Well, it took me 12 years to find the time and opportunity to do it but I went again this past November, and it was great. Twelve years ago the lodge was near Harden, Montana and it was a bit of a drive with the guides to the hunting leases and docking for the Big Horn River, but since then they have moved to a new lodge location right on the edge of Fort Smith, Montana and what a spot!!
Getting there by air is to fly into Billings, Montana and driving about 1 1/2 hours out to the lodge.
They advertise that the stretch of the Big Horn River from the dam at Fort Smith and down to where you load out, 13 miles later, has no less than 7,500 trout per mile. That's a lot of trout and I can assure you that you will catch plenty of beauties on your float down the river. I think they open in April for the start of fly fishing and they close on Thanksgiving Day so the season is plenty long with plenty of trout to catch.
The bird hunting, my favorite, runs from the first of September until the end of December but again, the lodge closes on Thanksgiving. Hunting the pastures and draws on the ranches of the Crow Indian reservation is a true pleasure, actually a thrill. The rolling hills lead up to buttes and bluffs with the high country behind. It is only 20 miles from Custer's Last Stand and the national park - a must see - and real Big Sky country.
The lodge and guide service is: Forrester's Big Horn Resort, Fort Smith, Montana, operated by Nick and Francine Forrester and you couldn't find better hosts. The 7 log cabins are all large, sleep 4 to 6, great beds, have the refrigerator and amenities and are warm when the winter sets in. All have a front porch facing West and looking down toward the Big Horn River. The lodge sits just about 100 yards from the original Fort Smith where the wagon trains on the Boseman Trail crossed the Big Horn River and is where you eat your meals, get your fishing and hunting licenses, buy or rent equipment and come to at about 6 PM to relax in the loft lounge and swap daily triumph's or explain how you caught or shot the biggest and the best. Dinner is a real treat, the food is under the direction on Francine and it is gormet! The only exception from eating in a 5 star restuarnt somewhere is that the view is spectacular and the diners are mostly men, cleaned up from fishing or hunting all day so the portions of food are generous. Breakfasts are "great" and lunch will be with your guide for eating around 1 PM somewhere in the field or on the bank of the river.
My trip last November was with my two grandson's, my son in law and included two days of fishing and two days of hunting. The first day was fishing so right after breakfast we bought our licenses and met our guides for the day. My oldest grandson, 14 year old (also 6 feet 5 inches and 235 pounds) fished with me, our guide Dale in the middle rowing us in and out of the fishing holes along the 13 mile stretch, with my grandson standing in the front and me in the back. My grandson is a quiet young man and very bright (they both are - of course) so he takes instructions well and fishes well.
Now, my grandson's and son in law are good fly fishermen, whereas, I am a well established novice so I got plenty of instructions from Dale on how to improve my cast and to hold the tip of my rod down and toward the indicator (I always knew it as a bobber when I was a kid) and to react quicker when a trout hits. Being a better fly fisherman my grandson caught a lot more trout than I for the day, 14 to be exact, and I caught 8 so we had a day of great experiences and photo's of 20 + inch trout, all caught and released.
My younger grandson and his father fished the other boat and also had a really good day, however, the older grandson with me caught more fish than his younger brother and I could sense a bit of competion developing as we talked from boat to boat during the day.
The next day was bird hunting so we met our guides and their dogs out front of the lodge after breakfast and loaded up for the day. It was unusually warm but the morning was cool so we had our long underwear and layers on as we rode the 1 hour and 10 minutes out to the meeting spot with the other guide. My youngest grandson hunted with me, a big boy for 12 years old and a very good shot. We worked a long brushy draw up the slope of a butte for about 2 miles and the dogs flushed some chuckers and a few pheasants but mostly well ahead of us so we didn't get much shooting. We were also getting very warm from the hike and the sunny day. However, the birds were cresting a hill and disappearing so our guide knew where they were heading. At the top of the draw we broke off the hunt and hiked over the top of the butte and down the back side until we came to the start of the upper end of the the draw on that side.
