Upper Madison River Archives - Page 32 of 42

May 18, 2013

As Dan Greene and I launched our boat into a rainstorm yesterday evening after work, we knew that a rainy opener would certainly mean good fishing on the Upper Madison. Over the past week, the water visibility has diminished to about a foot, but the fish are still eating. I started off the evening while Dan rowed with a #18 Flashback Olive Micro-mayfly dropped from a #8 Delektable Flashback Megaprince. After three fish on, I switched to the rower seat and watched Dan crush cookie-cutter rainbows on a #4 Delektable Megaprince and #8 Delektable Olive Hurless Stone. Once in sight of the car, we pulled the boat over to wade-fish, and this is where we had the most success. With the low visibility, it pays to fish each run methodically. We were able to pull 2-3 fish out of each hole with about 10-20 casts in between each fish. Dan Greene caught the fish of the day, an 18” brown on a #4 Delektable Megaprince, solidifying the day’s lesson, “Go Big!” Though tired, wet, and cold, a successful opening day left Dan and me with ear to ear smiles as we pulled into the boat launch at around 10:00 P.M.

John and Dan

May 15 and 16, 2013 Fishing Report

Last night Craig, his buddy Geoff, and I went where the water meets the stones and the murk meets the mud and just put the smack down on them fishies :).

Geoff was on his maiden trip with a fly rod and with all the worms coming out of the banks, he hooked up right away with a pink San Juan Worm. His first fish was accompanied by a nice rainbow on my rod also; 🙂 catching! The water was muddy coming in from the creek near us, so we fished the seam. They smacked all the stones in a size 8 that I threw at them, and after a while I quit changing because it was getting little chilly and any one was going to work just the sameJ If you need a little confidence booster, they are hungry! Just get it them on the bottom quick and get ready! Flies that caught were as follows; Delektable Mega Bead Headed Prince Flashback size 8, Delektable Mega Prince without the flashback, Delektable Olive Hurless Stone size 8 (both standard and flashback), Midnight Fire Delektable Bug Midnight Fire Black Legs size 4, and Delektable Grey Hurless Stone Flashback size 8. There was no real need to change it up, they were munchin’ down 🙂

Happy Fishing!!!

Craig, Dan G, Dan, Marty, John, and Geoff

May 12, 2013 Mother’s Day Caddis and March Browns

The River clarity was about three feet today on Mother’s Day… A nice green color.

Early on, the fish were hungry then we had to work for our fish mid afternoon. Later we found some pods of rising fish in back eddies. Flies of choice were the Delektable™ Mega Prince and Hurless imitating the Skwalla Stones. Later on we were scoring well on dries. Caddis and March Browns were coming off and the fish were biting. We tried a Royal Chubby as the lead fly and trailed it with one of Dave Bloom’s Hi Vis Caddis. it worked well.

Gregg Machel, our web technical consultant came to visit and help with our software upgrades and got to fish with us on Mother’s day after we completed some big computer work. He caught a number of trout on the double dry combo.

Our friend Dan, of Rocky Mountain Embroidery, who does our Beartooth Flyfishing embroidery had a good day with a very nice catch shown in his photo with his special boat, he made himself. Nice fish Dan!

Nancy, Dan, Gregg, and RME Dan

September 30, 2012

These past couple of days I have gone up above Raynolds Pass bridge and just above Ruby Creek fishing access and both places really produced fish!! Above Raynolds I started out with a Pat’s Rubber Legs Olive and Brown size 8 on top and a beadhead Red Serendipity size 18 on the drop. (more…)

Few Weeks September 19, 2012

The end of August through the middle of September has been memorable in so many ways. The Madison River gives so much to so many human beings.

There were some flying trout….

Groups and individuals of men and women having fun fishing…

Wet flies and dry flies caught fish…

A group of women just learning had terrific results and great fun…

The flies that worked the past two weeks were Hoppers and Ants, Caddis, Royal Wulffs, Trudes, Streamers with trailing nymphs, and girdle bugs with trailing nymphs. The adventure continues.

There were several bear sightings this summer and one bear trapping.

Enjoy the smiley faces!

Dan

Few Weeks August 31, 2012

It’s September already. Where has the summer gone!

(more…)

August 9, 2012

Things have been very crazy in the shop; everybody has been catching fish and wants to do more of it. After Roger got his beauty power nap,

he, Dan and I were able to sneak out one evening to go and do a little fishing. We definitely made the right choice. (more…)

June 27, 28, & 29th, 2012

The salmon flies are officially here as they arrived on our front porch and flew into the shop. The Salmon Fly Spottings are mainly from Palisades down but there are some showing up river from there. The Caddis and Goldens are all over and some yellow sallies too. A variety of Salmon Fly patterns are working, Golden Stones, and Caddis. On the wet side a variety of stone fly nymphs are working trailed with Caddis emergers, and a variety of colors for little stone flies, including lightening bugs.

