Anticipation

September 21, 2008 – 8:46 am

Entry by Mike Loebl

It is raining this Sunday morning. Thinking back, I can’t remember the last time I woke up to a good soaking rain.  Domino didn’t want to even go outside due to the excess water when I got him off the couch at the crack of a bit too early, the when time I get ready to go to work. West Yellowstone has had a steady supply of bright beautiful seventy degree days for the last two weeks and now the weather has finally changed. From seven in the morning until the final work bell tolls at two PM, I’ll be looking out the window, waiting impatiently.  

Lake Run Brown on the Madison

The Madison in the Park hasn’t yet had a ton of lake runs, though we’ve been lucky to find a few nice browns so far.  Yesterday, Casey caught the first legit lake run rainbow I’ve heard about for this season as well, always a good sign that numbers of fish are finally on their way.  We had heavy rain yesterday and clouds all day.  Today there is a hard cool rain and dark overcast skies.  The Madison has come up over fifty CFS at the gauging station just outside of town from the rain.  All of these signs point to today being “THE DAY”.  The day when the fish are moving, grabby and multiple hook ups are possible, no really probable! There is always the chance that Casey and I will fish for several hours, get soaked to the core, find no fish and leave the river in a shivering and discouraged state. Aside from the crushed expectation, this is nothing a bowl of Chili and a healthy dose of Olympia (It’s the Water!) won’t fix. These setbacks are a big part of fishing for any sort of migratory fish, and one that experience shows are tough to avoid, especially when expectations run high. 

Around 2:30 this afternoon Casey and I will be piling on the fleece and Gore-tex, rigging up the spey rods and getting ready to give the river a bit of hell.  Wish us luck on this day that could be the day!

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Back at it

September 15, 2008 – 5:43 pm

Entry by Mike Loebl

The gentleman in charge of FWP’s weir on the Madison River just below Baker’s Hole said there hasn’t been many fish through yet. So be it. I’d put off fishing for lake runs for long enough.  Most years I get hyped up to hit the water loooonnnnnng before the fish ever show up and get burnt out before the fishing really peaks. This year I took it easy, waited until the second week in September and finally got on the water last night.

The first few times out it is impossible to expect to hook up with a legit lake run. Normally it is good for spey casting practice and a few little dude tugs from the resident browns and bows. Whitefish will occasionally get the heart pumping as well. Until after the 20th or 25th of September there really just aren’t a lot of fish to be caught most years.

The first few pools got me in the grove of casting and stepping. A male harrier was hunting in the meadow, distracting me from the task at hand. The wonderful thing about swinging soft hackles (or streamers) is that you really don’t have to pay much attention to your fly. Sure there are fish that will swirl on the fly without touching it, that you would never see and recast to if you weren’t watching, but the takes themselves are just big grabs on a tight line. No attention required to get hooked up. So I get to watch harriers instead of diligently observing every moment my fly is on the water.

By the time the sun was thinking about setting, I was still grabless from any decent fish and had only had a few little fish pecks. Just about what we expected. Last pool of the evening saw my focus increase, the casts more precisely aimed and more expectation of a fish. Early in the season, last light is the time when I have most of my hook ups, especially on warm sunny days. Last night was no exception. Three quarters of the way down the pool it happened. A quick pull on the line, shock loop gone, brown trout in the air before I had even raised the rod. A few nice leaps were the high point, after that the fish came in quickly. Big spots, overly round, perfectly clean. While not overly large, this was a classic lake run brown. It was nice to get the fall run season started on the right foot.

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The tug is the drug

September 13, 2008 – 5:55 pm

Entry By Casey Dixon

Now that fall has made its way into our neck of the woods, the fishing has begun to change. There are still days to throw dry flies, although the variety of bugs is much smaller, rising fish can definitely be found. Nymphing this fall has been good as well, but the reason I love the fall so much is the opportunity to use wet flies fished on a swung dry line, almost identical to the manner steelhead are fished for. 

When swinging for the fall run fish on the Madison you are finally able to actually look around at your surroundings instead of focusing intently on your fly or indicator. It is a much more relaxing method or taking fish. Although fish numbers are not high when choosing this method, many people use it due to its asthetic pleasures. The only way I can describe it is what local shop rat Mike Loebl described the feeling you have when getting grabbed.  ”You go from having a crappy day standing in the rain holding on to a fly rod wondering why you got up early to, this is the greatest moment of my life!” (add curses where appropriate) To me this feeling is second to none in fly fishing. Many people have been taken over by this feeling and even changed their lifestyle to get more of this addiction. 

