Another Day in Paradise

The Upper Madison continues to be the hot spot. Tactics are changing day to day, but the fish have been eating really well. We had a big trip today with 7 boats of mostly novice anglers...ok they were all really beginners. Everyone got some fish and had a great time. It's amazing to me how many boats can be on the wayer still catching fish. I was the last boat on the stretch today and I'm guessing there was about 35 ahead of me. We landed about 15, and lost that many as well.

There are plenty of hoppers out in all shades of color now and there are a ton of these little things that noone seems to know for sure what they are! I think I'll give the hoppers a try tomorrow as the fish should really be onthem now...just need the right conditions.

Anyway, wear sunglasses whenever you fish! One of my guys today caught a lightning bug in the corner of his eye today. Thank god it just went into the skin, but it misses his eyeball by millimeters! He had glasses on and probably would have been bad off if he didn't. I forgot mine yesterday and almost made everyone wait an hour for me to go get some new ones. I knew the anglers, but I was still nervous as hell. Action Optics Guides Choice are the ones for me as they offer wrap around protection, good size lenses and the best in photochro lenses. I like AO's amber lenses for all around trout-fishing. They are the bomb in low light conditions and on cloudy days.

Yeah it's been hot, but the last 3 days have been very nice and the fishing is on. So go to the Yellowstone and fish hard until 2. Leave the Upper Madsion alone...all the fish are dead.

Mid Season Fishing

Despite the hot weather and predictions of doom and gloom for the fishing this year, things are holding out and fishing has been good. The Upper Madsion has been awesome over the last week thanks to some increased flows and lower water temps. I gues everyone around town is doing the early morning thing on the Yellowstone because they sure aren't crowding into the Upper Madison.

Nymphing has really been good beetween Ruby and Varney, but the dry fly fishing is getting going now as well. Sprice moths began to show up over the last week aroiund Bozeman and the fish on the Gallatin are defintley on them! So, dont' believe the BS, and get out there and enjoy some of the best trout fishing in the world.

The Haps

Fishing has been holding up despite the hot weather of late. The Upper Madison has really turned on the last week as things have settled down after the flow increases. This past week saw me up there 3 times and each day was good with lots of action and lots of hook-ups on nice fish. We didn't land all the big ones, but still managed to squeeze a couple 20-21 inchers out. Nymhphing with a variety of bugs behind a sculping or brown girdle bug has been the best for me. There are caddis, PMD's and Yellow Sallies out, but the dry flies have been getting lots of dinks.

tagged rainbow from down low on the Yellowstone

I had a great time with the Snows from Tennessee last week. I really looked forward to seeing them as they're great to fish with and just really enjoy the whole trip...everytime! We fished the lower Yellowstone dwon to twin one day, the Gallatin and the Upper. Fishing was tough, but we still managed to get good numbers and some nice fish everyday.

I just finished with a group from all over for 3 days. They were all good fishermen and even better beer drinkers. We had some really good fishing on the Upper Madison 2 days in a row and a great time to boot!

Things are really happening right now on all the rivers, hopefully the water temps will stay good and we'll have enough water to get us through the season. So far so good!