Dupped again by the wind and sun!

The wind reports this morning showed dead calm flags flying over the weather stations that are near the Lower Madison so my father wanted to head out for some fishing. We met up with Sean and headed out to give it a try. When we arrived at the river the bushes and willows were not moving much and the sun was shining bright. With air temps in the low 40's there was plenty of traffic on the river, a few boat trailers were even parked in the Black's Ford lot. We headed downstream to the Highbank boat launch and there were two cars parked their. We were fortunate that they were only shuttle vehicles so we got geared up and headed down to the deep hole to give it a try.

Sean and I had our rods rigged first and Sean headed to the middle of the rock pile to ply it from the East side of the river. I waded to the West shoreline and moved out to fish the rock pile from the opposite bank. Sean was into a couple of rainbows before I was able to get my weight put on the leader. Both fish gave up a good fight and gave us some confindence in the spot we had choosen. I finally got my weight put on the leader and I sent my new bug, the rubberleg crayfish that came from the bench a few hours earlier, trailed with a red beaded San Juan Worm. After a couple of drifts my indicator dove to the bottom and I set the hook on something that came straight at me. I was only hooked up for a brief second and I brought the flies in to make sure my knots had held. Both flies were in tack and I sent them back out to the middle of the rocks. The flies drifted half way down the drift and the indicator jumped under the surface again. I set the hook and I was hooked up with the first fish of the day. The fish fought hard and deep and I was able to get him in a short time later. It was a nice healthy brown trout that hit the tape around 14 inches.

By this time my father came wading across and he was fishing the shallow tailout just below the two of us. I called him up to the hole and gave him my spot so that he could get off the snide as well. As I waded for the shore I spotted several fish rising in the eddie towards the top of the run. The excitement of seeing rising fish gave me a rush of energy and I promptly headed for a nice seat on the bank to rid the rod of indicators and split shot. The sun was behind a cloud and the wind was calm as I quickly tied on a cripple Thor and fumbled for my floatant. As I rigged the rod with dries Sean hooked into a very nice rainbow which required some assistance to land. I waded down and scouped up a nice fat 17 inch rainbow. After a couple of quick snapshots with Sean's camera I headed back up to give the rising fish a try. My dad hooked up with a nice rainbow just as I got back to my rod and told him to land his own fish, I had risers to cast at.

I finally got my rod and unhooked the fly from the guides. Just as I had the fly in my hand the sun came out from the clouds and the wind instantly picked up. I sat back down on the bank and waited for the sun to hide behind the clouds and the wind to lay down. Looking up towards the sky had promise of a nice cloud bank moving in so I decided to wait and watch.


Trico and I patiently waited for the conditions to become ideal and the fish to rise again. We sat and watched for about and hour but neither the sun or the wind was willing to cooperate. Sean and my dad were consitently hooking into fish but I had it set in my mind that I was going to get my first fish of the year on the surface. The fishing started to slow down for Sean and my father so we decided to head downstream and try another hole. We headed downstream and I took off in search of some more rising fish. As Sean and dad fished the bottom of the island I walked down to a foam eddie for my last good hope of finding a surface feeder. When I arrived there was nothing happening and I decided that my quest would once again go unfinished. I walked back upstream and met up with the other two. We decided it was time to head back to the truck and call it a day.

Even though I didn't conquer a few rising fish I had a great time relaxing on the bank and enjoying the warmer weather. Maybe later this week I will finally fill my itch to get on the board with a fish on top.