Lately I have been getting out on the Madison to try and feed my cravings and was finally rewarded with a tug; not just any tug, but one from a fish that would be classified in the non-dink/non- whitefish category. Although the fish was hooked only briefly, it gave me great pleasure. Following that fish was another tug from in the ndnw (non-dink/non-whitefish) category. A short tussle and he popped off as well. At this point I’m really jonesing to actually get one of these fish to hand. After fishing one more run I returned to the original scene of the tug and got my third tug of the morning (I’m on top of the world!) and thankfully this one stuck on for the long haul. I eventually brought to hand a large beauty of a lake run brown trout. The morning’s outing was a success and I couldn’t have been happier with the results. The next day I returned to the some spot with soaring hopes only to get skunked with nary a tug, but such is fishing, if it was always easy we wouldn’t do it.

There will be more good days to come and hopefully more tugs too, but now that fall is here, those things are much more likely to happen and I am a grateful man for it. 

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September High Water on the Madison

September 4, 2008 – 10:49 am

Entry by Mike Loebl

As you may have heard, Hebgen Dam went a bit haywire on August 31st. Two gates failed and 3,600 CFS began rushing out of the Dam. After a few days, the high water is still very impressive and holding at around 3,200 CFS. Yesterday afternoon, Brennan Sang, Domino and I figured we would have a closer look and actually give fishing a try in the wade section below Quake Lake. The Slide area looked amazing as we drove by with bigger water than I have seen since arriving here in 2001. Further downstream, it looked a lot like run off conditions earlier in the season, except that the Madison is even higher by some 500 to 700 CFS than it was at peak run off. The water clarity is pretty good considering the flows as there is at least eighteen inches of visibility if not two feet. Before you laugh, I’ve seen fish rising to #18 Baetis during run off with eight inches of visibility.

We pulled into the parking lot, giggling a bit that we were the only rig in the place and that no one else was dumb or brilliant enough to be on the water. Brennan smartly rigged up with the typical early season Rubber Leg and San Juan Worm Combo, while I stubbornly thought it wise to rig up a trusty #12 Royal Wulff, for no other reason than it would entertain the heck out of me if I could pull fish up to a dry with the river raging. Well, the fish laughed at me. Domino was not impressed by my lack of rises and we had to make a change. A few pools upriver, out came the Never Miss indicators, spit shot and Silli Leg Stones. A little Black Lighting Bug dropper in a size 18 completed the deal and the nymphs soon hit the water.

Fishing $3 Bridge in the high water flows

It took a little bit to get back in the grove of nymphing, as I hadn’t nymphed seriously since the water came down in early summer, but I got sharper after the first run or two. The bite also picked up as evening approached. It wasn’t stupid easy fishing like it can be in run off for two reasons. All of the trout were much quicker to spit the fly and the takes were much more subtle than early in the year. But the fish were concentrated in obvious spots and feeding well. Both nymphs were effective and the fish were feisty in the high water, obviously in much better condition than immediately after the hard winter. Brennan and I met up as the sun was dropping below the Gravelly Range and had pretty similar results to report. He couldn’t get fish on the worm, but they ate the Silli Leg and small nymphs pretty darn well.

I figured fishing would be a bit of a novelty, but really, it was some of the best nymph fishing I have seen on the Madison in early September. It was very enjoyable to fish the Madison without anyone around and to fish the river in conditions far different than I have seen this time of year.

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On Fall’s Doorstep

August 24, 2008 – 11:33 am

Entry By Casey Dixon

West Yellowstone is on the verge of fall and the fishing is also beginning to head that direction. Fall hatches such as BWO’s are starting to come off, the light waves have that dim fall look about them in the late afternoon’s, and the mornings are crisp, cool, or downright chilly. Ahh yes fall is just around the corner. 

Fall is personally my favorite time of year, there are too many options as far as fishing goes and that is a good thing. When the water cools on many area waters the fish begin to feed with a little more abandon trying to eat before winter settles in. On a recent trip to the Madison I wet waded for the last time this year. I jumped in the water with my quick dry pants at 9 am and realized the weather had cooled the water off a bit and the sub 50 degree air temperatures weren’t enough to keep me warm while wading. The following day I donned the waders and to my pleasant suprise the mid summer patch job I did on my waders actually did the trick! Needless to say I was stoked. It was a weird feeling wearing waders after going so long without wearing them. 

