The End is Near

The season is winding down for us. I've got about 10 more days of guiding on the books this fall. I've been all over the place latley, tryin to get on some new water and take advantage of the nice weather while it lasts.

The lower has been good still with the fish getting more on small nymphs and streamers. They'll still eat the crayfish, but it seem slike the zonkers and buggers are the better bet. I had a client today thatr hooked a HUGE brown for about 10 seconds, It jumpde once, the river went down about a foot as it left the water...and it came looses. I hadn't seen any of those big fish in a week or so so it was goof to see.

Valley Garden to Ennis Lake has been really good too. Nothing huge, but lots of good fish on worms! No stress and no crowds, just good fishing.

Things are good right now so get out there while you can.

Pre-Spawn Brownies

It seems a little early to me, but I've seen several nice bronws latley that are laready getting colored up. We had a better day on teh lower today with some decent numbers of 14-16 inch rainbows and browns and this 21 inch pig. We got him about 3 minutes into the day, which made for a pressure-free day. The big fish are eating meat on the lower right now, so I hope to hit it all week if I can.

I've got about 2 more weeks before things slow down and I got to say that I hope it goes a bit longer. Fishing has been really good this year and I just want to see it keep going as long as I can.

Another Lower Day

Now that the river is open all day, lots of folks are hitting the lower Maddy. Fishing has been good until mid-day as the water is still warming up. HHmmmm...iamgine that....as the water gets near 70, the fish aren't as active. I wonder if they still think the closure happens at 2?

Anyway, we got some nice fish today early on. One 19.5 and a 20.5 about 100 yards apart from one another.

Early Fall

Shorter days and cooler nights have really turned everything back on. The lower is finally open all day again and everything else worth fishing is open as well. I've been all over the place the last 10 days, fishing in some quiet places and well as the middle of the pack. Overall, things have been good, but I've definitley seen a few tough...not terrible...but tough days.

My favorite spot around Bozeman has been good but getting picked apart more and more, I've only seen one other boat there so far this fall, but I have a feeling it's getting more and more pressure. The first time I fished it this fall, we got 3 double hook ups...that's 2 fish on one rig. Yesterday, we only had it happen once. It did happen on the lower Madison today as well though.

I just finished with a group from Ann Arbor that has come out the last 2 years. Just a great group of

guys that enjoy fishing out west. If you're looking for a shop in Ann Arbor, check out Colton Bay Outfitters and ask for John.

We landed a 21.5 inch brown today on a crayfish, it looked familiar to me. I also got him about 2 weeks ago only 50 yards away! If you look at the posts from a couple weeks ago, you'll see Doug Best, Orvis Rep, holding the same fish. The spots and tail give it away! Last time he ate a caddis pupa behind a crayfish.

(same fish as Best got)

The season is winding down and I'm getting excited about the NZ trip for January.Fish fish fish.

Labor Day Weekend

The weather has been really warm again, but the fishing has been holding in there just fine. Today was cooler and it shoudl be like this for the rest of the week, I'm expecting the Lower Madison by the coming weekend.

Labor Day weekend was great, the crowds weren't bad and we found some fish, plenty actually. One of the days, we actually git 3 double hook-ups. I'm not talking about both anglers being hooked at the same time...that's rather common. I mean 2 fish on one rig consiting of 2 flies! That's when you know that they are really eating! We did get some of the other doubles too.

Kevin got this 22" beauty on the stone on a hopper on the last day of the trip. We spotted the fish from a high bank sitting in about 6 inches of water a foot or two off the bank. We carefully approached and he put the hopper about 2 feet ahead of the fish, It turned, followed the fly for about 3 feet and gently sucked it down! Very Kiwiesque. It really was amazing to watch and I was so glad that Kevin played it just right!

The New Zealand 08 trip is coming together nicley, I've pretty much got a full trip of 8 or 9 of us. Getting very excited about that, but still have about 6 weeks of guiding to do here yet this year.