Madison Adventure

Thursday May 31st: Upper Madison River with Paulson and Trico, Valley Garden fishing access site. The weather was warm and calm with temps in the mid 70's and caddis hatching in sporadic numbers. Flows were low at 700 C.F.S at the Kirby Ranch gauging station. Water clarity was very good with a slight tint of green but not much.

Paulson had been back from the Bighorn for a few days and he was already getting stir crazy sitting at home. He called me and wanted to go check on the bugs in the Bear Trap and see what else we might be able to find on the local waters. We met at the Ice Garden to leave one truck and head for the Madison. I ended up driving and we made our first stop at the Warm Springs fishing access site to take a quick peak at the river and see if there were any "big bugs" hanging in the willows at the ramp. It was a perfect day for being outside and when we got to the ramp there were no signs of the bugs, however there were plenty of PMD's and Caddis hitting the surface and the small fish were feeding hard in the riffle above Warm Springs Creek. Paulson suited up and and hit the river with a # 12 Parachute Hares Ear. I was not as organized and my bootfoot waders were leaking so I had to shove my feet into a pair of stocking foots and deal with lacing up boots and securing the line tanglers they call gravel guards. Paulson raised several small guys as I was getting ready and by the time I had my chest pack loaded with the days arsenal Paulson was on his way back deeming the bank "Junk" and wanting to prospect other options for the day. Since we had the dog with us we decided not to hike into the rattlesnake riddled canyon and avoid the poison sumac as well. We jumped in the rig and headed for Ennis to take a peak at the Upper Madison and try and hook up with Barney for either a short float or at least some good entertainment from Barney. We did not have any luck getting in touch with him so we headed for Valley Garden to see what was happening.

When we got to the access there was one other vehicle in the parking lot and we decided to head for some of the channels and try and catch a few fish. There were some sporadic caddis hatching and neither of us were to interested in nymphing for the day so Eric continued on with his Parachute Hares Ear and I tied on a # 12 Royal PMX trailed with a Soft Hackle Mangy on the back. Paulson had several small fish attack his fly on the bank opposite of the access site and after a few minutes we headed for the channels on the west side of the river. The small fish were all over the caddis imitations and I took a few on the bead head nymph that trailed my dry. After taking turns fishing the small runs we headed upstream to fish the big shelf that typically fishes very well. There were a ton of small fish eating our dries in the run and after a little while I was bored and headed for the deeper slot just above the shelf. I finally pulled out a nice rainbow on the bead and it hit the net at around 15 inches long. Paulson keep prospecting up the shelf and into the side channel and I headed upstream in the main channel. The other car that was parked in the lot was an older gentleman and he was nymphing the other side of the run when I got back to the main channel. I took a couple of cast into the tail out and hit two decent brown trout back to back on the PMX. I fished up the run and hooked a half dozen fish before heading to the deep slot next to the old burnt out tree. The run is deep and I added some length to my dropper and tied on a Two Tone Tommy, which can produce some great results in off color water. Paulson came around the bend just as I was getting ready to hit the deep run and he wanted me to move up into the channels above where I was standing. I told him to go ahead and I would catch up with him after I hit the deep run in front of me. I wish I had told him to stay so that he could have snapped a few shots of the next ten minutes of fishing that I had. I threw my flies up into the run and made several good drifts with not takers. I moved up towards the head of the drop and on my second cast into the riffle I hooked into something that had some weight to it. The fish headed for the opposite bank and then made a quick move downstream. Just when I was sure that it was a nice brown that was going to sulk and fight me hard from the bottom the fish headed for the sky and lept two feet out of the water. I could not have been more wrong with my prediction and a solid rainbow was in the air in front of me. I took my time and tried to keep him in the hole and out of the faster current in the main channel of the river. He came close to getting out into the heavy current on two separate occasion, but I stuck the tip of the rod in the water and showed who was boss before he could reach the heavy flows. I got him to hand in a minute or so and it was a perfect specimen of a rainbow that taped out at 21 inches long and it had a belly as large as mine. It was one of the better fish that I have seen this spring and I was kicking myself for telling Paulson to head upstream. I released the beast and through another cast back into the riffle at the head of the run. The very next cast I hooked into another heavy fish and I brought to hand a nice solid 17 inch brown trout that fought like most brown trout do. After releasing the brown I fished for another 15 minutes and landed another 9 small fish on both the worm and the PMX. The angler on the other shore laid witness to the fish catching spree that I went on and he spent a lot of time changing flies as I caught fish. He stuck with his bobber rig and I never saw him turn a fish in the time I was fishing the deep slot by the burnt out tree. I was completely satisfied with my day of fishing and after a couple of dozen fish I was starting to loose interest in fishing much more. I headed upstream to see how Paulson was doing and he was still spanking fish on the Parachute hares ear. He said that he had landed a couple of solid fish and he was also ready to move on. We made it back to the truck and stopped at the Town Pump in Ennis for a few customary corn dogs and few beverages. We headed back to the lower river and went down to High Bank to investigate the willows for any adult Salmonflies before heading back to town. There were not any bugs on the willows nor were there any nymphs on the bank so we took out our frustration on a puddle of water with Paulson new 1o mm glock. I am very comfortable with hand guns and after some prodding from Paulson I emptied one clip into the target and shook my head at the power and destruction that the pistol produced. Paulson is a hard core hunter and he carries the pistol as protection in case he has an encounter with a Griz or a cat. It was an interesting experience and I will not be running to the gun store to pick one up anytime soon.