If one were struck with an urge to fish a tributary of the mighty Mississippi River, one might choose the upper Yazoo in our state. But let’s say fly rods and tiny feather artificials and swift, cold water fit that angler’s idea of piscatorial pleasure. He or she might choose the Bighorn River in Montana, for example.    Yes, The Bighorn flows northward, where it is joined by the Little Bighorn at Hardin, Montana before its waters lose its name to the Yellowstone appropriately between the towns of Custer and Bighorn. The Yellowstone joins the Missouri at the North Dakota line and you know its route to St. Louis and to our own Mississippi.

Doctors Joel Callahan Sr. and Jr. chose the waters of the Bighorn River for a go at trout fishing recently. The pair availed themselves of a “Cast and Blast” trip that could serve as a pattern for a deluxe Father’s Day outdoor experience. Cast and Blast is a term used by western outfitters to describe a fishing and hunting adventure all in one package. The Callahans fished for trout two days and hunted flushing birds three days.

Game and fish aplenty



They each caught 15 to 25 rainbows, browns and cutthroats in the Bighorn River each day and shot pheasants, Hungarian partridges and sharptail grouse in the high country. They trekked the river edges at 3,400 feet elevation and then traipsed over the rolling bird covers at 4,500 feet to over a mile in elevation following pointing and flushing dogs for shots at some of the most beautiful and sporting birds on the planet.

Eighteen mile float trips were in order for covering new water and taking in sites such as eagles, antelope, mule deer and black bears. Intermittent stops allowed shallow wading and stalking trout along the shoreline with both dry flies and nymphs. A shore lunch was to die for as outfitters seem to try to outdo each other with fine dining along wild rivers when lunch break arrives. Several fish were in the 20 inch and above range.

The hunts were not unlike what one finds elsewhere in the vast expanses of the Dakotas, northern Wyoming and other nearby states; you never know what a pointer has in front of its nose – Huns, a rooster or partridges.  In the evenings they ate food fit for royalty back at the lodge.

Part of many outdoor experiences is the history of the territory in which the experience happens. The Callahans fished and hunted in the land of one of our nations most famous military conflicts. Native American Lakotas and Northern Cheyennes battled and defeated the attacking cavalrymen commanded by General George Custer of the United States Army in 1876, the 133rd anniversary of which is next week, June 25 and 26.



Many lost



Custer, two of his brothers, a nephew and a brother-in-law were killed as were 263 others under his command. Chief Sitting Bull lost between 36 and 136 warriors. The conflict, forever to be known as the “Battle of the Little Bighorn” and “Custer’s Last Stand,” happened just a few rifle shots from where Joel Sr. and Jr. enjoyed a summer Cast and Blast week together.

The sense of history, in this case that famous battle, forms an intriguing aura around the whole experience that those who venture into the outdoors in much of our storied countryside enjoy. The fishing and the hunting somehow are elevated to a higher level of appreciation.

Take along mental and spiritual notes of the history of the next outdoor site you visit. Step between the wagon wheel tracks still visible in the rock ridges on the Oregon Trail. Sit and ponder the ancient camp on the creek bank above the Mississippi stream, revealed to you by the hundreds of arrowhead chips in the soil. Honor the history of your outdoor places as the Callahans did, and double your enjoyment.