Why?

Today started out like most days except that I noticed that the sun is coming up later and later which makes my days feel shorter. Also, I feel more like a human when I get up, the sun isn't up and it's 6 am.

Headed east again today, after yesterday, who could blame me? Well I have a few superstitions when it comes to fishing. I have a hard time remembering them all until after the fact, however. No bananas in the car, in my sight, and certainly not in the boat is quickly becoming one of the more frequent occurrences. Old sailor thing about spiders, must have some validity or why would sailors make it up? Must wear my silly nz necklace? Tie my first nymph rigs with droppers through the eye rather than the bend. Don't go back to the well.

I went back to the well today and there were reports of bananas being eaten prior to the trip departure. Doom. Ended up being a good day, not as good as I had expected, but still lots of fish, just not on hoppers. Weird how hoppers have been so good the last week or so and then very little love today. So, went to double rubberlegs pretty early on and got em where we should've and all ended well.

I am very full of shit at times, even to myself. So, hopper fishing is slow and I'm wondering why. It was windy two days ago, got lots of hoppers on the water so they ate the crap out of em yesterday. Calm yesterday and today, no hoppers on the water, no fish eating hoppers. They're gorged on hoppers, that's why they like stonefly nymphs today. Water is warm, they don't want to come all the way to the surface...put some split shot on a hopper...maybe try a rubberleg or two. Tippet shy today. I had myself convinced of everyone of these at some point during the day. The banana thing makes the most sense to me at this point.

Hammer & Nails Part 2

Today we were the hammer.

Fished the Yellowstone again today and got them to eat hoppers all day long. Actually...they ate hoppers all day long. Things slowed down around 2 or 3 in the afternoon once the water started warming up but had a thought that we probably could've gotten em on nymphs as they were certainly hungry.

Getting a lot of bad fishing reports from other guides so I'm thinking that this Park City stretch is probably money right now. Sounds like the Upper is bad, the lower ain't great, heard some stuff on the Jeff from a couple of folks...but not convinced as of yet that it is anywhere near as good as the stone has been.

Hopper fishing has been very good the last week on the stone and who knows how long that will hold true.

Hammer & Nails

I was the nail today.

Lower Madison looks like the ponds of Monet. Fish were't eating hoppers, the odd fish on sculpins. Scuplins like weeds, hoppers like weeds, anchor ropes like weeds, surgeon knots like weeds, fly lines like weeds, split shot likes weeds, little nymphs like weeds. If you want weeds, I'm your guide.

Did learn that my dad used to wear red,white and blue tye dyed bell bottoms while sporting the 'fro.

Hoppertune Time

I don't know how many more ways to rant about the hopper fishing on the lower Yellowstone I can use. All out of ideas for new verbage.  It's smokin' right now though and just keeps gettin' better everyday. Fished rubberlegs in the morning and lit them up and then whacked 'em in the afternoon on hoppers.  Borwn Pats Rubberlegs (double rig) and size 8 MFC foam hopper in happy fish water did it well today. No carp though. Maybe tomorrow...wish we had alligator gar.

Today was one of those really good days with no wind, experienced anglers, a late start and early finish and lots of trout. I'm guiding one of my dad's old college buddies and his son today and the next couple of days. He's known me since I was born but this is the first time that I've met him which is pretty cool.

I've had some great people in my boat the last couple of weeks, actually all summer. That's kind of crazy to be honest as I usually get some whackos every once in awhile. I'm trying to think of horror stories from the year and I can't think of any that are client related...at least not in Montana. I guess one of the dude's on the NZ trip kind of made up for the whole year in just a couple of weeks. One good thing from  my interaction with that sumbitch was that I got to see what 65 years of living with an untreated narcissistic personality disorder can do to a person! Hell, I've only got 39 under me...maybe I can sign up for some medicinal marijuana now. That'd be haha funny. I could just see me at about 10:30 am saying something like "dude, either pause on your backcast or I'm going to get really really stoned at lunch." There's a reason none of my doctors ever suggested me looking into some medical weed.

Anyway...I digress...the wife and kids have been out of town for a couple of weeks so the last couple of nights have been characterized by me trying to figure out how the vacuum cleaner works and what scrubby bubbles actually do to toilets. I'd change the sheets on the bed, but then I'd probably put them on inside out anyway. I've been doing my laundry and putting my clean clothes in a pile on the floor, dirty ones in a seperate pile. Had to get that sorted out too. I'm looking forward to having the family home, it's bee pretty quiet around here at night but I did get my Wii Golf score down to -8.

