"Dave S" wrote in message
...
Yes, it is a tailwater, and much cooler than the LBH. But "cold
water" must be used carefully, especially in relation to other Montana
cold water streams.

From MT FWP:

"Prior to 1965, the Bighorn was a warm, silty stream that flowed out
of the Bighorn Canyon into the Montana prairie. With the completion of
Yellowtail Dam, it transformed into a cooler tailwater ideal for trout.
It can be called a coldwater fishery, though not in the way some of
colder, crisper streams in the central and western parts of the state
can. A species list shows the middle-ground diversity of the Bighorn
River:

Bigmouth buffalo, black bullhead, burbot, channel cat, carp, emerald
shiner, flathead minnow, flathead chub, freshwater drum, goldeye, green
sunfish, longnose sucker, whitefish, river carpsucker, sauger, shorthead
redhorse, smallmouth bass, smallmouth buffalo, walleye, white sucker,
yellow perch.

The river meets the Yellowstone near Custer, the Yellowstone turning
into a warmwater fishery east of Billings"


Our definitions of warmwater are just different due to our geographic
location.

I think not. However, it appears that our perceptions of differences due to
geographic differences are different.

If you are from the Heartland or other areas of the midwest,

Which I, for one, may or may not be depending on how one chooses to parse
the continent....

I'm sure the Bighorn seems like coldwater heaven.

Not to me.....nor to any number of people here in the tropical Heartland who
can show you any number of spring fed waters that'll freeze your nuts off on
a hot August day.

But when you live in
a state that has some of the highest, cleanest, coldest, and most pure
water left on the planet....the Bighorn seems, well, pretty warmwater.

When you live in a state that has some of the hioghest, cleanest, coldest
and most pure water left on the planet.......you definitely need to get out
more......maybe read a book or something in the meantime.

Anywhere I can catch a trout, a ling (burbot), and a catfish in the
same day......warm water.

Interesting that water temperature doesn't enter into the equation.

Not trying to stir things up.

No, of course not.

I just figure that if you come to MT,
which is known for it's mountains, fishing, and some of the purest
waters left on earth, why fish a river that probably looks like a river
near you.

You don't figure real well.

The Bighorn is a man-made fishery...and it looks and feels
like one.

Unlike all the alpine lakes in Montana chock full of iced native trout, huh?


You will catch big fish all day long, yes.

Yeah, that part is pretty distressing.

But you are comparing
their fight to a fish caught in a river near you, not a river near me.

Let's assume, since the person you are ostensibly replying to lives and does
most of his fishing in a geographic region that no sane person could
conceivably think of as the "Heartland" or other area of "the midwest," that
you mean a river near "me".....or someone like me. So, which one would that
be?

A wild 12 inch trout caught in the cold waters of 10,000ft will fight
harder than a man-planted 22 incher in the warmer waters of the Bighorn.

Startling revelation! Just WAIT till word of this gets out!

If you ever get the chance to eat a trout caught at 10,000 ft and
compare it to a Bighorn trout, or a trout near you...you will know what
I mean.

Anyone who knows what you mean (and you may rest assured that there are
numerous competent readers here who do) will be a large step ahead of you.

There is an actual physical difference in the flesh due to
water temp and comparative inactivity of fish on the man-made fishery
that is the Bighorn.

One is reminded of the (quite possibly apocryphal) story of Huxley's comment
on Darwin's theory.

Wolfgang