Category: Fishing Reports

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

 

An Epic Day on the Upper Madison…..

 

 

 

 

Today was a great day with my dear friends. Fun fishing and great stories and memories shared. The weather was a bit stormy and chilly but that did not impact the bite. We fished Salmon Stone Fly Nymphs and a variety of other nymphs too. The Delektable Black and Black and Orange Stoners worked well. There were tons of stoneflies under the rocks.

Dan

June 17

Fishing the past week has been excellent. Reports are trickling in of adult salmonflies between 8 Mile and Burnt Tree, so they should start to show up here around the shop within the week.  Nymphing is phenomenal (as usual), with big black stonefly patterns being the weapon of choice. Little nymphs are starting to work as well, so don’t be afraid to tie on an 18 lightning bug or Lil Spanker if things slow down a bit. Look for the soft slow water along the bank, perfect staging water for stoneflies, and faster riffles out in the middle as well. Dry fly action has been pretty darn good as well, with fish taking a variety of caddis patterns, as well as the big bugs. Don’t be afraid to throw a salmonfly dry before the hatch has showed up, as fish will key in on them in anticipation of the hatch. Indeed, dry flies can outfish nymphs right now, as evidenced last night when John and I went out after work. Almost immediately, John caught a slew of fish on dries, while I unproductively nymphed for a few hours. After getting spanked for a while, I finally switched to dries, and caught fish almost immediately. Right around 9, once the sun disappeared, the action REALLY turned on, with John landing a ~20” brown on a size 16 caddis out in fast water, a good consolation after missing a 24 incher about an hour earlier. All in all, the river is fishing amazingly, and should only get better over the next 2 weeks or so.

Daniel and John

June 18

I went out yesterday from windy to ruby on a nice slow float from 10 to 5:30. Early on was great, I stopped at all the buckets and took my time wade fishin’. Nice fat browns on the black girdle bug in the size 4 were ever so sneakily taken from behind the buckets. The big stonefly nymphs were really doing good for me. I went through the small bead head rotation also, but only got little dinks out of that, so I stayed with the big setup and continued down to Ruby feedin em what they wanted. Down by the ruby rocks I threw the dries at em again but they did not want mine I guess 🙂 A few rises there with a miss and some expurlatives, but no fish out there this time. I parked the boat at ruby and waited there for  John and Daniel to get off work so we could continue down to Mac for the evening. Dries. Holy Cow!

The winds picked up for a little while, after a lot of wind knots some line to line hang ups in the boat and a few crashes into gravel bars, we jumped out of the boat for some wade fishing. Dries are on! Small caddis patterns along with some larger flies like a #12 Royal Madame X were all getting strikes and catching fish. A nice fish ate a Dan’s Secret Salmon Fly but the large foamie dries were not producing a ton of fish. Two days of great fishing and great fun with boys left all of us satiated at least for another day.

Dan, John, and Daniel