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Christmas on the Bighorn

Bighorn Brown

Less than an hour east from where Custer and Sitting Bull collided lies the sleepy town of Ft. Smith, Montana, home to the Yellowtail Dam, a few fly shops and the legendary Bighorn River. Constructed in 1961 primarily for flood control and to enable irrigation to reach the semi-arid farmland of the Bighorn Basin, the dam resulted in what many consider the most prolific trout fishery in the lower 48 states.

The truth is, actually, that the fertility of the Bighorn and its adjoining farmland extends far beyond the fishery, as a trip to Fort Smith and it’s downstream cousin St. Xavier will reveal. I spent two days there over the holidays, the only one fool enough – according to most of the members of my family – to float the river in the dead of winter.