The Beartooth Work Crew were treated to a day on the Madison. It was a sunny, warm day, which lends itself to tougher fishing but nice weather for being outside on a break from work.
What a beautiful day on the Madison it was! The Whitefish King, “Grandpa” and I teamed up with Marty as our guide from Lyons Bridge to Palisades for a morning to mid-afternoon float. I fished all dries and Grandpa fished all wet flies. The day was an overall slow day as far as the numbers and size goes but, I enjoyed every second of it whether I was catching fish or just practicing my casting, and enjoying the beauty of the day. We put on a number of different flies that worked for very brief periods, then nothing and time to switch out again. The same seemed true for Grandpa with the wet flies. The great part of all this was, there was plenty of time to simply enjoy myself and take in nature, which was a great thing for me since I don’t often get to do this (this was my first time on the Madison this year). Some of the flies that worked were the Yeager’s 409, PMD’s, and the Delektable Cinnamon Ant. The same fly rarely caught a fish twice before we wound need to switch out again. We had several big fish rising to a <huge> Fat Albert, but none would go ahead and eat it.
Grandpa caught several large whitefish, giving him the biggest fish of the day, but I caught the most fish including some smaller six to eight inch trout. I did however catch one rainbow that was roughly fourteen inches long. Marty worked very hard for both of us. He really is a great guide and definitely deserves credit for the immense effort he put into the trip. I know I wouldn’t have caught even half the fish I did without him. I also want to thank Dan and Nancy for letting me go out and goof off all day, it was greatly appreciated. My busy schedule has made it hard for me to take a day off, with full time work in the fly shop and my taxidermy business after regular work hours and weekends. Even if the fishing is slow I always like to say: “The worst day fishing is better than the best day working!” Not to say this was the worst day as I have had way worse.
Jenn
The afternoon portion of the float included Kevin and Marcus guided by Marty. The weather was in the upper 80’s with the wind changing from north to south throughout the afternoon. We fished dries for most of the day. We got the occasional rise from a decent fish on the hoppers but they were few and far between. We tried several different patterns in the afternoon from hoppers, to caddis, and PMD Rusty Spinners. Keven even tried a massive streamer and got one fish that was about 10 inches in length. Overall, the fishing was slow and only smaller fish were rising. Still it was an awesome and gorgeous day to go fishing with Marty.
Marcus