Hunting the draws with the guide and dogs is a great sport, the guide walked one side of the draw with my grandson and I walked on the other side, while the dogs raced down and through the brush and branble of the draw looking for birds to flush. Those dogs can find ways through thick brush at a dead run and stop on a dime "at point" if they sense a bird. Then the guide works the other dogs over to the "point" until they flush the birds and we get our shots.
Our guide that day had a 3 month old pup that he took along to learn the ropes of flushng birds. That pup ran from 9 am to 2 pm with the big dogs, would freeze for a point when the big dogs did and was grinning the whole time.
The downhill draw had the birds and we got plenty of shots. My grandson out shot me that day but we still got our limit for Pheasant and were only 2 short for our limit of Chuckers. One of my Chuckers ended up in a stock pond and the guide couldn't get the dogs to see the bird and go into the water after it. He threw dirt clods into the water, sticks and stones but the dogs just didn't see the bird. Finally he borrowed my grandson's shotgun and fired into the water near the floating bird, then one of the dogs saw it and dove in and got the bird.
Lunch is always better than good, sandwiches, soup, pasta, coffee, soft drinks and always a bag of freshly baked cookies. The cookies get negotiated for but rarely will anyone give up one of their 2 cookies.
The third day we hunted again but this time we headed for a huge ranch backing up to higher hills about 1 hour from the lodge and as we got closer I recognized that I had hunted this ranch 12 years ago. This is a 60,000 acre ranch (so I was told) and unbelieveable country. We bounce through the ranch stead and maybe a mile back through the wheat stubble and pastures to "Pee Hill" a mound of a hill so named as this where you meet your guide and dogs for the day and of course after coffee and the ride everyone has to "pee."
As we were introduced to our guides I recognized one of them, again from 12 years ago, and remembered that his name was Glen. It turned out that Glen was the guide for my older grandson and I that day and as we talked he said that he had been guiding for over 50 years. Then he looked at me and asked, "How old are you?" 71 I answered, to which he said, "Youre still a kid, I just turned 80 last month, let's go find some birds."
Glen is a full blooded Crow Indian and a colorful guy. As a boy he was a rodeo bull rider and a clown in the bull riding ring, working the circuit for over 20 years. His wife died a few years back and he now lives for hunting and guiding and loves his dogs. Glen could out walk any of us through that rough country and it was a great day hunting with him.
My grandson had moved up from a 16 gauge to a 12 guage that day and it was a bit of an adjustment for him but after we had our lunch and went back to hunting he was hitting the birds well.
The guides are strict and if a hunter isn't reliable or isn't using good gun safety they will politely take your gun away from you for the day. We had no problems but another guest during our stay lost his shotgun for the day for shooting at a bird too close to the guides dog.
Our fourth day was back to fly fishing the Big Horn and on this day I fished with my youngest grandson and with the same guide as the first day, Dale. The weather had turned way cold and snow was coming so we fished the upper 3 miles of the river rather than floating the entire 13 miles. The first stretch was slow and we were not getting any bites, even after Dale had changed our flies several times, and I could tell that this was worrying Dale. He found a good hole on a curve in the river and we started getting hits on nice big trout, my grandson even hooked a "white" which was a big thrill for him. Dale would float us down maybe 100 yards then he would row us back up along the shore and we would work the area down stream again. Soon my grandson had netted 8 nice big trout and at lunch along the bank he asked his older brother again how many trout he had caught the first day, 14 was the quiet answer.
Back in the boat my grandson got a strike on his line and got the fish up to the side of the boat when it slipped the hook and got away before Dale could net it. My grandson was quiet for a minute, he looked up river where his father was fishing in the other boat and being out of hearing range turned to Dale and I and said that his father had said that if a hooked fish touched the boat it counted as a catch so he now had 9 fish. Dale and I grinned and said, OK. Well, 6 more fish got counted, not netted, that afternoon, giving my grandson 15 and 1 over his older brother but Dale and I cracked up when the last one broke loose from the hook a good 10 feet from the boat and got counted. My grandson will do well in the loft lounge in future years telling of his days fishing exploits.
If you want a really enjoyable and pampered fishing and/or hunting experience go on-line and check out Forrester's Big Horn Resort in Fort Smith, Montana, you won't be sorry.
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