Bighorn River, August 4, 2008. Air temp 75 degrees, Water temp 62 degrees. Calm, overcast. Got an invite from Bob Krumm to float the river with a friend of his, David, from Maine. David's son, fiance and yellow lab Trout joined us in a rental boat. Bob had been braggin' up the hopper fishing in the lower river, so we all hooked up at Bighorn Access and launched about 9am. Bob let me take oars, and the fish were on the hoppers right away. Any good cast about an inch off the bank near the grass got a rise. Bob used a X-Hopper type pattern, and David switched between a Rainey's and an X-Hopper. After a fewl miles, Bob took the oars, and the action continued. I was snakebit, and was getting regular hookups, but every fish would throw the hook when they approached the net. After an hour of this, it became a little frustrating. We stopped for lunch at Turtle Rock, where we feasted on lobster, fresh corn on the cob, cantalope, apples, grapes, and macaroni salad. Talk about raising the bar for shore lunches! My snakebite was cured when we left the lunch site and parked in a small sidechannel that is often ignored. The fish in there weren't taking hoppers, and after about 8 entire rig changes, I finally tried an beadhead MFG with a Rainbow Warrior dropper, and just started banging fish every cast. These were large fish, mostly rainbows, sitting off a shelf downstream of a very thin riffle. A couple were up in the riffles that couldn't have been more than six inches deep. I had my drp fly rod, and rigged up just like I'd done on the Missouri: No strike indicator, and the only weight was the beadhead top fly. A short cast, a quick strip to take out the slack, then watch and wait for the line to explode. God, that was fun. I'd still be there if the cooler had been in my boat. Hopper fishing continued to produce fish after that, but it wasn't long before the black caddis came on hard. I jumped back on teh oars for the rest of the day to let Bob fish some more. You could tell Bob was really enjoying getting some stick time. He works so much and so hard, and is so damn knowledgeable about the river. (He packs a small saw in the boat, and can be seen whacking down Russian Olives along the island berms). We found a few sweet spots with some big risers, and as the darkness came on, I'd hover the boat, and those two would pull a big fish out after a few casts. It was a very pleasant evening. We finally made the takeout right at dark. Great day, learned some new spots, and a few new tricks. David's accent and sense of humor kept us in stitches the whole day. Never heard Cheney's helicopters, and only saw a couple of boats all day. Stopped by Buster's on the way home and left a half dozen Corona's with him. Didn't get home until 11:15pm.