On the fishing side of things, since summer got a late start after Juneuary the hatches have been pushed back and we’ve had good bug activity without the late summer lull in bug quantities. This caused fall to sneak up on most of us and created a smooth transition from PMDs to Epeorus to what is now the BWOs. To say this hasn’t been pleasant would be an understatement. Yesterday I was fishing with a client in the wade section of the Madison and there were tiny Baetis coming of and many fish eating them. Nothing tricky was required to fool these fish as straight up size 18 olive parachute did just the trick. We consistently rose fish all morning on this fly. An added bonus we were the only ones to arrive at this relatively famous access point on the Madison, most likely a symptom of the fact that it is late August. With fall rolling in faster than we know it, it is an exciting time to be in Yellowstone country, soon there will be elk bugling and fall run browns swimming up the Madison in the park. Hopefully joining this fall extravaganza will be my bent rod with a large brown and my soft hackle stuck securely in his mouth. Ahhh, fall in West Yellowstone…

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Wind

August 16, 2008 – 7:10 pm

Yeah, the wind sometimes blows in Montana.  When it does, you have two choices.  One you can stay in your hotel room, eat Cheese-Its and watch reruns of Scrubs on WGN, or you can deal with it.  Here are a few tips for getting good presentations when the wind blows.

First and foremost, one must cast tight loops when it gets blustery.  Most folks do the exact opposite. When it blows, they rear back and rear forward and their once tight loops open up the harder they try to cast.  Moving the rod tip further back and further forward in an attempt to generate more power is futile. It only makes things worse.  A short tight casting stroke it the answer. Don’t over cast, just cast more efficiently.  Double hauling to generate more line speed with the same short casting stroke is helpful, but no amount of double hauling will do anything unless the casting loops remain tight.

Changing the trajectory of the cast is also very helpful.  By making a high back cast and driving the forward cast low so it unfurls just over the water greatly reduces the amount of time the wind can blow the forward cast from its intended target.  The rod tip still moves the same distance, the plane of the cast just changes.  This combined with a reach is an ideal way to position the flies and line on the water for the longest drifts.

These simple steps make it easy to laugh in the face of wind while fishing.  However, having a game plan isn’t enough.  Being able to execute the game plan is what is truly important.  The best thing to do is practice a little before you head out on the water.  So many folks come to visit, spend tons of money and precious time on a fishing vacation yet never pick up a rod before the trip.  There is no better thing to do to prepare for a trip than to cast a rod a few times.  Getting the timing and feel for casting back before spending time on the water is essential.  Take some time to practice slack line casts, reach casts and curve casts. It will make all the difference in the world.

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A good day of fishing?

August 11, 2008 – 4:34 pm

Entry by Mike Loebl

After escaping from behind the counter at MRO and getting in a quick nap, I got ahold of a quick bite to eat and my trusty fishing partner Domino, we headed out to the Madison River.  Dom was especially wound up, whining his head off on the drive around Hegben, tail waging, pacing back and forth.  He saw the rods go in the truck and he knows the drill.  I was expecting some excitement as well.  

We got in below Hebgen, found a big stretch of river with no anglers around and rigged up to fish dries. Never mind that every other fisherman I had seen was nymphing and I saw a few folks hooked up as I drove down river.  August is dry fly time and I was bound and determined to make the Madison’s trout feed on the surface.  There were decent numbers of Caddis around, but no Mayflies and very few fish rising to naturals.  After fishing a bunch of good water with a #14 Flav Parachute and only raising a couple of dinks, a change was in order. Caddis it was to be, or so I thought.  Twenty minutes of chucking around a X-Caddis pulled up only a few more dinks, and all were in water that often held decent fish. Back to a parachute, I thought, as I quickly tied on a #16 Rusty Orange Parachute.  More eats, and better fish though still nothing big. I had been quickly moving upstream, just as much to keep Domino from getting bored than any preconceived fishing strategy.  As I neared a larger pool I slowed it down and with the new parachute doing its thing, managed to pull up a few more fish including a fat chunky bow of about 14 inches.  

