After a good night sleep we awoke to a warm -1 deg.  After a careful consideration of weather we decided to have a late breakfast and let the air warm up.  When 3 deg appeared on the weather station we all suited up (2 pr of wool socks, wool long under ware, fleece body suite, down vest, cotton gloves covered with rubber gloves and wool gloves over it all).  We headed to the dam below the after bay (the Big Horn after bay is a large body of water that collects below the Yellow Tail Dam) and launched the boat.  Paul plan was to hit the best holes in the 3 mi stretch.  Loaded with switch rods and a nymph rig, we had high hopes.  Hundreds of duck and geese flew over as we took off for the fist hole, the Glory Hole.  The fish had not been touched for days and the fishing was anticipated to be hot.  It was, for a few of us (sorry Jeff).  First cast it was on.  Fish after fish kept nailing our flies.  I had 8 fish in 15 min.  The best was a nice 15″ rainbow that had beautiful colors. Yea, that’s steam rising from the water.  44 deg water and 0 deg wind make for steam.  We had to wear goggles due to our glass fogging up as fast as you could put them on.  It’s like snowboarding while fishing.  The guides on the rods were icing up on every cast.  Solution, dump the rod in the water while you retrieve and the warm water would keep the ice off.  It worked most one the time.  Reel’s would freeze solid and shut you down in no time.  Many times I would just leave the rod in the water and let it de-ice.  As the day went on the fingers started to get cold and toes stiff.  Paul’s solution was small personal heaters that we would take turns warming up our fingers.  Then we would run back into the river, catch 2 fish and back to the heater.  Jeff had the unfortunate task of relieving himself in the cold.  So he headed up the bank and with a string of profanity he did his duty.  Ouch!  At this point I had 18 fish to the hand as well as Paul.  A respectable 3 hours in  the coldest weather we ever fished in.  Then the wind started and we all agreed it was “UNCLE” time.  Thoughts of the hot tub and a few drinks made a lot of sense.

After a few more fish and calling Jeff back from his routine jog around the shore to warm up the toes, we headed back.  We handed out the heaters and crouched around the warmth, as Paul rowed us to the landing.  WIth a total of 40+ fish we had a good day.  Tomorrow promised 22 deg weather that motivated us to plan the next day’s adventure.  The warmest day of our trip was around the corner. We had hopes of more fish and tee shirt weather.