Eagle Nest Lodge

Well, the season for waterfowl is over, and I had a great year.  Probably the best year since I have been in the Bighorn Valley.  I thought I’d share some pictures of Chief and myself from this season. 

There are pheasants all over the place right now.  All the roosters are out strutting and showing off for the ladies.  It’s a great time to get some pheasant photos and I’ll try to get some for everyone this week.

The water and weather forecasts look good so far for this spring, so we’re expecting a great bird hunting season this fall.  This time of year kills me.  It’s so hard to put that shotgun up for months at a time.  Luckily there is sporting clays to shoot from time to time.

Here are some hunting pics to help ease the “non-shooting blues” some of you may have.  I know I do.

Todays fishing report is excellent!! The past week we had Michael and Pat Macklin and their annual group in at the lodge. As expected, we had a great time, and the fishing was very good. Barring some windy conditions, the fish continued to eat well.

Top fly producers were pink scuds, orange scuds, pink soft hackles, quill nymphs and various black midge patterns.

It seems to me like the fish are still in “winter water”. Our best success has been found on slower inside seams and deep runs. Also, the tail outs of all these deeper runs tended to fish better than the top of these runs. Boat fishing has been excellent. In fact, Sam and I had one of the best days of the spring yesterday, and the numbers just got silly. The wade fishing has been tougher, but is still producing fish. With the majority of the fish holding in slower deeper water, some of these spots are hard to reach on foot without a VERY long cast. It will take a few more weeks to get these fish up into the good wade spots to REALLY get em good. The report is overall very good right now.

BWO’s have been coming off with pretty good regularity in the afternoons, and the streamer fishing is good on cloudier days as well. In fact, we added 4 more names to our Trifecta board this week!! Congratulations to Michael Macklin, Mike Dube, Dick Frazer, and Gary Converse!

No rainbows up on the spawning beds yet, but there are some healthy looking bows staging up below traditional reds. It won’t be long.

I took some great photos the other day, and so I thought I’d share them in here as well.

We are proud to announce that Orvis has awarded the Eagle Nest Lodge the 2007 Lodge of the Year award! This is a significant award as Orvis selects just one fly fishing lodge each year that stands out among of all the Orvis Endorsed Lodges throughout the world.

An Orvis Endorsed Lodge is, by definition from Orvis.com: “All [Orvis Endorsed lodges] share the same high standards: great service, great fishing and an experienced, professional staff. These standards of excellence are continually reviewed by the Orvis staff and evaluated by visiting guests in post-visit critiques sent directly to Orvis. Orvis-Endorsed operations cater to every ability from beginner to expert.”

We are proud to be Orvis Endorsed and very excited to have received the Fly Fishing Lodge of the Year award. Be sure to check out our award winning fly fishing and bird hunting lodge for your own experience of a lifetime.

Welcome to the Eagle Nest Lodge new blog. This blog will be updated with fishing reports, bird hunting reports, and news from our lodge. Stay tuned for pictures and reports from Montana’s Bighorn River Country. Check out the new Eagle Nest Lodge website: