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!