The fish are biting. Remember to learn how to respond to the take. It’s been a really productive fishing week with plenty of fun had by all.

Gary rowed his wife, Martha into this really nice 20″ Madison River Brown trout caught on a Delektable Goldenstone. Way to go Martha!

Go Fishing!

Nancy

June 25 and 26, 2012

Dan, Marty and Nancy went out in the evenings for quickee floats to do more intel. We started at Lyons one of the nights and started at Palisades the other night. There were plenty of goldens and a ton of caddis again. We did not see Salmon Flies above Palisades. The trout were eating the big bugs in gold and salmon color and were eating big caddis patterns. We missed a number of takes and had fun watching the trout come up for it, sometimes full body leaps. Marty remembered this catch because the trout really sipped the fly. Remember to pause a bit but not too long and then take the strike.

Timing is important. While Marty was rowing Dan and Nancy got doubles two different times. Later as it got dusky we switched to Delektable Twisted Sisters in purple and yellow with the red butt and they took both, then later we switched to chuby chernobyls and they worked too. We were switching flies so we could see them better and the fish were liking the varieties. It was fun!

The forecast is predicting serious gusty winds through Tuesday and hopefully calming by Wednesday and Thursday. There are some forest fires out there including Pony and the Lower Madison so be cautious. The road following the Lower Madison was closed today to through traffic.

Friends did see Salmon flies at Palisades today, Tuesday. There are also Salmon Flies between the lakes now. They are traveling up quickly.

Nancy

Week of July 15, 2012

The week started wtih girls that rock. Sarah landed multiple large trout on Goldenstone dries. Yeah Sarah!

Then Ann had a big fish day with a beautiful 21" Brown Trout specimen.

We enjoyed families all week including: friends’ inlaws learning how to fish and scoring well with Marty. Way to go Earnie!

Friends David and Bob had fun catching with Mike.

Two brothers John and Tim fishing with Dave. No sour grapes here!

and another two brothers Keefer and William fishing with Randy.

Then Dave and his son Drew having fun with Marty. Drew was quite the fisherman.

Our friends Terry and Lynn had fun with Joe…

The week ending was one of our favorite groups at the lodge: three generations fishing; a father and his two sons, a grandson, and a brother; all fishing together; having dinners and relaxing. And a friend Lynn joined the family for a day of fishing.

This is what I invisioned Beartooth being all those years ago when I built the place. I dreamed about having families, husbands and wives, and friends recreating, fishing, relaxing, and utilizing the lodge on their vacations. Thanks for a great week.

Dan

July 11, 2012

I had a chance to fish recently for a few hours at Mac Bridge on Wednesday morning. Lately the PMD hatch has been kind of crazy, so that was my focus and nymphing was my choice of weapon for the day (unless of course the water started boiling :)). I put a Tungsten BH Golden Stone Sz 8 on top and a Micro Mayfly Nymph Brown/Orange Sz 18 on the drop to imitate the PMD. It wasn’t but 3 casts later and I had a nice very healthy 20 inch brown in the net! I stayed with that combo for a bit still catching a few smaller browns on the micro.

I later switched to the Micro on top and a Sz 18 Tungsten BH Prince on the drop and caught a few rainbows on the prince. I continued to go thru all my smaller nymph patterns till I was done, doing ok on most of them. I was out from 2pm until 6ish. Not much activity on top but I was happy with nymphing anyway:) With golden stones, PMDs, caddis, sallies, callibaetis, flavilinia, ants, and MORE out, I hope you are having fun! Happy fishing!!!

Dan

Week of July 7, 2012

Just another tour of rivers with Tim and Brian. Great bloom of hatches. The dry and wet fly fishing was incredible. Goldenstones rocked for us with Caddis and PMD’s filling in the blanks.

Dan

Wow! The Upper Madison has been on fire! The entire week was filled with terrific fishing and lots of fun. The salmon flies are now up by Slide Inn and just down from Lyons Bridge. Throughout the Upper River the hatches have been incredible including: Golden Stones, Yellow Sallies, PMD’s, Flavs, Caddis and more Caddis. The fish have been eating on top and under the surface. Everyone caught a number of nice trout all week morning, afternoons, and evenings. What a great week. Enjoy the happy photos!

Go Fishing!

Nancy