Bighorn River
below Yellowtail Afterbay Dam, Montana · USGS gauge 06287000
For October 18, flow is lower than usual.
The last October 18 it ran this low was 2007, at 1,510 ft³/s.
Montana FWP lists no emergency closure or hoot-owl restriction on the Bighorn River, on its restrictions page as read at 07:17 UTC.
These readings do not say whether fish are biting, whether there is parking, or whether the season is open. The shop reports below cover what is biting.
Bighorn River reports from local shops
Each shop writes its own report. Listed here: the date on each one and the hatches and flies it names. Their words stay on their sites; follow the link to read them.
Two local shops have posted a report on the Bighorn River in the last two weeks.
Before you drive
| Overnight | 45°F, wind 6 mph Partly Cloudy |
|---|---|
| Sunday | 66°F, wind 2 to 10 mph Sunny |
| Sunday Night | 41°F, wind 3 to 7 mph Mostly Clear |
| Monday | 72°F, wind 5 mph Sunny |
How this water changes through the year
Over 22 years of record, flow on Bighorn River peaks in June, when the median runs about 4,530 ft³/s, and falls to its lowest in March at around 2,410 ft³/s. Today's 1,590 is below even that seasonal low. The band on the chart is where the middle 60% of years fall, so a reading inside it is ordinary for the date and one outside it is not.
Nearby monitored waters
No water here is recommended over another. Same measurements, three closest waters.
Species
Listed by Montana FWP for Bighorn River: Bigmouth Buffalo, Black Bullhead, Black Crappie, Bluegill, Brown Trout, Burbot, Channel Catfish, Common Carp, Emerald Shiner, Fathead Minnow, Flathead Chub, Freshwater Drum, Goldeye, Green Sunfish, Lake Chub, Largemouth Bass, Longnose Dace, Longnose Sucker, Mountain Sucker, Mountain Whitefish, Northern Pike, Plains Killifish, Rainbow Trout, River Carpsucker, Sauger, Shorthead Redhorse, Smallmouth Bass, Smallmouth Buffalo, Stonecat, Walleye, White Crappie, White Sucker, Yellow Perch.
The agency's list covers FWP's whole waterbody, river mile 0 to 112; FishMT publishes no reach-level list. USGS 06287000 below Yellowtail Afterbay Dam is FWP's own listed gauging station at river mile about 85. The list also covers the lower, warmer river down to the Yellowstone confluence, which is where the sunfish, catfish and sauger rows come from. The agency prints no date on the list; read 2026-09-08.
Access points
| Coordinates | To gauge |
|---|---|
| 45.3169, -107.9189 · below Yellowtail Afterbay Dam USGS gauge location. Not a listed public access point; check access before you travel. | 0.0 mi |
Sources and method
- Live
- USGS gauge 06287000, Bighorn R bl Yellowtail Afterbay Dam nr St. Xavier, 0.0 mi from the listed access point. Fetched 2026-10-18 07:19 UTC.
- History
- USGS daily values: flow 2005–2026, 7,939 daily values; water temperature 2012–2019, 2,512 daily values. Percentile is the share of readings within 7 days of this calendar date, across all years, below the current one (flow n=315 over 21 years).
- Rules
- Seasons, limits and licences are not on this site and are not copied from the agency that publishes them: Montana FWP.
- Species
- Montana FWP, Bighorn River, undated, read 2026-09-08.
- Restrictions
- Montana FWP, current waterbody restrictions, read 2026-10-18 07:17 UTC. Seasonal closures are in the regulations, not on that page.
- Shop reports
- Chosen from the organic search results for “bighorn river fishing report” (Ahrefs, read 2026-10-01), keeping shops and guides and dropping social media, forums and other aggregators. Linked, not quoted, and not endorsed. Report dates, hatches and fly names read from each page 2026-10-18, by matching a fixed list of insects and patterns: a name not on the list is not shown, and a report older than 30 days shows its date only.
- Forecast
- NOAA National Weather Service, api.weather.gov, for the coordinates of the nearest access point.
Independent presentation of public data. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or approved by the USGS, NOAA or Montana FWP.