Birthday Brown

Hit the Gallatin today as the wind was pretty much everywhere and thought we could get a lot of fish and have a short day. Well, I was kind of wrong but we ended up getting one really nice fish, a couple good ones, and a few small ones mixed in with some hawg whities.

Water is low in the river, temps are ok, should be fishing better than what it is. I think it's getting thumped so I'm going to leave it alone for awhile and never talk about it again. All the fish are dead in there and the river is full of diesel fuel. The boat ramps have been filled in with broken bottles. Crazy people shoot guns at you.

Had a good day with some great folks, a mom and son on his 18th birthday. Given the tough fishing, everyone had a great attitude and a good time.

I'm going trolling for carp tomorrow up by Toston, Ive heard the sand bass are blitzing around York Island.

Day Off

Had the day off and decided to opt for the fishing option in my vacation plan...rather than work in the shop, answer phone calls, make a bank run, order crap. I'm lucky to have a great staff that takes care of things for me!

Headed down towards Columbus in search of some hopper eating salmonids. Best Hopper eat day I've had so far this year. I missed a couple of big fish, not surprising to me. The other guys both did well with good numbers and pretty consistent activity throughout the day. Very cool piece of water down there, but it is a haul. But solitude and dry fly fishing isn't such a bad thing. Now all we need is some rain and cooler weather for a day or two and we'll be gold for the year. The water is still in great shape though, but some rain would be nice for my plants and yard.

Hot

We need some rain, my yard is burning up! I got my head shaved today and was amazed to see my tan line over sunglasses. Buffs are the greatest gay things I've ever owned...and the only. So much easier than a wide brim hat in the wind, not too hot and very cool.

Fished the LM this morning for a quick half day trip. It's still a cesspool of weedy love but not so bad that nymphing the buckets wasn't doable. They are starting to eat hoppers so the weeds weren't too much of an issue. Probably couldve done fine with a Royal Wulff as we had some small ones eat and some others look. But we ended up getting a dozen or so on hoppers, missed a few and lost a few. One brown that was a little over 20 and had a couple other nicer fish try to eat too. Water is warm and hasn't been cooling down much at night so even I wouldn't fish it much past 1 or 2 at this point.

Tons of tubers, Blacks Ford was completely full when we took out around noon. PMD's were out, saw several dinks rise.

Got tomorrow off so going to go fish on the Yellowstone. Probably the bird float, put on around 9 or so. Should be fun, floating down the river with a bunch of guides on my day off whacking the whities. Oh come on...maybe a spring creek by Toston...maybe the lower Gallatin...maybe Laurel...yeah that sounds good.

Hopper Times

Another day on the Yellowstone, this time without the wind. Fish are still hungry, hanging out on the inside seams and in the skinny water. They were just as happy to eat buggers or stoneflies today, and very happy to eat hoppers.

Being a Saturday, I had to drive around a little bit this morning to try to find an access site without a pile of boats on it. Found one and had it all to ourselves for the most part, just one other driftboat and the guys was fishing by himself just floating down the river. I think the biggest thing right now is just to not be behind a bunch of boats as the fish are sitting where they should be and it's pretty easy to see where that is so if you're bugs are the 10 th ones they see, they're probably gonna be a little hesitant to eat.

Gonna go try the Lower Madison tomorrow as I don't think anyone has been really fihsing it the last couple of weeks.

Snows

Fished down by Columbus today on the Yellowstone with some great clients from Tennessee...the Snows. They tried to slap a big orange magnetic T on my truck this morning when I picked them up at 6:30.  We talked about Kiffen and Obama throughout the day. Ah but this is not the time or place to speak of such things...

Had a stiffy at out backs today, ripping actually. My favorite part was ripping all of my callouses off and getting blisters on my palms. The fish were eating good though, mostly BR Buggers and Lightning Bugs but ended up getting several on hoppers the last couple of miles. Given the wind, fishing was actually very good, nothing big but lots of 14-16 Rainbows and 1 Brown that was 18 or so.

I like watching indicators and big dry flies.

Junk Show and Circus Acts

Pulled up to Nixon Bridge about 9 am today expecting reckless trout and relative solitude. Instead, I came upon a Galavan (local transport for handicapped and seniors) backing something into the river. The scene looked like something reminiscent of clowns, 3 rings, and a volkswagon. The ringleader asks me if I'm putting my boat in, tells me they're on their way in 20 min, and that the river is dirty. I was parked on the bridge over the river as he was talking to me...either he doesn't know what dirty is or he was trying to snow me while I was staring right at it. Either way...plan B.
I even considered going to the Jefferson and probably would have if I hadn't just told my clients that it's a great river but you have an equally good shot at getting worked over as having a great day there. The lower is too weedy, but crept into my mind for a 2nd too. Nope, Logan to Headwaters it was. Problem here is there's only about 3 miles of good water so tough to make a day out if it unless the bite is on. Otherwise it's rowing in circles, switching bugs, lengthening leaders, changing indicators, testing 6x flouro, pumping fish, looking for clues...it was the latter today.
We did manage to make a good day out of it considering it was the grandson's second time fly fishing and first in a boat. Could've been better but it was what it was and it wasn't too bad, just kind of sucked. When I finally pumped a fish it had some PMD adults and size 28 caddis pupa. Put a little PMD superflash pt on and started getting some fish. No worm or rubberleg love today...I felt lost and lonely at times. Did smell some dead animals on the river, watched a couple of rental drift boats lay some fiberglass on the rocks, and did get to spend the day with a good man and his grandson.
Both of my grandfathers have passed away in the last year. I was never that close to either of them, but that was more a result of proximity than anything. Neither of them fished, I came by that with my dad. Regardless, I'm pretty lucky to have grown up with all of my grandparents alive and can't imagine what it would have been like to not have had them to see in the summertime and to spoil me as well. I was a little jealous of Sam today in that he was fishing with his grandfather but kind of happy for him too because you could tell that he knew it was pretty special to be doing what he was doing with his grandfather.
I love catching big fish, lots of fish, whatever. I enjoy being on the river more days than not with people that are just there to have a great time and catch some fish. At the end of the day I do what I do because I enjoy it and appreciate the significance of having that privilege. There's something about cold clean water making it way downhill that just sets my brain right for a few minutes every other day or week.

Wind

Fished Mallards to Carters today on the Yellowstone. Good bite on whatever until noon or so, after which I have no idea what was going on because we had an upriver stiffy in our face at 20-25. Thank God for some easy going clients and some happy fish in the morning as we were off the water at 2:30 and don't think we missed anything this afternoon! I hate the water from Nelson's to Carters, they can have it...I gave it two chances this year and save the few retard fish that eat anything that floats in a size 10-12...it's just boring junk water full of silly eddies and empty drop offs.

I'm in a whiny mood tonight, the wind will do that to you. Make you wonder what the hell you're doing rowing a boat and hard selling the idea that the bite is going to happen when you know damn well that the bones have already been thrown and they're buried in someone else's backyard by now. I guess I could be a telemarketer selling juicers to little old ladies in some town named Dickens today and Hamler tomorrow. Maybe the wind isn't so bad after all.

Wind on the Ahuiuri is really bad though. Id' rather poke my eyes out with sandpaper than ever row a boat on that sumbitch. Wind actually starts in Mossburn, NZ. They have a Wind Farm that sits on top of the hill with all it's visual pollution glory and makes wind for the while world. I like Mossburn, but the wind farm there sucks! Sure we have things we call windfarms but our are for govenrment subsidies and green ease of mind, Mossburn's is for making something! And my mind wonders...

The Good and the Bad

Fished the Gallatin today with a couple of guys that haven't done much fly-fishing and never for trout. The water is in great shape there at the moment, still a little high to get them on the rip raps, but overall the fish have been hungry. We had to work at it a little more than usual but still managed a great day overall and ended up with this fish which was closer to 25 than 24...measured and 6 pounds weighed. Weighed? Yes.

Not sure what happened but the fish literally died in my hands. It was a little traumatic as I've only seen a couple wild rainbows that big in SW Montana. By wild I mean not a pond, not a pond escapee, not a "spring creek", not a lake fish, and not a lake fish on the spawn in a stream ,and not from the glory days of the Beaverhead. It was a good fight, long runs, but not overly long and we got it to the net quickly. I pulled the boat over for a few pics, keeping the fish in the water between shots the whole time.

As I went to release it, it just died. I was trying ti figure out what to do in my head as the clients really didn't know what the hell was going on as they had just got a huge fish and were excited to let it go...so I put it in my cooler and we kept fishing. It wasn't like the fish was probably going to die...it was straight up dead. Must have been stress in some form I guess, but thought we did everything properly. I've caught lots of fish in much warmer water and longer fights and they've been fine...so this one kind of really sucked. Needless to say, it was a very memorable day, saw a big Bull Moose down near Headwaters too.

