Day 1: Lower Madison
Yesterday my dad and I went out on the Lower Madison River about an hour from the Meadow Village where we are staying. After driving up from Bozeman on Monday, we did not think there was going to be any fishable water while we were here. This time of year Montana experiences major runoff in the rivers from rain and melting snow pack, making the rivers blown out for multiple weeks. Yesterday however, was a completely different story. If you come to Montana during these first few weeks of June and want to catch something big, make it a priority to fish the Madison. Yesterday Chance Lenay of East Slope Outfitters took us out on a drift boat on the Lower, where we drifted for 8 miles of the river. After getting the hang of casting and presenting the double fly setup closer to the banks, we saw some great success. The fly setup we were using was pretty simple to rig up. We took 6-7 feet of leader and tied a strike indicator about a foot down from your floating line. Next go about 5 feet down from there and place a No. 1 egg shot weight which will help the line sink. Next about 10 inches down from that we tied on streamer. We tied more tippet on to the end of the leader and place a nymph (usually prince or pheasant tail) and threw it on the water. By the end of the day we had pulled in numerous brown and rainbow trout under 12 inches, and two bigger fish. One which an 18 inch rainbow trout that I hooked earlier in the day on the banks, and my dad hooked a nice 17 inch brown trout with some really cool colored spots. Today Chance plans on taking us down between Quake and Hebgen Lake, where some of the small streams with bigger fisher found.
It should be great time, and we cannot wait to hook into some other nice wild fish. I am also filming a short movie while I am up here so being looking for that in the future.