Category: Upper Madison River

Higher water levels, chilly mornings and cool, pleasant days; it’s a great
time to be out on the water. Add wonderful clients to the mix and it’s just
a joy to be a guide.
Such was the case Sunday with Mark and Mark, a transplant father and son from Montana and Idaho. Originally from east
Texas, we are/were virtual neighbors and spent the day discussing much of
our home states, and enjoyed lots of mutual ribbing over the aspects that
are the Texas/Louisiana rivalry. The day was non-stop conversation, joking
and laughing. A day on the water with new friends; it doesn’t get much
better than that.

And, of course, there was the fishing. Which was great! … The fish were
hungry and eager, with the bite starting practically as soon as the oars
were in the water. The bites were strong, leaving no doubt to their intent,
and the fights were equally intense, with big runs and leaping fish. there
were very few “twinks,” with quality fish coming one after another. The duo
had a blast!

And the fly selection couldn’t have been simpler. The fish were keying on
Nocturnal Stones, and the fish were caught on Girdle Bugs, from start to
finish … So grab your Girdles and go fishing!

This followed another great trip with Missy and Jeff from Pennsylvania. The day started with Missy running nymphs and Jeff throwing dries. Jeff got a few fish to rise, but after watching Missy catch most of the fish on nymphs, he made the switch, then it was game on for both of them! Another fun day with wonderful clients.

Marty

Back to the Madison and the water is higher and faster. Big Dan was out with Gerry and Sarah during the day. They had a good day both on dries and wet flies. With the water up, more action started coming later in the day with nymphs as the hatches delayed and the stone flies were under the surface along with emergent caddis. There was a bit of dirty water from the West Fork area from last night’s storm but that did not stop the trout from biting. You just needed to find them in new places.

John and Dan G thought they would get out there and see what was going on in the evening after returning from the Beaverhead and they were glad we went out. Browns on the dry just off the banks and boulders. The hot fly was a Caddis in the #16, but they are going to leave it up to you to get the exact pattern 🙂 they were also eating the Delektable Red Twisted X (size 14) pretty hard. Don’t be afraid of the higher water and a little color, Dan G’s advice is to up your game and try to figure it out! Some suggestions would be streamers with nymphs behind, or double up on the big nymphs behind the rocks. He has been throwing dries in the evenings and doing great. Some dries to try would be any Caddis, PMD patterns and go for the Yellow Sally still too!! They are definitely eating them all! Happy fishing and keep those lines tight!

Big Dan, Dan G, and Nancy

The water came up a bit today which helped the temp and flow. We had stormy weather later in the afternoon. Mike doesn’t stop casting all day and scored well on dries and on nymphs. We were still having good results on Goldenstone dries. And yes, Dan’s secret golden was one of the tickets and Caddis too. We ran out of Dan’s fly in the shop but still had some great other goldens to substitute.

Cheyenne who is 8 years old enjoyed her birthday float with Gunnar. Right out from the launch she landed an awesome trout. Way to go Cheyenne! Happy Birthday! She was fishing a stone fly nymph combination and just kept scoring. She was able to take a short breather to get a nice photo of Gary, her dad, with a nice Brown Trout. They got off the river just before the big storm hit.

Dan with Mike and Beth kept floating through the storm and did keep catching. Again, goldenstones, caddis, sallies, and a variety of nymphs were working today.

Nancy

This was a very pleasurable half day float with excellent company. Vaughn caught fish on small nymphs. Deb was mostly sight seeing and taking photos with occasional fishing where she caught and lost a couple fish. What a nice relaxing laid back day.

Marty

Brett, Craig, Dan and Marty were on the river with clients on the 3rd. All the boats had a great day fishing with Goldenstones on top and Caddis with small nymphs either as trailers or double small nymphs using PMD, Caddis, and Sally nymphs. Many of our fishermen and women were just learning flyfishing for their first or second time and really did well. What a great day and then the day after was awesome too. Flows were fairly low still with the bite happening more in the riffles, and the middle.