I ended up giving the fish to my ex-wife as her husband loves trout. It ate a worm by the way.

Browns Eat Canadiens

Was another good day down around Laurel, but we found some Brown Trout eating today. Got a few fish to eat hoppers but that was just before a crazy hail storm came through, after which we went back to nymphing.

I've been hitting the same stretch of river the last several days for a variety of reasons...including the fish are eating, very few if any whitefish are eating, no one else is fishing it, and there are some good fish in that stretch of water, and they tend to eat hoppers pretty good down that way.

So, I've been whacking the Rainbows very well down there but just a brown every once in awhile. Today, the fish were much more interested in eating a Bow River Bugger (thus the Canada reference) than the stonefly nymph. They still ate the stonefly, but the bugger was the better bug today. One of the Browns was 23, another a little over 18...thrown in the 30-40 rainbows and it was a pretty solid day!

Back to fish puking up fish again. Longnose Dace was the bulimia special today. Maybe there was a higher than normal level of activity from the LD today or rainbows are tired of getting pricked every time they eat something with rubber legs. I guess it really doesn't matter anyway...but I like fish that eat fish.

Yes

Yes we got a few fish to eat hoppers today. Nymphing was mo better, but we did get a few bows to eat hoppers too. Yellowstone around Big Timber. Stonefly nymphs continue to be pretty damn good though. Mo tomorrow.

Yellowstone Again

Have a day in the shop tomorrow and off the river. It was HOT today...98.

Back on the Yellowstone, just kept driving east until the wind quit blowing, ended up in Huntley. Lots of catfish, channel cats mostly. They like worms too. Think we may have a had a Palid Sturgeon on for awhile too. Made me think of that Primus song from back in "the day."

Ok, maybe I'm full of BS tonight because Im not rowing a boat tomorrow. Fishing was very good today, we were the only boat on the water, it was hot and not windy. Rainbows are eating the crap out of stonefly nymphs. I think they will eat hoppers, I saw lots of mature ones today with wings and big smiles. The greenery is turning brown, water is almost perfect and I saw some fish looking up today. We were getting fish really well today and we weren't motivated to try something else as what we were doing was working...but I think they will eat hoppers on Sunday.

I think they will eat hoppers, I think they will eat hoppers...or did they?

No Title

Fished the Yellowstone the last 2 days and it's been pretty solid. Still getting some whities but 80% or more are trout now. They're still holding in soft water off the banks and drop offs and still eating the crap out of stonefly nymphs and will probably be doing that for quite awhile. Almost tried some hoppers today but it was really too windy in the afternoon. Probably try that tomorrow as there should be some bigger browns (which I haven't seen yet) hanging in the riffles and shallow flats. Mostly smaller fish with the occasional hookup with a freight train that we never seem to see so who knows...big fish or belly hooked whitie. 

I've been leaving the house around 5:30 the last couple of weeks it seems and it still doesn't seem normal to me. Traffic is pretty quiet in Bozeman at that time of day though. I drove through Mcdonalds twice this morning and ended up sitting in the drive through for 10 minutes, waiting for them to open. Pretty exciting way to start the day. Early tomorrow once again.

Weeds

I think the lower Madison was as weedy today as I've ever seen it! The fish were eating fine, but we could hardly even get our flies into the water without picking up some floating grass. I mean it was crazy weedy...and windier than shit too. Good thing I had a plan B, but we got some nice fish in the river in the morning anyway. Sculpins.

I don't think I'll be fishing the lower again for awhile until this starts to thin out. It's the floating grass that is so bad, not the actual weedbeds. The irritating thing is that the fish are eating really well over there so a guy could probably do pretty good wade fishing the buckets with a couple of small nymphs and the right amount of weight but you're still going to be picking more grass than anything.

Have a trip tomorrow, wind is supposed to lay down so probably back to the Yellowstone again. Have to take a first aid challenge course tomorrow night. Fixed a broken winch strap tonight. My boat bag is a disaster. Have lots of crap to order for the shop. Light Balasts. Payday in a couple of days. Tax deposits. Family time. Calgon?

Fishin'

We've had some great weather overall this year. By great, I mean it hasn't been too windy. Sure there was the whole months of May and June when it rained and snowed, but at least it wasn't windy. Today was the first real howler I've been int this year. Good thing it didn't hit until around noon, so we had a great morning and fishing was good in the afternoon too, just a pain in the ass.