That is pretty much the way it went down for the next hour or so.  Nothing really big, fairly consistent action, no one in sight.  As the sun got lower, seeing the small dries got tougher, but I just kept hucking it upstream and doing the best that I could with the light.  Rounding a bend in the river, I plopped my fly into a slick, couldn’t see the fly, lifted up out of instinct and found myself attached to a pretty solid fish. Domino saw my rod take a good set and turned up the whining.  Soon the fish was eased out of the fast water and I got a good glimpse of it.  Rainbow, solid and about sixteen.  A good fish for sure.  Dom was obviously impressed as he frantically searched the water for the fish. As the rainbow came to my hand and was quickly released, I decided to call it an evening.  Getting lucky on a nice fish like that doesn’t happen too often and I was a bit disgusted that the best trout I hooked up with was pretty much on accident.  

Crossing the river and back to the truck I met up with a few anglers rigging up.  Of course they asked how I did.  It took a lot of thought to give an honest answer.  On one hand I had risen a good number of fish, fishing only the way I wished to fish, had seen no one since getting in and spent a nice time with my dog.  Yet expectations always run high, and memories fuel expectations. I could recall several past days fishing the same way on the same water raising many large trout.  Today I rose one, and stuck him without much skill. All this played through my head as I answered the question as honestly as I could, “it wasn’t too bad”.  A day like this is just fine in my book and I headed back to town with a tired dog and a smile on my face.

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Hatches of lesser notoriety… at least to fishermen

August 9, 2008 – 3:42 pm

Entry by Casey Dixon

There are two hatches on the Madison River currently making trout weak at the knees, that is if they had knees. The Epeorus mayflies and the Spruce Moths are making their annual appearance and the fish have taken notice. The cornacopia of bugs on the Madison is made up of many bugs but these two seem to be providing many with success in the pursuit of fooling trout. 

My last couple of trips to the Madison in both the float section and in the wade section have provided me with ample opportunities to try out my best Spruce Moth and Epeorus imitations. Almost every bank along the Madison the contains a group of pine trees is a hot bed for the Spruce Moth action. The fish I have found feeding on these bugs are anywhere from mid river to 2 inches off the bank. It almost seems the bigger the fish the tougher the cover they are found in i.e. under a tree branch, between two logs in the water, or any combination there of creating difficult casts, hook sets, drifts, and landing. Even after all that hard work, its very worth the effort for these large Madison browns and bows. There are also fish feeding out in the open in much lower degree of difficulty spots that aid in stroking our egos on our trout catching prowess. 

People have come into the shop looking for our best “Spruce Moth” pattern, but alas we have none. We have something better. Tan caddis patterns work great for these bugs that look very similar to caddis. The only minor difference between to the two to a non scientific fishermen is that the tent wing is not as steep on the moth, its more of an average house roof angle versus the caddis which i would compare more to an A-frame type building. Basically what I am saying is that Tan or Yellow Elk Hair Caddis, EZ caddis, X-caddis, EC caddis, Stimulator, and any other caddis dry fly as long as its a 14 or 16 and tan or yellow it will work. My go to rig lately has been a #14 Yellow Stimulator (which matches either Yellow Sally’s or Spruce Moths) with a #14 Tan X-caddis behind it. 

The other bug that has been grabbing the trouts attention as well as mine is the Epeorus mayfly. This bug usually comes off late July into September, and has showed up this year in great force. I once described the color of this bug as off-white, dirty tanish, kinda grayish looking bug. What is important is that any color in that range will work, even rusty orange or brown works again leading me to believe that color is less important than we all think. The trout feed best on this bug as a spinner and my best luck has been using parachute patterns in the previously mentioned colors in a size 16. There have been days where that is all that I could get them to eat. I once thought that fishing with this pattern was best in the mornings and the evenings, but it is also effective mid afternoon on those rare days with minimal wind. 

These hatches have provided me and my clients with some exceptional fishing in the last week or so and hopefully will continue to do so for the next few weeks to come. These are two more bugs to be aware of and are important, but don’t put the blinders on to everything else going on out there. 

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Another Evening to Remember

August 6, 2008 – 10:49 am

Entry by Mike Loebl

Last night, sometime between evening and too dark to see what we were doing, the Madison River produced a hatch of jaw dropping proportions.  That is, if dropping your jaw would not have instantly forced one to ingest several Caddis and a good number of Mayfly spinners. Fish were freely rising in most of the slicks and soft water and seemed not to be too picky as to the pattern being drifted at them. 