Then on July 4th, the slay factor continued to be waaaay up!!! Epicness has settled over us

for the brown and rainbows have been submissive to the dry! My buddy, John, from my home in PA came out yesterday for a couple of weeks and we went straight to the river. Lyons to Windy last night. Wow… Slayage!  John fished the big dry while I rowed, and he just let ‘em have it! Lyons out the gate was exceptional with the golden stone, with the softie peasant tail picking up the slack in the back. I watched John absolutely slaughter it while I tried to keep up with the net and boat. Epic….be right back…followed by Chip and MaryRose with Marty having a great experience with both dries and wets. Yahoo!

Young Dan and Nancy

What an incredible and special day! Everyone from our shop started off early between
7:00 and 8:00 AM.

The afternoons have been getting so hot, we strongly recommend that for the fishermen and women and for the fish. The salmon flies are further up the river now with still very low flows. Caddis are everywhere in a big way. Below the Salmon Flies are Goldenstones, Yellow Sallies, and more Caddis. The bug hatches continue to be huge. Pulsing will begin in a day or two to add cooler water to the river. Get out early if you can.

We had three groups out today that all had fishing days to write home about. The Upper river was mostly on dries with Salmon Flies and Golden Stones. Further down river folks switched out to Caddis, and Yellow Sally dries and Caddis and Yellow Sally and Stonefly nymphs. When switching to nymphs, lately, two smaller nymphs seemed to do better with an emerger pattern as the trailer or an emerger below the big dry.

We passed by a family combining recreational floating with fishing. Looks like fun! Wear a swim suit if you can to cool off in the river. The fish are biting and still seem to be where there is more water. What a great time and special experience for everyone. Get out and fish!  Nancy

The big bugs are out! The big bugs are out! Did I say that the big bugs were out?

Well, they are. And the fish are munchin’ down. Last night and the previous nights have been really good for the salmon fly and golden stones on top. A few nights ago, I caught a very nice 17-18” brown wading down by Varney on a size 6 salmon fly of Dan Delekta’s, that took like a whirlpool and a flush, way cool! 🙂 Last night we went from Ruby to Mac with the boat and got into them a little. Big golden dries size 8 took some really healthy rainbows ready to chow down! No camera there to show, but they kinda resembled NFL regulation footballs…giv’ya an idea. I also caught a couple on the Delektable Royal Halo Caddis from the Delektable menu here, in the size 16, which have been my best fly lately in the evening. If you haven’t been out there in a bit there are salmon flies, golden stones, yellow sallies, caddis, brown bomber caddis, pmd’s, and yes, even mosquitoes, so get out there and get yer line wet!

–DanG

Down near Ennis, fishing has been excellent in the evenings. Before fish start actively rising, swinging caddis, pmd’s and yellow sallies thru shallower riffles and tailouts has been producing when a dead-drift has been ignored. My best bet for nymphing has been a double caddis rig, a pupa and an emerger, with a smaller indicator and a split shot. Approaching the hatch, don’t be afraid to remove the indicator, and eventually the split shot, and fish them on a tight swing.

Dry fly fishing has been phenomenal, although with the low flows and higher temps the middle of the day can be quite tough. From about 7 PM on, however, the fish have been looking up, and if you are patient enough to wait until the sun peaks behind the mountains, you can be rewarded with some bigger fish, like this 19 inch brown that took a size 16 Kringly Lil Hottie Caddis right around 930 PM. Bottom line, the fish are going crazy right now, and we don’t know how much longer it will be this good, so go fish!

–D. Stone

The dry fly action has been really terrific helping new fishermen and women experience the ultimate bite on a dry. Yahoo!

Daniel forgot to mention the incredible sunsets we are experiencing that he took photos of. Check it out!