Things are all getting into great shape now and flows are starting to stabilize and slowly drop so it seems like the fish have settled into feeding and putting some weight back on after the runoff. Salmonflies are mostly gone now, which is a good things in that no need to worry about gorged up fish and hoards of people trying to catch fish on giant dries. Hopper fishing will start pretty quick now...I bet I get a fish on a hopper in the next 7 days.

Had a great day today overall, lost a zillion flies on the banks and a few fish but landed the important ones, did some untangling, and generally just enjoyed the river. Hell, we even caught fish on worms today which made me feel whole again. No jetboats today either!

One of the guys got a very nice fish that the pic doesn't do justice but was 22-23".  The inside of my net is 18", so I just go off that and have gotten it sorted out to where I can generally tell if they are 20-21, but I have a hard time getting it right much over 21 which this fish was but it wasn't 24". Top fish.

Supposed to blow like hell tomorrow so I have no idea where we'll end up but it probably won't be as good as the last couple of days have.

El Douchebags

Fished the Yellowstone again today and once again the fish were hungry in a greedy sort of way. Lots of rainbows (40-50), one brown, and a 3 whities, nothing particularly huge but lots of eats all day long. When the fish are hungry like this and jammed up on the banks, I don't think it matters what you throw at them so long as it's not tangled up around the rod tip. Had some great clients today and plenty of redneck asses running around in jetboats.

One would think that you would slow down if you were in a 20' plus jetboat with a freking dragcar engine in it racing up the river that you would slow down when getting near a wee 16' row boat like mine! I've never seen that many jetboats on the river today and we were well above the mythical HP river float. Hell, I even saw people on jet skis which is a first for me! Fishing was good enough that it wasn't that bothering but the degree of rudeness I see from human beings everyday never ceases to impress me. The good part...maybe not...was that someone buried one of these big son o bithces in about 6 feet of water right out in the middle of the river. It looked like a root pile at first but it was actually the center console of the boat! SO what did we learn from our last two days on the Yellowstone? If I ever own a big ass jetboat it's ok to run full on about 4 rod lengths from your neighbor.

Fishing WIth Priests

Rev Sean and I Have been fishing together for a few years now. The first year was with the late Fr. Bob and Fr. Charlie has joined Sean the last two years. They are a couple of pastors do the real Catholic deal in and around Philadelphia. It's always a treat fishing with them as they savor every moment of their vacation and remind me of the bigger picture in their subtle ways. Great clients become friends and friends are what it's all about...what better way to experience everything around SW Montana than with someone that is more than guide, but a buddy to reconnect with as well.

We fished the Yellowstone yesterday on one of my favorite stretches of any river anywhere, The fish were happy, real happy to be exact. Just get the bugs in the water and let 'em drift, the fish will eat. That's how it was pretty much all day on Midnight Stones with a size 12 Lightning Bug dead drifted under an indicator. Got a few fish on buggers and worms too, but the bite was good enough to where there wasn't any real reason to mess around with the recipe. Biggest difference from what I expected was that we did better fishing to the banks all day, I had suspected that we could find some good numbers of fish out in on the flats and drop offs...but did best just throwing em towards the bank.

We were the only boat on the river fro a variety of reasons. This is the weekend of the big float from Livingston to Laurel with jet boats, canoes, rafts, horse troughs, pool toys...you name it they float it this weekend. We were below the chaos of the day. Ironically, the only two boats I came across were FWP guys hauling ass right towards were I was anchored in the main river channel. I had to wave them off to keep them from running right by me, so they swerved a little and didn't cut their speed until they had gone past. Ah the joy of watching waves just come up to the gunnel's on an anchored drift boat. Needless to say I was pissed...shaking in fact...I calmly told them this as they pulled up next to me to check my licenses and made a nice apology for not seeing us parked in the shade. Whatever...it's all cool and thank God I had a couple of priests with me or who knows what I would've said.

That particular warden has always been a very good guy to me, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't intentional or inattention. Just spooked me a little and then they pull up with a full on video crew filming interactions with the public...probably looked cool with my American flag buff wrapped up around my head and sunglasses on telling them they should be more careful and that I'm a little angry about the boat show. Ahh to be a kid again.

