FISH'N IN THE DIRT

Normally a high and dirty Madison River doesn't keep me off the water. Getting out of the boat and thoroughly fishing slow the pockets and inside seams is the key to catching trout in these conditions. But right now, the problem is that the water temps are on the cold side and the fish aren't willing to move too far to eat a fly. You have to get your fly right in his face to have any chance at all of putting a trout in your hand. Yesterday, my client, Takumi Tanaka from Japan, applied these tactics on the swollen Madison and managed to find a few fish seeking shelter from the fast and dingy water. The flies we used were brighter than what we would use in clearer conditions. We used patterns with flash like the flash back mega prince, or big lightning bugs in sizes 14 and 12. We all know that Madison trout love the worm, so make sure you use a big sparkle worms or San Juans in flo pink and orange. It's run off season, anglers. It brings a whole new set of challenges to the table that most fishermen aren't willing to take the time to figure out. As long as the river is at a safe level, I see no reason to sit at home wishing I was fishing. It's always fishing season.

SPRING ON THE HORN

This past Monday fellow fishing gillie, Miles Nolte, and I headed to the land of no cell phone coverage, Ft. Smith, Montana. The plan was to disconnect from the real world and fish the world famous Big Horn River before the heavy guide season starts. The first two days on the river were possibly the best dry fly fishing I have ever had. But the flies were the only thing dry during this wet and blustery 48 hour period. It rained from the time we left Bozeman on Monday morning, to the time we pulled off the river Tuesday night. But, for battling the rain and wind, we were rewarded with a beatis hatch and surface feeding trout that lasted for two days. We would set up on a pod of feeding trout to pick them off one at a time, and somehow the fighting fish that were wrangled to the boat would only put the rest of them down for a minute or so before they would start eating again. Just to change it up we did do some bouncing on the bottom and found a few fish on sow bugs and midge nymphs, but when you have trout feeding up top like they were, it's hard to walk away from the dry fly. On day three the sun came out to give us a break from the moisture, dried out our camping gear, and stayed with us for the last two days of the trip. Though the warmth and sun shine were a welcome change, the dry fly fishing dropped off considerably, but this gave Miles the opportunity to show me the finer points of a little something he calls sight nymphing. With the bright sun and clear water, we were able to spot fish nymphing on the shallow inside seams of a few river bends. Miles would pick a target and with a very light nymph rig, he would drift his bugs into the trout's dining room until the fish ate. You spot the fish, stalk it, and make your cast. The next best thing to dry fly fishing if you ask me.