Salmon Flies and Goldenstones

Timing is everything! Seeing the Big Bugs in the air; and mating in the vegetation along the river and being able to catch them on imitations is Priceless. That is what Brett Greco and I did with our clients: Zac, Kim, Clark, and Myron. The flies of choice included my secret Salmon, and my secret Golden, other Salmon and Goldenstone Dries including the Chubbys, and later in the day Beadheaded Soft Hackle Caddis Emergers and Yellow Sally Nymphs. Of Note: Kim’s fish was heavy and she was nervous she might drop it. What a nice challenge to have! The pictures do tell the story.

Dan

What a giggly action day on the dries!….Dries All Day!

Our shuttle crew turned over some rocks yesterday and this is what they found. Holy Cow! There are Salmon Stones under there ready to pop like crazy. As of June 26th evening, the Adult Big Bugs were spotted in the Upper River and the heaviest between Ruby and Varney.

My girlfriend Jeanne who owns Rainbow Valley Lodge and I were blessed today with the
best day off in a very long time for both of us. People in our jobs don’t get any time off over the next few months, so this was a real treat. We had a dilemma as Jeanne hurt her knee, had knee surgery and is still not fully repaired and in pain. To make it easier for her, I fished with Gunnar the first half and we met her for lunch and Jeanne joined us on the second half. The first part of our float started off slow for maybe a half hour, then the action started. We fished Dan’s Secret Salmon Fly, A Smaller Royal Chubby Chernobyl, A Delektable Twisted Baby #14 Orange, then later in the day we switched to Dan’s Secret Golden Stone and never changed flies after that. We did try one or two caddis patterns that they bit, then quit and changed flies earlier in the day. The fish ate all our flies.

The hatch activity was incredible with Salmon Flies, several different caddis sizes, than more salmons, then Goldenstones, then Yellow Sallies, and more Caddis. The bugs were crawling all over us. Needless to say, we were screaming with laughter from the action and from the bugs tickling us. All the fish we caught were chubby and healthy from eating so many bugs.

Once the action started, it continued most of the day with short lulls. The fish were biting 
in lots of different locations but especially liked the riffles and where there was structure underneath. It was funny because you couldn’t predict it then they would swirl up and nail the fly. We had so much action with bites, misses, takes, lands, and what I call drive bys. You could see the trout under the fly, taking a look and thinking about it but if you pulled up too quick, you missed the opportunity but saw the trout look. The visual fun was really cool because you could see the fish go after it in a big way with some leaping after it.

The best technique was to twitch the fly and tease the fish. They would go after it hard if
twitched. This really worked for Jeanne because she had to keep her leg up and sit. So once she got the fly on the water, she could just dabble the fly and the fish would suck it down.

What a fabulous and giggly fun fishing day with my friend, Jeanne. Thanks Ed and Dan for covering in our absence. Thanks Gunnar for the great guiding.

Nancy

There is so much that could be said about the fishing on the Madison River right now, but




simply put; it’s as good as it gets!

Salmon Flies, Golden Stones, Caddis, Yellow Sallies, Mayflies: the skies are filled with bugs, and the dry-fly fishing is off the charts!

On Monday I had the pleasure of being part of a multi-boat float of a family of five, all first-timers. And despite none of them ever having touched a fly rod before, and it being a very windy day, everyone caught fish, and everyone caught big fish. It’s always a joy as a guide to watch people catch fish, and to be the teacher who starts them on their flyfishing journey. But to also see the joy as a family experienced it together, well, that’s just as good as it gets. Congrats to all on their success.

On Tuesday, the fishing was even better, with big fish coming into the net one after another after another. And to my great pleasure, it was also a heartwarming day to be involved with. One of our neighbors and good friends, Travis, is heavily involved in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program, and brought out his “little brother” from Arizona to experience flyfishing for the first time. It was an epic day of dry-fly fishing!

Congrats to Michael on all his catches, and an awesome start to his flyfishing journey … And also a thank you to his Big Brother; the world is a better place when people reach out to help others.

As far as the fishing, nearly all fish were caught on Salmon Fly dries, specifically Dan’s Secret Salmon Fly, and the Pteronarcys Chubby.

Fishing like this won’t last long. Get out there and get you some!

Marty