Lower Madness

After  a couple of days of stubborn fish, I found some happy ones on the LM once again. Still sculpins but more on the small nymph off the sculpin today. Bugs are quieting down over there now and flows are down enough now to work some of the mid-river buckets. They were all happy today which resulted in lots of fish and a steady bite all day.

The downside is that the floating grass is getting pretty nasty so there is lots of cleaning to be done if you cant get a dead drift. The grass isn't so bad unless you're flies are dragging through the water column. A lot or people write the lower off in the summer because of warm water and tubers. The water has been warm over there for a long time and there are still lots of fish in there, so something has to said for natural selection in that trout population. If you get out early, no tubers and water temps are fine through mid-afternoon. I watch the streamflows and check the temps, so long as it is getting down into the low 60's at night and not over 72 by 2 or 3...I don't worry about it, but I am careful to make sure the fish are properly revived and everyone should always do so in warmer water...but don't avoid it because of some girls in bikinis and a little bit of grass!

Salmonflies and Bullshit

I've been chasing Salmonflies several of the last few days. Been to the Upper and the Yellowstone in search of rising fish only to be met with the usual BS of miles of rejection despite an abundance of bugs. It's been YEARS since I actually whacked on Salmonfly dries...so maybe my defintion of whacking them has changed or I just suck!

Anyway, there are lots of bugs about on the Upper Yellowstone and Upper Madison. I got the fish better than expected yesterday on the UM, but it was all nymphing very close to the banks. Once my guys figured out how to get it in there without losing flies, things were pretty good, but not amazing. The sad thing is we probably got more fish on a lightning bug than the stonefly.

We fished Carbella to Emigrant today...you know the stretch with a gadzillion dumb cutthroats always looking to eat a big dry...and found it to be even a bigger disappointment than dries on the UM yesterday. Nymphing was fine for the occasional trout and steady diet of southern grayling as I like to call them. I can understand teh Yellowstone better as the water is just clearing, still pretty high, and cold. Maybe another day or two and they should be eating dries. There were as many bugs out as I've seen in a long time though from Carbella down past 26 the bushes were loaded with them and goldens. Lots of PMDs and Green Drakes too, as goes for the UM too.

My favorite Salmonfly activity though is to listen to the dudes in another boat say how they're whoompin' em on dries and them watch them go for miles without a fish. That's why I think my definition of whacking them has changed rather than I suck.

More Skull Pins

Another day on the lower and thank god for sculpins as the fish seem to have forgotten what a crayfish is. Had another fish today with sculpins in it's mouth and just about everything we got was on an olive sculpin, they were eating a small soft hackle pt pretty well this am while the PMD's were coming off. Pretty good bite again today, the water is warming up and the floating grass is starting to show itself as well. As far as the dead fish go...I think they are dwarf paddlefish...makes as much sense as anybody else's theory. The seagulls are filling up on whatever they are.

The upper was supposedly ok today, the Yellowstone is really close, and the Gallatin is looking really good too. Shop's been busy, bookings are very good this year so all is well for the time being. Shop now is open 7-7 and we have got a lot of stuff in the shop now too. Now if I could only get some lighting balasts fixed, things would be perfect.

Skull Pins

There is something that happens on the Madison every year in late June/early July with some sort of small fish. I'm not sure if it's sculpins, juvenile whitefish, or some sort of minnow or dace. Anyway, seagulls tend to move over to the river, I used to think it was because of Salmonflies but they weren't  out on the LM at al this year and the seagulls are there. So, if you watch the seagulls...they are hunting...they glide around like an osprey and then go down and pick something up off the water. Usually it's some sort of small fish. But they're not getting them like an osprey, I think they are picking off dead or dying fish that are floating near the surface. Yesterday, on the LM, I saw several floating sculpins which may have confirmed my theory. There was a dead sculpin that must have been 8-10 inches and looked more like a ling cod or bullhead.

Fishing on the lower has picked up and should fish well the next few days, but the stone is almost there. Just another couple of days and it should start fishing really well. Salmonflies are in the upper Paradise Valley. I'm still resentful at the upper!

July 4

Its 6:10 am, got home at 11pm last night after a long day on the UM, which followed a good day on the Missouri. I'm on a run here for awhile so hopefully the...fish will eat on the madison! Going to the lower this am.

Salmonflies are up near Palisades, lots around Ruby and below. Couldn't get em to eat a dry to save my life yesterday. Come to think of it...couldnt get them to eat shit yesterday. Some on zonkers and a few on some little bugs. Lots of water, few fish.