Our good friend Paul Galvin was making his return to the Madison, after spending two seasons removed from his job holding down the chair behind Madison River Outfitters’ counter. Casey Dixon and I marked our reunion with Paul by putting he and his new fiance Wendy in the front of Casey’s boat and getting them out on the river.  Smoothing the float down the Madison was a cooler filled with a trio of PBR, Olympia and Rainier.  We weren’t disappointed as willing fish fed on our dries regularly throughout the float. The last bit of the day however was when fishing really got going.

In a year that has regularly produced great hatches, last night’s bug-a-thon was the best I had yet to see. All of the boat’s passengers were covered in Caddis and swarms of egg laying insects were visible up and down the river banks.  A glance into the evening sky allowed us to see hundreds of mayfly spinners, mating before they fell.  The air above the Madison was literally filled with trout food.

I’d love to write that the four of us smoked fish by the dozens through this amazing hatch.  Well it didn’t quite pan out, but we stuck our fair share. Even with all of the bugs, a really good drift in the slower spots was required and the fish were tough to hook when they rose. I started out strong, but my fishing faded as the blood alcohol level rose.  Casey got in a grove right when the bite seemed to peak and had a pretty good time landing some nice rainbows as the sun was setting.  Paul fooled some fish, and it made me feel really good to have helped him to share a beautiful evening on the river with his fiance.  It was a great way to spend a summer afternoon and evening.

 

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Salmonflies… Still? Seriously?

August 2, 2008 – 2:39 pm

Entry by Casey Dixon

Yesterday August 1st on the Madison River in the wade section I had my best Salmonfly fishing of the year. ON AUGUST 1ST! The thought of that is a little crazy. My usual chase of the big bugs was hindered this year due to out of town visitors and other guiding obligations so my chance to chase the big bug in search of dry fly nirvana had been stiffled a bit. As the last of my responsibilities got taken care of early in the day I had the rest of the day to fish. Somehow I didn’t make it to the river until 6 o’clock, but upon arrival I saw the welcome sight of many bugs, rising fish, and no one around. 

As I made my way down the river with a parachute and a caddis pattern trailing it I figured I would be set and would be able to be lazy and fish what I already had on. Fishing the first couple of holes produced a couple of rises, fishing was decent, but there were rising fish who wouldn’t eat my bugs on the first drift, but on subsequent drifts after. That was what first made me question my fly choice. In addition to that looking around I saw a few of the big orange and black bugs flying around and even saw one get chomped by a fish as it floated down the river. I threw on a Razorback hoping to maybe get a grab or two on it. I was rewarded shortly after with a medium sized brownie, I was ready to pat myself on the back for catching a fish on a salmonfly in August. After not finding much interest, I threw my other rig of parachute and caddis back on which yeilded a few smaller fish. I waded a bit further upstream and started to see more and more big bugs flying. 

At this point I mentally told myself screw it, I’m going to make them eat the big bug. So I threw on the Razorback again and rose a couple of fish who were just swiping at it half heartedly. After moving upstream to an area of marginal bank water I threw out a cast. Though I wasn’t expecting much in the skinny water my bug was SLAMMED and I hooked and landed a large beautiful Madison brown trout. Subsequent casts resulted in more takes and fish hooked and missed.

There was one take that was especially memorable. I threw my fly up into some very skinny water. Though at this point I had proven myself wrong several times on where I thought the fish were I still didn’t have high hopes for the drift. As my fly floated down toward me I saw a wake come from 10 feet out in the current to slam my fly. It was absolutely incredible, I would compare it to watching a killer whale run itself up on a beach in pursuit of a seal. I felt like I was watching the national geographic channel at that point. 

From then on fishing was just stupid silly good. Any over hang with a bit of depression in the water resulted in a take if not a hook-up and large fish landed. One point of interest in the evening was the number of browns caught. I usually catch about 50/50 of browns to bows with sometimes the bows out numbering the browns, but on this night I caught exactly 2 rainbows and the rest of the fish were big buttery yellow browns who were hungry for meat like Mike with a steak at 10 paces. My guess is the big bug fishing will be done within the next night or two, but it was real fun while it lasted. I guess I’ll have to throw 14’s and 16’s now instead of 4’s and 6’s… such is life. 

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