River, having flowed over 180 miles from its start.
The stretch of river between Quake Lake and Ennis, the only town around for many miles along the river, is known as “the 50-mile riffle” due to its fast paced current and thousands of boulders rather than the usual alternating pools and rapids.
We chose to stay at a cabin at river’s edge, about midway between Quake Lake and Ennis, just off U.S. Highway 287. It was owned by Roger Gaulding from Texas. He spent much of the summer living there in a cabin next to ours. We became friends, enjoying an occasional meal together and one year, a very memorable 4th of July party at one of his Madison River neighbor’s place on the river’s edge.
It was a fortuitous selection because besides being on a nice fishable stretch of the river we became neighbors to new friends, Max Tong and his wife from San Fransisco.
Max was a restauranteur, who retired and became interested in fly fishing .Remarkably, he became extremely proficient in just a few years.
On our first evening, I rigged up my gear and waded into the river right in front of our cabin and began flailing about a dry fly rig comprising a large attractor fly with a small target dropper fly tied to the bend in the hook of the attractor / indicator fly.
Unbeknownst to me, I was being observed by Max from his neighboring cabin. I guess, my flailing about unsuccessfully was more painful than what he could endure. He came down to waters edge, in bedroom slippers, drink in hand. I waded ashore to meet him for the first time. He was very friendly and polite, not at all pushy, offering some tips.
Max stressed the great importance of picking the best channels and lanes within the channels, not at all obvious to most anglers including myself. He learned of these on our section of the Madison from extensive experience over the years.
Then, after finding a viable run and channel within the run, there was the question of depth when targeting non-rising fish. Max was a master of taking the deeper lying fish. His rig was not unlike the Bighorn Nymph rig described elsewhere in this web site. He continually would make adjustments to the amount of weight and position of the weight relative to the fly and strike indicator, confident in his belief that a fish was lying there near the bottom and would always be receptive to an accurately delivered meal.
My rig was very much like Max’s rig but he caught far more fish than I while fishing the same section of the river. The reason, I think was his thoroughness and carefulness in fishing each run, leaving no potential lane within the run unaddressed and presenting the fly accurately to the fish lying on the bottom –not too high, not too far to the left, not too far to the right, not too fast, not too slow, just at the pace of naturally drifting insects. Easier said than done!
My advice to myself now is “be patient…don’t be lazy….make the changes to the rig as water conditions dictate…keep up the belief that there is a fish down there that will take my offering when I present it to him correctly!”